Pro bono a public relations coup

Pro bono is a delicate issue for legal professions around the world.

Lawyers in this country and elsewhere spend many long hours acting for clients who cannot hope to pay the market value for legal services.Lawyers do it because - contrary to the easy tabloid perception - many of them have a finely-tuned social conscience, regardless of whether they work in the high street or the corridors of international commerce.That much work gets done is beyond dispute.

How that should be publicised is another, more tricky, matter.

In an atmosphere where media of all varieties are unhesitatingly keen to label members of the legal profession as 'fat cats', it must be tempting for those doing pro bono work to shout about their contribution.But it is not that easy.

As we report in our feature pages this week, at least one major City law firm is so reluctant to be seen to be boasting about its pro bono work that it briefed journalists about the millions of pounds worth of work that it was doing under the proviso that the information was non-attributable (page 32).One potential route round the charge that individual firms are broadcasting their pro bono work purely as another feature of a complex marketing campaign and nothing more, is for better group organisation.The launch several years ago of the Solicitors Pro Bono Group is one manifestation of a profession-wide approach to promoting what solicitors contribute to their communities.The fact that there are now eight full-time pro bono co-ordinators at City firms and that they meet regularly to co-operate on projects is another example.

And in the news pages (page 6) we report on an innovative pro bono idea emanating from lawyers in California's Silicon Valley that illustrates that giving to the community can be a public relations coup for the profession, not something that will be interpreted as pure self-promotion by 'greedy' firms.To that end, the Gazette-sponsored Young Solicitors Group Pro Bono Awards 2000 also play a part.

Just a reminder: the closing date for nominations is 14 May.