A&O prods slack pro bono offices

Allen & Overy has launched a sweeping new international pro bono policy.

The firm will seek to share the expertise of offices recording high numbers of pro bono hours with those recording low numbers.

Regional managing partner for Europe Stephen Denyer will be meeting with all of the firm’s European offices to facilitate this and to discuss the challenges to doing pro bono work faced by lesser-performing offices.

The firm has also launched a new package to encourage pro bono activity among individual lawyers.

This includes crediting 25 pro bono hours as billable time and granting lawyers up to five days off a year to work on pro bono, plus an annual day off to work for each national office’s charity of the year.

Pro bono and community affairs manager Shankari Chandran said: “Basically this is about the firm sharing learning and inspiration and about us rewarding and inspiring our staff.”