The Australian Pro Bono Centre has just published its 13th Annual Performance Report of the National Pro Bono Target for FY20.
The 75 hours of pro-bono work carried out on average by Arnold Bloch Leibler’s FTE lawyers was more than double the national average of 36.4 hours for Large Firms, and more than double the National Pro Bono Target of 35 hours.
In FY20 we acted for more than 200 public interest law clients and, as always, the matters we worked on varied from test case litigation to corporate governance, tax and commercial advice, as well as administrative law and contractual advice. In line with other years, most of the work has been with long standing clients, involved in championing Indigenous causes, cultural and religious, particularly Jewish causes, and environmental causes.
We view and utilise the law as an instrument of social justice. It is not simply what we do - it is part of our identity as a firm, valued and respected by our clients, partners and staff across the board. It’s in the DNA of each and every one of us at ABL.
Overall, taking into account the contributions of all fee earners, we undertook 9,800 hours of pro-bono law work for public interest law clients, an increase of 200 hours from FY19, with a production value of $6.5 million.
Public interest partner Peter Seidel described the firm's contribution as a source of pride for the profession generally and a great credit to it. He also described the Arnold Bloch Leibler results in particular as reflective of the firm’s “whole of firm” principled commitment to our public interest clients and causes and to improving civil society.
“We view and utilise the law as an instrument of social justice. It is not simply what we do - it is part of our identity as a firm, valued and respected by our clients, partners and staff across the board. It’s in the DNA of each and every one of us at ABL.”
