The firm commits a fixed share of its capacity to matters that are not commercial, and treats those matters the same way it treats paid ones.
Every lawyer at the firm is expected to record at least 100 hours a year on pro bono matters, and those hours count toward billing targets and are considered in partnership decisions on the same basis as fee-earning work. In the last financial year the firm recorded 31,400 pro bono hours.
The firm takes pro bono instructions in the areas where a disputes practice is actually useful: appellate work, asylum and immigration appeals, wrongful conviction claims, and representation of non-governmental organisations facing litigation intended to silence them. It does not take pro bono matters as a training exercise, and it staffs them with partners.
The firm acts without charge for claimants in cases where the point of law affects a class of people who could not otherwise bring it. Several of these matters have been taken to final appeal at the firm's own cost.
The firm defends journalists, researchers, and campaigning organisations against proceedings brought to exhaust them financially. This work sits naturally alongside the commercial practice, since the tactics are the ones the firm sees deployed in commercial disputes.
Partners of the firm sit on rules committees, arbitral institution panels, and advocacy training faculties, and the firm funds scholarships at law schools in six of the jurisdictions where it practises.
Organisations seeking pro bono representation should write to probono@pakt.com with a short description of the matter and any deadline. The firm runs conflicts on pro bono matters exactly as it does on commercial ones.
The firm accepts a limited number of instructions each year and runs conflicts before any substantive discussion takes place. Please do not send confidential information until the firm has confirmed in writing that it is able to act.