Large law firms regularly talk about their pro bono work. It is common for them to have whole sections of their websites devoted to it. But what exactly do they do, and do some firms do more than others?

To answer this question Legal Week has compiled the U.K.'s first-ever proper pro bono rankings.

Ten firms have been chosen as the best for pro bono out of 30 that took part. They were selected based on six key metrics: the total number of pro bono hours worked in the U.K. in the last financial year; the number of pro bono hours per fee earner; the percentage of lawyers doing pro bono; the number of full- or part-time pro bono professionals; whether pro bono work counts towards lawyers' utilisation targets; and how the firm's efforts were rated by their peers.

The ranking comes at a time when the next generation of lawyers is putting renewed attention on how firms give back to the community and diversify their workload and are scrutinising a prospective employer's corporate social responsibility record.

Amnesty International

10 – Latham & Watkins

• Number of U.K. pro bono hours worked: 13,288
• Pro bono hours per U.K. fee earner: 35
• Percentage of lawyers of doing pro bono: 85%
• Count towards utilisation targets? Yes

Latham has the highest number of dedicated U.K. pro bono professionals out of all the U.S. firms that placed near the top of the hours table. It has two lawyers and one administrator working on efforts that help 85% of its 376 lawyers in the country to work on pro bono matters. All hours count towards the firm's utilisation targets to incentivise participation. A notable matter for the firm in the past year includes fielding a London-based team to work alongside Amnesty International U.K. and Save the Children U.K. The firm's team compiled an 80-page report with the aim of reforming U.K. law to allow unaccompanied refugee children the right to be joined by their parents and siblings. At the time of writing, the report has passed two readings in the House of Commons. The firm also works with five law clinics in the U.K.

Rainbow flag LGBT movement

9 – Clifford Chance

• Number of U.K. pro bono hours worked: 26,333
• Pro bono hours per U.K. fee earner: 28
• Percentage of lawyers of doing pro bono: 59%
• Count towards utilisation targets? No

Clifford Chance has recently made strides in improving the legal landscape for LGBTI+ claimants. In October, it announced its global pro bono partnership with the U.S.-based Human Rights Campaign (HRC) with the aim of advocating for change and holding "organisations and governments that discriminate against the LGBT+ community accountable". The firm will help HRC staff lawyers to write and analyse legislation and regulations, direct and draft amicus briefs, and advise legislators at all levels of government on a wide variety of legal issues related to LGBTQ equality. The firm also took a role on the high-profile 'X passports' case, with the firm having secured permission from the English Court of Appeal to challenge the High Court's finding that the U.K. Government's policy to refuse to issue non-gendered passports is lawful.

Sierra Leone

8 – Herbert Smith Freehills

• Number of U.K. pro bono hours worked: 23,857
• Pro bono hours per U.K. fee earner: 28
• Percentage of lawyers of doing pro bono: 58%
• Count towards utilisation targets? Yes

Another firm to have logged a significant number of hours on several notable pro bono matters is Herbert Smith Freehills. In 2010, the firm set up Fair Deal Sierra Leone to help Sierra Leone's government respond more effectively to growing volumes of foreign investment. Since then, more than 250 HSF lawyers have provided over £7 million worth of pro bono legal advice. In partnership with Standard Chartered Bank and Prudential, the firm also publishes an annually-updated guide to make Sierra Leone more attractive to investors in the aftermath of the Ebola crises in 2014/15. The firm has also been partnered with a national youth homelessness charity for four years, through which it provides free legal advice to the young people the charity supports, and includes funding a co-ordinator post at the charity to promote the clinic to homeless young people and support them in accessing legal advice. In 2018, 200 of the firm's lawyers devoted over 8,000 hours to a local Citizens Advice clinic with which it has had a 20-year partnership.

London Underground, UK

7 – Weil Gotshal & Manges

• Number of U.K. pro bono hours worked: 10,359
• Pro bono hours per U.K. fee earner: 60
• Percentage of lawyers of doing pro bono: 92%
• Count towards utilisation targets? No

Of Weil's 172 U.K. lawyers, 92% did pro bono work in the last financial year – one of the highest of any firm. While pro bono does not count towards lawyers' utilisation targets, the firm is the largest of its U.S. peers to have such a high uptake of pro bono, suggesting that the firm prioritises such efforts. The firm fielded lawyers from its tax, banking, real estate and corporate teams to advise non-profit organisation Micro-Rainbow in opening the U.K.'s first safe house for LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers, who have fled their home country due to homosexuality being a criminal offence. The Weil team advised on a range of issues to ensure that 11 properties across London, Leeds and Birmingham could open and reach full capacity, providing 11,000 beds a year to those in need. Another example of their work from the past year includes their role advising the Royal Society for Blind Children on the development and launch of Wayfindr, which uses technology to enable vision-impaired people to navigate the London Underground and other transports networks independently.

