2024 Report on the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® Initiative

Published on 18 June 2024 Read PBI’s 2024 Report on the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® Initiative, which benchmarks pro bono performance by Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge signatories in 2023.

We are pleased to share PBI’s 2024 Report on the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^® Initiative, which benchmarks pro bono performance by Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge signatories in 2023. 

The following is an Executive Summary:

• Overall Performance – One hundred twenty firms reported performing an aggregated total of 5,076,659 hours of pro bono work in 2023, surpassing a 100 million-hour milestone over the life of the Challenge! The 5.1 million hours performed this year represent a 2.5% increase from last year, when 4 additional firms reported. Pro bono hours represented 3.76% of total paying client billable hours in 2023, up from 3.47% in 2022.
• Participation – The overall percentage of attorneys engaged in pro bono was up slightly to 73.3% in 2023. The percentage of partners participating in pro bono was 63.8% in 2023. This is a slight increase from the 63.1% who participated in 2022. The percentage of associates participating in pro bono was 84% in 2023, also slightly up from the 83.4% rate achieved in 2022.

Pro Bono for Persons of Limited Means – Firms reported performing over 3.5 million pro bono hours for those of limited means and organizations serving them in 2023, a slight increase from 2022. These hours represent 74% of all pro bono time of those firms who reported their limited means pro bono hours, a slight increase in percentage compared to 2022 (73.3%).