By Basmah Hussain
Every year, Pro Bono Week aims to celebrate and recognise the strides made across the legal field in the UK in providing free legal services. This year, the theme is ‘Pro Bono in Action,’ which I believe aims to recognise the tangible impact that pro bono work has on communities and on legal professionals and students alike. Alongside this recognition, it calls for more in the field to harness their legal expertise and continue to ensure tangible social change is being made.
Many law students, like myself, decide to study law and enter the field with the goal of doing good and helping others, and the ability to provide pro bono legal services during and after our studies achieves exactly this. The Law Clinic has been providing law students with the opportunity to develop their legal skills and offer free representation and legal advice to those in need for the past 22 years. Since its inception, the Clinic has won/saved over £2,300,000, and in 2024-2025 alone, won/saved over £170,000 for our clients. The monetary wins throughout the years are only one way to measure the success of the Clinic and its impact on the wider community.
The empowerment clients feel after their otherwise unheard legal issues are recognised and given currency through our representation, and the appreciation that legal professionals themselves experience in utilising their skills is priceless. The work done in the Clinic, especially within our Initial Advice Clinics, allows practising solicitors who take time out of their busy schedules to provide free legal advice across a variety of legal areas. Meanwhile, student advisors, who shadow the process, are exposed to new areas of law and learn how to digest legal problems and present advice to clients. This mutual transformation of skills and legal knowledge, all whilst clients are positively impacted, offers the perfect insight into what pro bono work symbolises. Its impact extends far beyond the clients it serves and the monetary wins it may achieve.
Outside of the Clinic, for lawyers and firms across the UK, pro bono is an invaluable arena for professional and personal growth. Junior solicitors gain hands-on experience and confidence, whilst senior solicitors sharpen mentoring and leadership skills. Firms also report that pro bono engagement enhances morale and strengthens retention. In a competitive profession, pro bono work can also be a distinguishing factor, demonstrating to clients and others that a firm’s commitment to justice is more than just a slogan. Pro bono work throughout a solicitor’s career may also act as a reminder of their initial motivations to study and practice law: to do good and help others.
Pro Bono Week 2025 is another reminder of the wide and all-encompassing impact pro bono has, not only in the communities it serves, but also to the legal professionals and students who make the provision of these services possible. In a society where economic and social challenges continue to evolve, so must our commitment to providing pro bono legal services and transforming our communities and ourselves for the better.