Pro bono and ESG: what role do pro bono legal services have – or should have – in the S of ESG?

Published on 29 January 2024 At the IBA 2023 Annual Conference in Paris, the Pro Bono Committee's panel discussed the role of pro bono legal services in the 'social' aspect of ESG (environmental, social, and governance).

At the IBA 2023 Annual Conference in Paris, the Pro Bono Committee hosted a panel on the role of pro bono legal services in the ‘S’ of ESG or the ‘social’ in environmental and social governance. The session was chaired by Odette Geldenhuys from Webber Wentzel and featured a number of experts covering different regions: Douglass Cassel, King & Spalding; Juliana Ramalho and Mattos Filho; Takeshi Nemoto, Nishimura & Asahi; and myself.

The discussion identified many points of agreement about the importance of pro bono work and the impact of ESG on law firms, but made it clear there are many ways to understand ESG, and many ways in which law firms organise their offering of pro bono services and their ESG.