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www.canadianlawyermag.com 47 in the US, we have multilingual lawyers in Toronto who support our Chicago team with translation services and others who do research for us," she says. Other BMO pro bono projects include holding power-of-attorney clinics, where volunteers attend hospitals to help patients who need, among other things, advance direc- tives, living wills, or various POAs; assisting parents of children with severe disabilities with legal appeals for benefits; and providing legal assistance with elder law advice. Duckett says that getting her team to buy into pro bono work has never been a problem. "There is interest and enthusiasm from our offices all over the place, and the individuals who have been involved have found the expe- rience to be very enriching – after all, it feels good to do good things." From the corporate perspective, pro bono is an important manifestation of the organi- zation's commitment to the community and its customers. And there are internal benefits as well. "Doing pro bono gives us opportunities to meet folks outside the department, to meet IN-HOUSE CONTRIBUTIONS TO PBO 34,000 number of clients served by Pro Bono Ontario 30,000 number of clients served via the free legal advice hotline 1,548 number of hours of pro bono time in-house lawyers donated through PBO 1,700 number of people in-house lawyers personally assisted who had unmet legal needs our external lawyers and other members of the legal community, and a chance to build relationships within our legal and compliance group," Duckett says. Evidence of pro bono's rise in-house becomes evident from the growth of Financial Institution Pro Bono Day, organized by Corporate Pro Bono. This international orga- nization supports the pro bono efforts of in-house legal departments. The inaugural FIPBD saw 14 financial institutions in 20 US cities organize 47 pro bono events engaging more than 700 volunteers from 21 institu- tions. In 2022, the third FIPBD involved more than 1050 in-house volunteers serving 950 clients at 65 international events. What's clear is that there's room to grow. "The need for access to legal services will always outpace what we can deliver," Duckett says.