8 July 2025
Pro bono work is part of AGS’s culture, and draws on AGS’s long tradition of its lawyers using their professional skills to serve the public interest. Against the Australian Pro Bono Centre’s National Pro Bono Target for 2024–25 (17,640 hours), AGS has accrued a total of 19,082 pro bono hours.
AGS actively provides support to community legal centres, non-profit organisations, and government lawyers in developing countries.
AGS lawyers undertake full-time pro bono placements with community legal centres who service vulnerable and disadvantaged cohorts. Recently, a rolling 6-month placement of AGS lawyers, who temporarily relocate to Darwin, has been organised to provide pro bono legal assistance to the Darwin Community Legal Service.
AGS lawyers also attend clinics run by community legal centres. They further undertake legal work for non-profit organisations, in particular non-profit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations through the LawHelp referral scheme.
Legal training in the Asia Pacific region is a key pillar of AGS’s pro bono program. We’ve recently expanded the assistance we provide to building the professional capability of government lawyers in developing countries in the region. This has included working to increase the frequency of the legal training we deliver in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.