Pro Bono Week returns 4th to 8th November 2024, and the organisers are looking for undergraduate and postgraduate law students from all UK institutions to join Pro Bono Week’s Student Council for 2024. Last year, quite a number of City Law School students got involved. You can read the report from last year to see the themes emerging from council members.

Pro Bono Week is an opportunity to celebrate and discuss the important contribution that the legal profession makes in providing free legal help to those in need. It involves events at legal societies, law firms, chambers, corporations, law schools and Parliament. This year’s theme is “The Power of Pro Bono” and three subtopics which will be a focus within that are:

• Barred from justice – the powerful, everyday stories of the impact of lawyers and law students who give their time to protect the rights of those most disadvantaged in society..
• Embedding pro bono in your organisation and career – placing pro bono at the heart of everyone’s practice and hearing from those at the forefront of establishing business structures for pro bono within law firms, chambers, in house, universities and charities.
• How technology can enhance access to justice – existing and new tools to ensure pro bono is innovative and effective.

For more information visit the Pro Bono Week website.

What do members of the Council do?

Members of the Council act as Rapporteurs for online or in-person events, meeting the participants and taking notes of the discussions. This is an important role to ensure that the discussions are recorded, enabling a report to be compiled on the state of and challenges seen in the pro bono sector.

The Council will be invited to join a planning meeting by Zoom in October, and then to attend one or two Pro Bono Week events in November.

In addition to acting as Rapporteurs, Student Council members are welcome to organise student-led events at their institution (if so, they would normally liaise with their institution’s pro bono coordinator).

OK I’m in, how do I apply?

We encourage all law students to apply to join the Student Council for 2024! The deadline is Monday 7th October at 5.30pm. Applicants should email a paragraph explaining why they would like to join the Council to Toby Brown (Chair of Pro Bono Week 2024 Committee) using the email address, info@probonoweek.org.uk with subject line: “Student Pro Bono Week Council”, copied to lawIRL@city.ac.uk. Thank you!