A national field study of pro-bono practice, institutional incentives and the barriers to widespread adoption across Nigerian law firms.
With support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), the Justice Research Institute implemented a project to advance pro-bono legal services across Nigeria. The initiative set out to promote a culture of pro-bono in Nigeria and to facilitate an intentional system that connects vulnerable populations with free, quality legal assistance.
To ground the work in evidence, researchers conducted a needs assessment across three focal states — the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja), Kaduna and Osun — documenting the existing gaps in pro-bono legal service provision and the experiences of both providers and the people who need help.
Key findings
Government agencies received significantly more pro-bono requests than private law firms or NGOs, reflecting a public perception of law firms as profit-driven. Even so, 79 percent of surveyed law firms reported offering pro-bono services as part of their corporate social responsibility.
87 percent of respondents had not accessed pro-bono services — yet 65 percent of those who did request assistance successfully received it.
The gap was driven less by unwillingness to help than by awareness and capacity. Critical barriers included inadequate funding, limited human resources and insufficient public awareness, with 64 percent of respondents unaware of the pro-bono providers available to them. Law firms and government agencies primarily assessed eligibility through income levels and employment status when determining indigency, and while government agencies handled the most cases overall, gaps persisted — particularly in the representation of commercial matters.
What it means
The study concluded that addressing Nigeria’s access-to-justice challenge requires coordinated effort rather than isolated goodwill — bringing together private attorneys, NGOs, bar associations, judicial officials, universities and development organisations behind a shared, well-publicised system for delivering free legal services to those who need them most.
Originally published on justiceresearchinstitute.org.
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