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NLJ this week: Reframing pro bono as a public service

27 June 2025
Issue: 8122 / Categories: Legal News , Pro Bono , Profession , Charities
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Is it time for a narrative shift on pro bono work? In this week's NLJ, Bea Rossetto, head of communications & community development at the National Pro Bono Centre, argues that pro bono work should be seen not as charity, but as a vital public service

Highlighting the Law Society’s new Reframing Justice toolkit, she argues that lawyers must tell better stories—ones rooted in fairness, shared benefit, and tangible outcomes like safer homes and secure jobs.

Rossetto warns that toxic narratives, such as the ‘lefty lawyer’ trope, undermine public trust and fuel hostility. She urges the profession to use accessible metaphors—‘rules of the game’, ‘level playing field’—to connect legal work with everyday life.

With record numbers on the Pro Bono Recognition List, the time is ripe to inspire more lawyers to join the movement. Justice, she insists, is a shared good—and pro bono is how the legal profession helps keep the system fair for all 

Issue: 8122 / Categories: Legal News , Pro Bono , Profession , Charities
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Serious injury teambolstered by high-profile partner hire

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Firm strengthens employment team with partner hire

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

Lawyers’ liability practice strengthened with partner appointment in London

NEWS
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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