Judge David Mackie, the senior circuit judge in charge of the London Mercantile Court, is off to Rwanda next month to assess how City law firms can help the country’s Supreme Court to set up a commercial court.

The judge’s visit follows an assessment of legal needs carried out in Tanzania by Rajat Jindal, a former Freshfields partner, as part of a pro bono initiative by the charity International Lawyers Project (ILP). This involves City firms preparing modules on a range of commercial topics that can be tweaked to fit the individual country’s jurisdiction and provide the basis for training by corporate lawyers.

The growth in international pro bono work is being celebrated alongside the increasing involvement of law students in free legal advice clinics and the £338 million of free advice given by solicitors in private practice over the past year.

City firms have been quick to support international projects through the initiatives of ILP and other coordinating bodies such as Advocates for International Development (A4ID) that grew out of Oxfam’s “1,000 City Lawyers” initiative. Last year, Lord Goldsmith, QC, then Attorney-General, exhorted firms to commit 10 per cent of their pro bono work to international projects, setting up an international committee earlier this year.

Jindal says it would have been easy to stay in London and say “this is what Tanzania needs”. “But we wanted to talk to the lawyers and users of legal services about what they wanted. Too often, well-intentioned projects have been launched with people flown in and flown out without any real local capacity building.”

While developing countries are clamouring for help, issues of actual or perceived conflicts of interest can arise as much in international as in domestic pro bono work. Firms have been criticised for acting for so-called vulture funds that buy up sovereign debt issued by poor countries at less than face value and then sue the countries for the full amount plus interest, while supporting the UN’s millennium goals of reducing global poverty.

Taking up controversial causes can also provoke criticism, although not always. Chris Marshall, is chairman of A4ID’s board of trustees and pro bono and community manager for Reed Smith Richards Butler, where 60 per cent of fee earners do pro bono work: “We had a phone call from one of our key corporate clients who asked if we were involved with the [Guantanamo] detainees,” he says. “We said ‘yes’, unsure what the response would be, but the client said: ‘That’s what we want to hear and we’ll give you more work as a result’.”

Michael Smyth is pro bono partner at Clifford Chance, whose London office alone wrote off nearly £10 million of work logged to pro bono files in 2006-07. He has noticed a tendency in parts of the media and other organisations to press firms to cherry pick fee-paying clients. “We would be poised on a very slippery slope if corporate lawyers were asked to bench-mark their clients in moral terms. The top London law firms are very vigorous about pro bono, not only because they are philosophically committed to this work but also because their commercial success helps to provide it with a sustainable platform.”

For Paul Newdick, partner with Clyde & Co and chairman of Law-Works, the solicitors’ pro bono group, the damage is caused “when people try to drive in a wedge and say if you act for this client, you can’t act for that developing country, or vice versa. I don’t want a polarisation that you are either for the good guys or the bad guys. Law firms act professionally in the best interests of the particular client they are acting for at the time. If there isn’t an actual conflict of interest, law firms should be able to act on either ‘side’. Everyone has to recognise that law firms are commercial animals and therefore they have to make their fees from clients who are prepared to instruct them.

“Pro bono work is fundamentally about the rule of law and access to justice. We need to celebrate those who do it and encourage those who don’t that it isn’t the commercial suicide some would have us believe.”

Guy Beringer, senior partner of Allen & Overy, whose London office last year did 26,000 hours of pro bono work, says that the issues are complex but should not overshadow the valuable work being done. “Your client base deserves representation. It will not always be to everyone’s taste but you have to have the courage to stick by them. At the same time, pro bono is now so mainstream, your pro bono clients are like any other clients. You can’t always please everybody but you do your best to keep them all satisfied with what you are doing.”

While the promotion of international pro bono is timely because, Smyth says, it reflects the global reach and ambition of City firms, he adds: “I am equally keen that we should bear in mind that 90 per cent of our pro bono time should be spent on domestic projects. It would be regrettable if there was a drift away from the unsung work of providing free legal support to the poor here for the sake of more obviously telegenic international projects.”

The bottom line, according to Michael Napier, QC, the Attorney-General’s pro bono envoy and senior partner of Irwin Mitchell, is that “lawyers are willing to give their time free to meet unmet legal need. As the Times headline said during the first National Pro Bono Week: ‘It’s the work that counts, not the motive’.”

Two in three solicitors spend an average of 43 hours a year doing pro bono work. Solicitors have provided more than £4,000 worth each in England and Wales, according to new research by the Law Society.

The figure is less, however, than the amount of time given five years ago. Taking all solicitors in England and Wales, including those who do no pro bono, the average is 43 hours compared with 62 in 2002. The reason is thought to be the increased demands of paperwork and form-filling, rather than any fall-off in commitment.

This week — the 6th National Pro Bono Week — the kinds of work done free of charge will be celebrated in more than 30 events. In the past year, solicitors in private practice have given £338 million worth of free advice — and that does not include the work done by in-house lawyers, legal executives and others.

This year’s theme is on the work done internationally and by law students. The week is organised by the Law Society of England and Wales, the Bar Council of England and Wales, the Institute of Legal Executives, LawWorks, Bar Pro Bono Unit and Business in the Community’s ProHelp.

Andrew Holroyd, the president of the Law Society, said: “The common feature this week is the willingness of lawyers to put something back into the community.”

Lesley Graham, president of the Institute of Legal Executives, said: “Giving something back to the community through pro bono work has been a time-honoured tradition and is an important part of being a lawyer.”

Geoffrey Vos, QC, chairman of the Bar, said that barristers and Bar students provided help in variety of areas, including through the Free Representation Unit and Bar Pro Bono Unit.

Events include a reception on Thursday hosted by the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House and a speech by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers on How important is punishment?

The Legal Advice Service at Queen Mary, University of London, is launching a “law for the arts” service, on the first Wednesday of every month, to give free legal advice to people working in the creative industries — from writers to musicians, sculptors to performers.

The week finishes on Saturday with the first joint national pro bono conference, organised by LawWorks, the Bar’s pro bono unit, and Ilex’s pro bono forum, which includes workshops on managing a global programme, ethics and standards, conflicts of interest and controversial cases. The conference is sponsored by Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Irwin Mitchell and Linklaters.

Full details of the week: www.probonouk.net

Explore Law

• Corporate Law

• Public Law

• Columnists

• Law Panel

• Student Law

• Law Reports

Times Recommends

• Iranian bank challenges EU sanctions
• Lord Falconer to join Gibson Dunn
• A Judge by name is new Lord Chief Justice