UK Pro Bono Week 2025: an introduction to public interest litigation and PILS’ Pro Bono Register
The theme for this year’s UK Pro Bono Week is ‘Pro Bono in Action’.
PILS are bringing that concept to life with our lunchtime CPD seminar for lawyers on Tuesday 04 November, co-hosted with the Young Bar Association.
Public Interest Litigation Support (PILS) is dedicated to helping community/voluntary organisations and legal professionals to build public interest litigation in Northern Ireland. PILS supports cases that create positive impact not only for one person, but for communities across the region.
Key to this support is PILS’ Pro Bono Register, which currently includes over 120 barristers, solicitors and academics who have agreed to provide pro bono legal services to PILS’ members. Our members range from community interest groups to law centres to well-known charities.
To mark UK Pro Bono Week 2025, PILS is delighted to be co-hosting this event with the Young Bar Association.
Why attend?
- This CPD-accredited seminar is open to all practising barristers and solicitors, whether or not you have already joined PILS’ Pro Bono Register. We will provide an introduction to public interest litigation and offer guidance on how to identify cases which have the potential to change the law for the benefit of the wider public and/or specific communities.
- PILS’ Director/Solicitor Kate Barry will examine how this litigation has been used in Northern Ireland, the current ‘hot topics’ in public interest litigation and an overview of how our Pro Bono Register operates in practice.
- Guest speaker Leona Askin BL will share her own experience as a Pro Bono Register practitioner and reflect on what pro bono means to her in 2025.
- Attendees will have the opportunity to ask PILS questions; sandwiches, tea and coffee will be served.
If you have any questions about this event, please email info@pilsni.org
You can enter the Inn of Court through the Bar Library, which is accessed through the double doors located on the right-hand side of the Great Hall in the Royal Courts of Justice.