Pro Bono Practices and Opportunities in China

Published on 15 May 2019 This is an overview of pro bono practice and opportunities in China, including key practice rules, culture, obstacles to undertaking pro bono and sources of pro bono opportunities.

The concept of pro bono is relatively new to the Chinese legal community. There is no requirement, either formal or informal, for individual attorneys to engage in pro bono work and, as a result, the provision of pro bono legal services is not well established. In China, most pro bono litigation on behalf of socially disadvantaged groups is done by full-time public interest lawyers. Aside from those lawyers, there are a small number of independent organizations, including law firms, that provide pro bono legal services in China.