About the Index

The Thomson Reuters Foundation's global pro bono service, TrustLaw, invites law firms and lawyers around the world to share information about their firm's pro bono programme for inclusion in the 2020 TrustLaw Index of Pro Bono.

The TrustLaw Index of Pro Bono identifies global trends in the pro bono marketplace, highlights success factors in pro bono practices and looks at the amount of pro bono work law firms are undertaking on a country-by-country basis.

Since the launch of the TrustLaw Index of Pro Bono in 2014, it has rapidly become a central repository of information on the global pro bono sector, uncovering emerging trends and quantifying the complex ways in which the sector is evolving. The information provided as part of the TrustLaw Index is an invaluable tool to help spread the practice of pro bono around the world.

As pro bono practices vary across the globe, the Index seeks to gather data on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis where similar data is compared and developed tracked in local markets. In conducting research for the development of the TrustLaw Index of Pro Bono, the feedback received from lawyers in "emerging" pro bono markets is that this data is invaluable for them in assessing their own firm's practice and advocating to expand their pro bono programmes.

This year, we are also collecting data on behalf of the Collaborative Plan for Pro Bono in the UK (the Plan). Firms that are signatories to the Plan are able to complete the Plan's Voluntary Aspirational Pro Bono Target questions at the end of this survey.

See the 2016 Index findings for additional information on how the data is presented.