About the Pro Bono Recognition List
The Pro Bono Recognition List of England & Wales is published annually to recognise lawyers who have given 25 or more hours pro bono legal assistance in the previous calendar year.
The Pro Bono Recognition List was set up under the aegis of the Attorney General’s Pro Bono Committee. It is supported by the Access to Justice Foundation, Advocate, Advocates for International Development, the Bar Council, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, the Clinical Legal Education Organisation, International Lawyers Project, the In-House Pro Bono Group, the Law Officers, the Law Society, LawWorks, the National Pro Bono Centre, TrustLaw and the UK Collaborative Plan for Pro Bono.
The Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales, the Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, is the Patron of the Pro Bono Recognition List.
FAQs
Any eligible lawyer who undertook 25 or more hours of legal pro bono work in calendar year 2025.
Eligible lawyers are solicitors, barristers, chartered legal executives, patent attorneys and trade mark attorneys, and SRA registered foreign/European lawyers, if they were qualified and regulated as such at the date of submission.
The lawyer can practice either in England & Wales or overseas (save registered foreign/European lawyers who must have been practicing in England & Wales).
Those who completed their legal qualification in the past year can include any pro bono work they undertook in the year, including as a trainee or pupil.
The table below sets out which lawyers are eligible for inclusion:
| Qualification |
Practicing in England & Wales |
Practicing outside England & Wales |
How to check |
| Solicitor |
Yes |
Yes (location to be shown as “overseas”) |
Name must appear on the SRA Solicitors Register at the date of submission. |
| Barrister |
Yes |
Yes (location to be shown as “overseas”) |
Name must appear on the BSB Barristers Register at the date of submission. |
| Chartered legal executive |
Yes |
Yes (location to be shown as “overseas”) |
Name must appear on the CILEX Authorised Practitioners Directory at the date of submission. |
| Patent attorney |
Yes |
Yes (location to be shown as “overseas”) |
Name must appear on the IP Reg Register at the date of submission. |
| Trade mark attorney |
Yes |
Yes (location to be shown as “overseas”) |
Name must appear on the IP Reg Register at the date of submission. |
| Registered foreign lawyer |
Yes |
No |
Name must appear on the SRA Solicitors Register at the date of submission. |
| Registered European Lawyer |
Yes |
No |
Name must appear on the SRA Solicitors Register at the date of submission. |
| Trainee solicitor |
No |
No |
Not eligible (but see above FAQ if since qualified). |
| Paralegal |
No |
No |
Not eligible (but see above FAQ if since qualified). |
| Law student |
No |
No |
Student pro bono is recognised by the new Student CLE Recognition List. |
| Any others, e.g. foreign qualified lawyer who is not registered with the SRA |
No |
No |
Not eligible. |
Lawyers who are not yet qualified and regulated by date of submission (i.e. latest 6 March 2026) cannot be included, because until that point it is not possible to check an individual’s entries against the relevant professional register.
However, as stated above, pro bono work undertaken during 2025 as a trainee solicitor or pupil barrister can be included as long as they are qualified and regulated by the date of submission.
Barristers, chartered legal executives, solicitors, patent attorneys and trade mark attorneys who are qualified and regulated in England & Wales at the date of submission can be included in the List if they are working abroad (for example in an overseas branch of their law firm). Their location should be listed on the submission as “overseas” and not the specific city that they practice in.
Registered foreign and European lawyers are only eligible if they were practising in England & Wales during calendar year 2025.
The
Joint Pro Bono Protocol defines legal pro bono (and sets out expectations for how pro bono work is undertaken), with a more detailed articulation found in the internationally recognised
TrustLaw definition.
- Individual solicitors, registered European lawyers and registered foreign lawyers can submit their details via the home page of this website.
- Individual barristers can submit their details via Advocate.
- Individual chartered legal executives can submit their entries via CILEX.
- Government Legal Department lawyers can submit their entries via the GLD Pro Bono & Volunteering Network.
- Patent attorneys and trade mark attorneys can submit their entries via their law firm in a bulk submission, as set out below.
- Employers can make bulk submissions for all the lawyers they employ (and likewise for chambers for their barristers). For the avoidance of doubt, partners who are not employed by their law firms can be included in their law firm’s bulk submission. Please use the excel spreadsheet available on the home page of this website and send it to contact@probonorecognitionlist.org.uk. Bulk submissions must be submitted in the template excel spreadsheet format. Any employer making a bulk submission should obtain consent to be included on the Recognition List from those named in their submission. Bulk submissions can only be made by employers
We cannot accept submissions by voluntary organisations on behalf of their volunteers. Instead it is suggested that charities encourage their legal volunteers to submit entries themselves or via their employer.
Submissions open on Monday 12 January and close on Friday 6 March 2026. No late submissions will be accepted. After this deadline, please submit in the following year for next year’s List.
Barristers can also submit via Advocate throughout the year in which the work is being measured, up until the 6 March 2026 deadline.
We aim to publish the Pro Bono Recognition List in April 2026.
Please name the organisation that you were working for at the end of the year in question i.e. as of 31 December 2025.
If they completed 25 hours or more pro bono time while working at your organisation then please include them. Please note that if they undertook 25 hours or more pro bono work in more than one organisation but they did not complete 25 hours at either organisation they should make an individual submission (and name the organisation they were last employed by).
Organisations that make bulk submissions are responsible for confirming the accuracy of the information submitted. Lawyers making individual submissions are similarly required to attest as to the accuracy of the information that they submit. The declaration that the relevant lawyers have undertaken the pro bono work is taken on trust. Inclusion in the Pro Bono Recognition List cannot be taken as a warranty as to the status of an individual as a lawyer or their pro bono work. The Steering Group, however, reserves at its absolute discretion the right not to include, or to remove, an individual’s name on the Recognition List.
If an employer submits an individual’s name in error, or an individual wishes their name removed, the Steering Group should be contacted on
contact@probonorecognitionlist.org.uk so the error can be corrected. If an individual is removed from the
SRA Solicitors Register or the
CILEX Authorised Practitioners Directory, IP Reg register, or suspended or removed from the
Barristers’ Register, then once this is brought to the attention of the Steering Group that individual’s name will be removed from the Pro Bono Recognition List. We cannot respond to any other complaints about the inclusion of an individual on the Pro Bono Recognition List.
Lawyers and organisations listed on the Pro Bono Recognition List are not advertising that they are able to offer further pro bono assistance to new clients. If you need free legal advice, please see this
web page for advice on accessing free legal advice. More detailed signposting information can be found in the
Guide to Pro Bono & Other Free Advice.
Third parties are not permitted to use the List as a mailing list.