The pro bono participation rate for U.S. attorneys in the Pro Bono Institute's annual Corporate Pro Bono Challenge dipped to 46% in 2024, with participation among legal staff decreasing to 31%, well below the institute's 50% "aspirational goal."

Although its report detailing pro bono participation for 2024 indicates that engagement has declined, the institute said in an announcement Thursday that many legal departments have maintained or even increased their pro bono work.

"The 2025 report reflects that thousands of in-house lawyers and legal staff are delivering much-needed pro bono legal services," Alyssa Saunders, the director of Corporate Pro Bono, said in a statement. "We are grateful to the law department pro bono leaders who are expanding in-house pro bono for the long term, to the attorneys and legal staff who donate their time to deliver pro bono legal services, and the chief legal officers and general counsel who encourage and support the pro bono engagement of their departments."

In an emailed message to Law360 Pulse on Friday, Pro Bono Institute President and CEO Eve Runyon said "there are many factors that can impact in-house pro bono engagement, including changes in legal department staffing, company mergers and other shifts."

"The picture of in-house pro bono engagement in 2024 is complex, because many departments stayed steady or showed increases in pro bono engagement while others experienced decline," she said.

Corporate Pro Bono, or CPBO, was launched in 2000 as a project of the Pro Bono Institute with the aim of enhancing pro bono efforts of in-house legal departments in the U.S. and globally, its website says.

The CPBO Challenge, a voluntary commitment by legal department leaders, has set "an aspirational goal" to have at least 50% of surveyed legal department employees, including attorneys and staff, participate in pro bono work annually, the announcement said.

According to a survey from the Pro Bono Institute, which received 49 responses from 194 challenge signatories, the pro bono participation rate for 2024 for all respondents was 46% for U.S. lawyers, down from 53% in 2023.

Only 42% of legal departments met the benchmark of 50% participation in 2024, down from 51% in 2023, the report said.

Also, the participation rate for U.S. legal staff was 31%, down from 41% in 2023. Just 21% of legal departments met the benchmark of 50% participation for legal staff in 2024, down from 35% in 2023, according to the report.

Globally, 59% of legal departments reported pro bono activity outside the U.S. in 2024, compared to 77% in 2023, the report said, and the average participation among lawyers outside the U.S. declined from 35% in 2023 to 25% in 2024.

"The CPBO Challenge Report reveals a dynamic and evolving landscape for in-house pro bono," Runyon said. "While participation rates across departments continue to vary, the number of departments participating in pro bono legal services grows. We are encouraged that more departments have adopted the CPBO Challenge initiative — a strong testament to the commitment of in-house lawyers to provide meaningful pro bono to those in need."

While this year's report had 49 respondents, last year's had 42.

Among the pro bono work provided by legal departments are assistance for domestic violence survivors, at-risk youth, immigrants and refugees, low-income seniors and families, veterans, and small start-ups and nonprofits, the announcement said.

The companies that provided data for the report include 3M Co., Amazon.com Inc., AT&T Inc., Chubb, Cisco Systems Inc., Exelon Corp., Freddie Mac, General Mills Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, The Home Depot, Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., Pfizer Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Xerox Corp.

The Pro Bono Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that was founded in 1996, aims to "improve and enrich pro bono service," its website says.

--Editing by Rich Mills.