Skadden

6 – Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom

• Number of U.K. pro bono hours worked: 11,719
• Pro bono hours per U.K. fee earner: 83
• Percentage of lawyers of doing pro bono: 88%
• Count towards utilisation targets? Yes

The 124 Skadden U.K. lawyers who worked on pro bono matters in the last financial year clocked up an average of 95 hours each - the highest of the firms to have taken part in the survey. Across all Skadden's fee earners the average number of hours was 83, which was also the highest of any firm. Pro bono matters it has been engaged on include working alongside the Human Dignity Trust (HDT) to produce a report into the unlawful criminalisation of transgender and gender-diverse people and the prejudice they face, with the report informing HDT's submission to the U.K. government during its consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act. In 2018, the firm also helped a transgender asylum applicant living in Saudi Arabia to successfully relocate to a safe country through its partnership with the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Migrant crisis, Greece

5 – Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe

• Number of U.K. pro bono hours worked: 5,350
• Pro bono hours per U.K. fee earner: 67
• Percentage of lawyers of doing pro bono: 100%
• Count towards utilisation targets? Yes

Every lawyer in Orrick's 80-strong London practice spent time on pro bono, logging 67 hours of pro bono work over the course of the financial year. It was also the first global law firm to establish an impact finance and investment practice aimed at supporting investors and entrepreneurs who want to make social and environmental impacts and not just focus on their financial returns. The firm was one of five to have sent lawyers to the Greek island of Lesvos, where they provided pro bono legal advice to the more than 7,000 refugees and asylum seekers in need of legal aid living in refugee camps across the country. White & Case, Allen & Overy, Ashurst and Dentons also sent lawyers to work on the project in what is an unprecedented show of collaboration between firms.

Grenfell Tower

4 – Ashurst

• Number of U.K. pro bono hours worked: 12,728
• Pro bono hours per U.K. fee earner: 21
• Percentage of lawyers of doing pro bono: 58%
• Count towards utilisation targets? Yes

Ashurst is notable for being the only firm to offer a permanent training seat dedicated to pro bono, showing its institutional commitment to the area. Ashurst was held in high regard by its peers for pro bono, particularly for its role in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. A pro bono manager at Ashurst and another at Ropes & Gray co-ordinated a response from other firms belonging to the industry's Collaborative Plan for Pro Bono group, to support the local community and its law clinics. One firm said that Ashurst's practice was notable as it had "a well resourced team who deliver positive impacts, delivering a range of worthy pro bono initiatives".

DLA Piper

3 – DLA Piper

• Number of U.K. pro bono hours worked: 23,183
• Pro bono hours per U.K. fee earner: 31
• Percentage of lawyers of doing pro bono: 79
• Count towards utilisation targets? Yes

DLA Piper's sprawling regional U.K. network mean that the firm is well placed to support more than 13 different law clinics across several large cities, bucking a wider trend of focusing legal resources on needs in London. The firm makes the top three as it is the only firm to have a dedicated pro bono partner in the U.K. It was also highly rated by its peers for its pro bono work, which includes working with disabled children and their families in Sheffield to appeal decisions to remove the disability living allowance. Furthermore, nearly 80% of DLA lawyers undertook pro bono work last year; the highest percentage of all similarly-sized firms in the U.K. Since launching a partnership with UNICEF U.K. in 2013, the firm has raised over £1 million through corporate donations and employee fundraising, and more than 500 of its lawyers have provided over 25,000 hours of technical child rights expertise to support UNICEF's child justice work.

UK Supreme Court

2 – Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

• Estimated number of U.K. pro bono hours worked: 26,180
• Pro bono hours per U.K. fee earner: 31
• Percentage of lawyers of doing pro bono: 62.3
• Count towards utilisation targets? Yes

Freshfields was rated as one of the top pro bono firms in the U.K. by the most of its peers, with many noting the Magic Circle firm's impactful casework and commitment to increasing access to justice. Several applauded Freshfields' CourtNav project, on which the firm worked with the Royal Courts of Justice Citizens Advice Bureau to turn the divorce petition into an interactive form with guidance notes and which allows the software to complete court forms and other court documentation. While the project did not generate particularly high hours for the firm, it was so successful that it has been adopted by the Courts Service. The firm also worked pro bono to secure a victory in the Supreme Court earlier this year as part of a long-running torture case against the U.K. government.

London Bridge attack

1 – Hogan Lovells

• Number of U.K. pro bono hours worked: 27,704
• Pro bono hours per U.K. fee earner: 32.6
• Percentage of lawyers of doing pro bono: 66%
• Count towards utilisation targets? Yes

Hogan Lovells topped its competitors for the most pro bono hours worked – its U.K. contingent logged 27,704 hours of pro bono work during the last financial year. The firm, which employs four and a half professionals devoted to pro bono, is classed as a market leader for its pro bono work by many of its peers and advised on several high-profile cases last year, including acting for the families of the victims of the Westminster and London Bridge terror attacks. Last year, a transatlantic Hogan Lovells team made up of more than 50 lawyers worked to investigate the historical secret forced adoption system in Ireland as part of the CLANN Project. As of October 2018, the firm had given pro bono assistance to 164 people, 77 of whom gave detailed witness statements to the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation in Ireland.

Several other firms took part in the survey but did not make it into the top 25 on an hours basis.

Top firms that refused to participate in the survey were:

• Kirkland & Ellis
• Linklaters
• Allen & Overy
• White & Case
• Norton Rose Fulbright
• Slaughter and May
• CMS
• Eversheds Sutherland
• BCLP
• Pinsent Masons
• Travers Smith