Building the pro bono infrastructure needed across East Africa

This impact story is part of our TrustLaw Awards series to celebrate the law firms and legal teams that have demonstrated exceptional effort and enthusiasm in supporting pro bono clients on projects undertaken through TrustLaw.   

To celebrate this law firm’s Regional Lawyer of the Year Award win, as part of the 2026 TrustLaw Awards, we caught up with Cathy Mputhia, CEO of C. Mputhia Advocates, to delve deeper into the Kenyan and East African pro bono landscape and understand how pro bono can shift from a voluntary practice to a professional expectation.

The access-to-justice gap in Kenya and East Africa

In Kenya and East Africa more broadly, there are many structural challenges that prohibit communities from accessing legal counsel. These include awareness gaps, language barriers, geographical distance from courts, and distrust of formal legal institutions. With a lawyer-to-population ratio of roughly 1 in 3,700 – which widens in areas on the edge of cities – large swathes of the population, including farmers, informal workers, women, and refugees are unable to get their legal needs met. Nonprofits and civil society organisations, with little to no formalised infrastructure, are therefore left to fulfil this significant need, in place of well-resources institutions.

C. Mputhia Advocates, a small law firm based in Kenya, operates in this constrained market. They have been a member of TrustLaw, the world’s largest pro bono network, for eight years, generating meaningful impact for organisations across the region. For smaller firms like C. Mputhia Advocates, investing in pro bono infrastructure can make a meaningful difference for communities who lack the resources or awareness of such legal aid. 

“The culture shift among private law firms, particularly smaller and mid-size firms, is still slow. Pro bono is not yet embedded as a standard professional expectation the way it is in some other jurisdictions.” Cathy Mputhia, CEO, C. Mputhia Advocates 

The pro bono landscape

Despite these structural barriers, improvements can be seen across the region at the institutional, legislative, and regional level.  

Institutionally, the Law Society of Kenya has increasingly engaged with legal advocacy. They are an active voice on public interest issues that support communities that would otherwise be unable to access legal representation.  

“When a bar association signals that pro bono and public interest work is a professional value not just a charitable gesture it changes the culture from the top down.” Cathy Mputhia, CEO, C. Mputhia Advocates

At the legislative level, the National Legal Aid Service, established under the 2016 Legal Aid Act, has started to put legal aid schemes into practice which have created a framework for more formalised and coordinated pro bono work. 

Regionally, the East African Law Society has been championing cross-border pro bono cooperation. Law schools such as the University of Nairobi and Strathmore University Law School have embedded hands-on legal education programmes that simulate real-life pro bono cases under supervision. This contributes to normalising and institutionalising access to law as a professional value as lawyers start their careers.

“Pro bono is not a separate programme that sits alongside our commercial practice; it is an expression of the same values that define it. When our lawyers work on pro bono matters, they are not stepping outside of who we are as a firm; they are stepping deeper into it.” Cathy Mputhia, CEO, C. Mputhia Advocates

What’s needed to strengthen pro bono support across the region 

Mputhia highlighted a range of structural changes that would accelerate pro bono adoption. 

She points to financial incentives to help decrease the cost associated with pro bono work, which would make it most sustainable for small and mid-size law firms to run pro bono programmes – as well as more funding invested in legal aid. On an institutional level, she notes that bar associations should embed pro bono as a formal professional obligation. Finally, Mputhia highlights that embedding pro bono placements as a graduation requirement as opposed to an optional class would ensure that lawyers entering the industry view and internalise access to the law as a professional value. 

In addition to these institutional changes, Mputhia says that real change is driven at the firm level, and it remains crucial that small firms, like C. Mputhia Advocates, operating in an emerging pro bono market, commit to making pro bono a priority. For this to happen, coordinated action and better knowledge sharing are critical – and one practical way that’s available to firms is joining a pro bono network.

The importance of networks for small firms

Networks and clearinghouses, like TrustLaw, can support the expansion of pro bono culture: 

• Networks provide centralised access to clients: cases are vetted and carefully matched to a firm’s area of expertise

• Networks provide legitimacy and quality assurance: Being part of a recognised network signals that a firm has been assessed and accepted. This matters for firms who don’t have the brand recognition of a larger firm. This has the effect of levelling the playing field

• Networks offer a community of practice: Smaller firms gain access to resources and knowledge of other member firms navigating similar issues – which becomes valuable in contexts where there is limited legal expertise

• Networks strengthen impact: Networks aggregate data on legal assistance provided across their membership, enabling firms to demonstrate and report on their pro bono contribution in a credible and standardised way. This makes their collective impact visible and accountable. 

For a firm like C. Mputhia Advocates, membership in such a network has enabled them to start building a pro bono structure that they would otherwise had not been able to access. 

“For a smaller firm, a network like TrustLaw transforms pro bono from an ad hoc act of goodwill into a structured, sustainable programme and that shift is what separates firms that do occasional pro bono from firms that build a genuine culture of access to justice.” Cathy Mputhia, CEO, C. Mputhia Advocates

What pro bono can do for smaller law firms 

There are other benefits to pro bono work for law firms and lawyers, spanning morale and engagement, professional development, and long-term commercial growth. 

Lawyers who work on pro bono cases report a strong sense of purpose – one that complements, and at times surpasses the satisfaction of their commercial work. Many highlight the distinctiveness of working on a values-driven matter where the resulting impact is supporting community organisation’s ability to continue operating, or someone’s access to justice. This also contributes to the broader culture of the team.  

In addition, pro bono also helps to strengthen lawyers’ research skills. Cases that involve nonprofits operating across complex regulatory environments often require significant legal research in novel areas teams wouldn’t typically encounter in commercial matters. 

Taking pro bono cases can also have a commercial impact. Pro bono clients can become paying clients as their legal needs evolve, and their confidence in the firm strengthens.

“Pro bono, done well, is also a demonstration of competence at the highest level because clients who pay nothing are often the most discerning about the quality of advice they receive.” Cathy Mputhia, CEO, C. Mputhia Advocates

Get engaged

To find vetted pro bono opportunities and support civil society organisations worldwide, log in to the TrustLaw portal.