Energize and Celebrate Your Pro Bono Programs During Pro Bono Week This October

By Alyssa Saunders, Director, Corporate Pro Bono

Pro Bono Week is the perfect time to infuse energy and inspiration into your pro bono efforts. The National Celebration of Pro Bono, held every October since 2009, encourages lawyers and legal staff to participate in and celebrate the delivery of pro bono legal services. Pro Bono Week is also an excellent opportunity for law firms and legal departments to reflect annually on their commitment to serving underrepresented communities, by taking stock of pro bono programs, reinvigorating ongoing efforts, launching new signature projects or collaborations, and engaging new volunteers.

Why Pro Bono Week Matters

Pro Bono Week is more than a week of awareness and activities; it’s a rallying call to action. By actively participating in this annual observance, law firms and legal departments can show their commitment to public service and align with the profession’s core values of justice and equality. Pro bono work strengthens communities by providing critical legal aid to individuals and organizations that could not otherwise afford it. It also fosters an organizational culture of compassion, service, and personal fulfillment.

Pro Bono Week is an opportunity to call attention to the benefits of doing pro bono, and if necessary, to make the business case for a formal pro bono program to leadership.

This year, Pro Bono Week officially takes place October 20-26, 2024, though some departments and firms are extending the week into a Pro Bono Month (or more)! Read on for ideas to make Pro Bono Week a success for your organization.

Make the Timing Work for Your Organization

While the National Celebration of Pro Bono is a week-long event, many organizations expand Pro Bono Week into Pro Bono Month throughout October. This extended timeframe allows for scheduling a series of events, and deepening engagement with teams across multiple trainings and opportunities. Depending on the fiscal calendar, some departments even postpone or extend the celebration into November. This helps ensure that business priorities do not conflict with the success of Pro Bono Week.

Be Inclusive

Pro Bono Week isn’t just for attorneys; there are many strategies for paralegals and legal professionals to get involved. Legal staff can help review and organize case files, conduct research, perform intakes, help clients complete forms, and even assist in client meetings, ensuring that legal clinics run more efficiently and clients receive the best possible service. Legal professionals can also serve as liaisons with partner organizations to arrange pro bono trainings and volunteer opportunities, and champion these events with co-workers.

So too, consider ways to engage attorneys and legal staff across multiple offices. Encourage offices or regional hubs to hold specific events and then spotlight these activities at a Pro Bono Week kickoff or closing event. For global or distributed teams, consider hosting both virtual and in-person options to ensure that all employees, regardless of location, can participate. The plethora of remote opportunities in recent years makes pro bono more accessible than ever.

Secure Leadership Support

Encouragement from senior leadership is a crucial component of a successful Pro Bono Week. Invite senior legal department or firm leaders to speak at the kickoff event, recognize past pro bono efforts, and actively participate in clinics and other pro bono engagements. Participation by leadership sends a clear message about the importance of pro bono work within the organization.

Communicate Early and Often

To keep everyone informed and motivated, leverage internal newsletters, chat tools, and the pro bono intranet page or portal to spread the word about Pro Bono Week activities. Regular communication, including personal invitations and reminders from team leads, will ensure that Pro Bono Week activities remain top-of-mind across the organization.

Unify with a Theme

To tie all Pro Bono Week activities together, organizations can highlight a unifying theme. This year’s ABA theme, “Making Justice a Reality in Our Communities,” underscores the importance of pro bono work to serve the local communities where you live or work.

Offer Training or CLE

Pro Bono Week is a great time to host trainings on specific pro bono areas of law and secure a commitment from trainees that they will participate in the near future. Teams also can schedule a time to watch together a pre-recorded training video or a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) program on a pro bono issue. Your firm or department may have a CLE subscription that includes relevant pro bono topics.

Recognize and Celebrate

Throughout Pro Bono Week, organizations can take time to recognize and celebrate the contributions of their volunteers. Highlighting individuals who are participating in pro bono in newsletters or at a town hall or team meeting can help build a culture of pro bono and inspire new volunteers to sign up.

Set Ambitious Goals
Use Pro Bono Week as a springboard for setting ambitious pro bono goals for the upcoming year. Whether it’s increasing the number of pro bono hours, the number of participants, the number of cases, taking on more high-impact cases, or some other metric, setting clear goals motivates attorneys and legal staff and enhances the organization’s focus on pro bono. Consider bolstering your tracking system for these metrics if necessary.

Get Involved

Many firms and legal departments, often working in partnership with legal services organizations, are planning and legal clinics during Pro Bono Week. These include topics such as estate planning for veterans, transactional legal help for small nonprofits, naturalization clinics for immigrants seeking citizenship, expungement clinics to assist with record-clearing, and much more. Some organizations are holding kick-off events during Pro Bono Week for longer-term engagements, such as beginning a review of an Innocence Project file, or starting work on an asylum case.

If you haven’t yet planned your own Pro Bono Week activities, research existing opportunities open to volunteers. Some jurisdictions plan Pro Bono Weeks for their communities, such as DC Pro Bono Week and Chicago Pro Bono Week. The ABA list of Pro Bono Week events by state is another helpful resource to find impactful volunteer opportunities.