So, pro bono is like donating deck chairs to the sinking Titanic (see [2003] Gazette, 31 July, 15)?

I do not think so and I am sure the 200 community groups helped by our LawWorks for Community Groups project do not think so either.

Some 250 solicitors acting on a pro bono basis have given these small groups invaluable legal help and allowed them in turn to help their communities.

This is help for which they could not have afforded to pay, and which the legal aid system does not fund now; nor has it paid for this help in the past.

The saving in legal fees to this much needed not-for-profit sector is 1.2 million to date; the Solicitors Pro Bono Group could do even more if we had extra resources.

The need is always there and, I suspect, always will be.

In his comment article, Geoffrey Bindman says that in the early 1960s the main problems were housing, employment and immigration.

When I worked at a Citizens Advice Bureau in the 1970s, the problems were housing, employment and immigration.

Our LawWorks Clinics pro bono volunteers, more than 2000 of them, between 2000 and 2003 find the main problems are housing, employment and debt.

Immigration remains an issue for the profession generally.

The main difference now is that all of our volunteers can receive training in most of these areas and the clinics are supported by us so that our pro bono protocol of quality standards is adhered to.

Our web-based project, LawWorks Web, works alongside the Legal Service Commission, and a key element is to ensure that all understand and use the eligibility calculator in order that those who are entitled to public funding are referred to appropriate local solicitors.

Of course, the Solicitors Pro Bono Group supports a proper level of public legal funding, but in reality both are needed.

In the US, the interest on lawyers' accounts, (estimated in the article to be 40m plus in England and Wales), is used for all civil legal help, both legal aid and pro bono.

This is where the need is - we should be working together for the good of all.

Susan Bucknall, chief executive, Solicitors Pro Bono Group