Pro Bono Practice and Opportunities in Northern Ireland

Upon being called to the Bar ^[4] or registering with the Law Society of Northern Ireland ^[5] , each barrister and solicitor is subject to the respective professional standards and regulations established by their governing bodies, which dictate the standards of conduct and practice required for legal professionals practising in Northern Ireland.

There are no rules or regulations specific to the provision of pro bono legal services in Northern Ireland.

In Northern Ireland, lawyers require a Practising Certificate to provide legal services, including pro bono legal services. There is no requirement to have an additional license to provide pro bono legal services. Providing any form of legal services without a current Practising Certificate would constitute professional misconduct.

Foreign-qualified lawyers do not require an additional license to provide pro bono legal services in Northern Ireland provided that they are registered European lawyers.^[6] Foreign-qualified lawyers who are not registered European lawyers should be licensed to practice in Northern Ireland to provide pro bono legal services.

There are no requirements which mandate that lawyers in Northern Ireland work a minimum number of pro bono hours, however, both the Law Society of Northern Ireland and the Bar Council encourage lawyers to engage in the provision of pro bono legal services.

There is no requirement that aspiring lawyers (both barristers and solicitors) in Northern Ireland complete a minimum number of hours of pro bono legal services in order to become licensed lawyers.

Engagement in pro bono legal services is encouraged by both the Bar Council and the Law Society of Northern Ireland but neither these nor other bodies set any aspirational target for pro bono hours.

Some law firms will have their own internal aspirational targets for their lawyers and have signed up to the Pro Bono Register in conjunction with the PILS Project to provide pro bono legal services in their areas of specialty.

No, lawyers do not receive any continuing legal education or equivalent credit for pro bono hours worked.

All practising solicitors and barristers in Northern Ireland, including those who are in-house lawyers, require professional indemnity legal insurance cover.

Solicitors in Northern Ireland who are employed in private practice (i.e., not in-house lawyers or government lawyers) are required to maintain professional indemnity insurance at a level and to a specification prescribed by the Law Society of Northern Ireland.^[7] This applies equally to pro bono work, commercial legal advice services, work performed at law centres, charities and other non-commercial advice services, and work for foreign law firms.^[8]

Every practising barrister in Northern Ireland is required under the Bar Code of Conduct to maintain professional indemnity insurance cover at the appropriate level prescribed by the Bar Council.^[9]

In Northern Ireland, there are no rules that prohibit advertising of pro bono successes or soliciting new pro bono clients by barristers. However, a barrister who advertises their practice must do so in a manner consistent with the British Code of Advertising Practice.^[10]

There are no rules in Northern Ireland that prohibit advertising of pro bono successes or soliciting new pro bono clients by solicitors, however client consent is generally required for solicitors to advertise the identity of a client or items of the client’s business, and soliciting of business is generally subject to customary ethical standards e.g., no inaccurate, misleading or unjustifiable statements.

The main areas of law which require or present opportunities for the provision of pro bono legal services in Northern Ireland are:

• personal injury,
• personal finance,
• divorce,
• employment,
• family,
• housing and
• human rights.

A major unmet legal need is that Pro Bono Costs Orders are largely not available in Northern Ireland and are only being available in relation to environmental cases.^[11] Pro Bono Costs Orders are court orders that require a losing party in a legal case to pay the costs of the winning party’s free legal representation to a designated fund, often a charity that supports pro bono work.

The main providers of pro bono legal services in Northern Ireland are universities, NGOs, private law firms and barristers.

There are no noteworthy publicly available examples of how innovative technology and/or artificial intelligence is being used to enable access to pro bono legal services or otherwise used as part of pro bono cases or matters in Northern Ireland.

However, researchers at Ulster University have created an AI-driven legal assistant named “Aura.” This tool is designed to automate tasks such as legal drafting, research, and initial assessments. The goal is to minimize the time spent on repetitive tasks and enhance access to justice.^[12] This illustrates how AI innovation is directly targeting access to justice problems that often underpin pro bono demand. Ulster University has also launched a Centre for Legal Technology (CLT), marking a pivotal moment in legal innovation and reinforcing Northern Ireland’s emergence as a leader in law and technology.^[13]

There are no governmental sources of pro bono and/or other legal services in Northern Ireland. The main non-governmental sources of pro bono and/or other pro bono resources in Northern Ireland are:

• Children’s Law Centre;^[14]
• Citizens Advice Bureau;^[15]
• Law Centre NI;^[16] PILS Project;^[17]
• Pro Bono Unit of the Bar of Northern Ireland;^[18] and
• Ulster University Law Clinic.^[19]

Lawyers can register their interest to provide pro bono legal services with universities and NGOs in Northern Ireland.

There are no awards, lists or rankings related to pro bono work in Northern Ireland.