About EPBA
The European Pro Bono Alliance (EPBA) is a European-wide network that brings together national and regional pro bono “clearinghouses” to foster a culture of pro bono practice and improve coordination across European countries and legal systems. The Alliance is an informal peer group where members exchange experiences and share best practices on brokering pro bono legal service. EPBA is currently hosted by PILnet and operates with the active participation of members from more than 10 countries.
A pro bono clearinghouse matches individuals or organizations in need of legal assistance with legal professionals willing to provide their services free of charge. “Pro bono” comes from the Latin “pro bono publico”, meaning “for the public good.” It is is a nonprofit organization, a separate program within a nonprofit organization or a separate program within the bar association. A clearinghouse acts as a central hub that collects and reviews eligible requests and distributes them to appropriate legal professionals or volunteer lawyers. A clearinghouse can have a thematic (e.g., asylum and migration, human rights, social rights, environmental law) or territorial focus (local, national, or cross-border) depending on the targeted audience.
Clearinghouses play a key role in pro bono ecosystems, often working alongside bar associations, legal clinics, law firms, and civil society organizations, and help advance the broader goal of strengthening public interest lawyering and pro bono.
EPBA Members
Our members consist of 10+ clearinghouses and pro bono initiatives from across Europe.
Learn more about our members and get an easy access to their websites
Leadership roles and structural development in the association: How pro bono contributes to the development of sustainable solutions
This event takes place Thursday, June 11 at 10 a.m. CET The speakers will focus on the roles of boards and leadership within associations. It is evident that bureaucratic requirements, increasing professionalization in the sector, and generational change are creating challenges for organizations and those in charge. In this context, it is essential to maintain the ability to act effectively through cooperation between full-time staff and volunteers.
Learn more57th Italian Pro Bono Roundtable and 9th Italy Pro Bono Day
Two events will take place on Friday, June 10 at 12:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. CET As part of the 2026 European Pro Bono Week, the 9th Italy Pro Bono Day event will bring together lawyers, law firms, in-house counsel, non-profit organisations, institutions, and civil society representatives for a day dedicated to collaboration, professional development, and access to justice. Form more information, contact Elena Esposito at [email protected]
Brussels Pro Bono Roundtable
The next Brussels Pro Bono Roundtable will be held Thursday, June 11 at 6:00 p.m. CET, and it will be hosted by Mayer Brown at Avenue Louise 149 Louizalaan, 1050 Brussels. This will be a Special Edition happening during European Pro Bono Week. The theme is Reinforcing Pro Bono Ecosystems: Building Partnerships that Last. For more information, contact Francesco Zatelli at [email protected]
Pro Bono Roundtable & Legal Training
Two events will be held on Monday, June 8 at 10 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. CET Centrum Pro Bono's event will consist of a Pro Bono Roundtable. The guests will be Polish NGOs and pro bono lawyers. Afterwards, lawyers from Bird & Bird will hold a legal seminar for NGOs on employing foreign nationals. For more information, contact Mateusz Fedeńczuk at [email protected].
Reinforcing Pro Bono Ecosystems: Building Partnerships that Last
The Law Society of Ireland, in collaboration with PILA, will host an online session on Thursday, June 11 at 4:30 p.m. CET The session will be focused on strengthening pro bono ecosystems through collaboration and sustained partnerships across the legal profession and with external organisations. For more information, please contact Junaid Abdulkarim at [email protected]
Partnering for Impact: Law, Governance, and Utilising Pro Bono
This event will take place in person on Wednesday, June 10 from 9:15 to 11:00 a.m. CET It is particularly suited to management teams in civil society organisations and social enterprises. You will gain legal insights into areas of law relevant to the running of your organisation, delivered by leading legal professionals on: Charities Governance, Employment, Data Management, and Role of the Company Secretary.
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In 2026, members of the European Pro Bono Alliance held an in-person side meeting at the PILnet European Convening in Frankfurt.
We discussed new trends in clearinghouse work and had fruitful conversations to explore what the recent strong recognition of pro bono by the European Commission can bring to us.
The members of the EPBA often work together on collaborative projects to support civil society organizations in Europe.
In 2022, PILnet and Alliance des Avocats pour les Droits de l’Homme (AADH) launched Pro Bono Children Europe, a European Child Justice Clearinghouse to facilitate access to free quality legal assistance for NGOs working with children and their clients, including those working across borders, providing help with EU-wide legal research, operational legal needs, representation, legal drafting, legal translation, and more.
Learn more about Pro Bono Children Europe
After the invasion of Ukraine, PILnet and the European Pro Bono Alliance compiled useful information resources for those fleeing their country.
View the Ukraine resources (last updated September 15, 2022)
Related
Clearinghouses and pro bono initiatives have a unique and crucial role to play in protecting access to justice by connecting together legal need with legal supply. By assisting NGOs to access legal support and enabling lawyers to put their expertise and skills to good use, pro bono projects offer support to the most disadvantaged.
With this in mind, PILnet and its partners started to develop a strategy to reinforce the European pro bono community and find new opportunities for long term sustainability. There has always been a strong spirit of collaboration between the pro bono initiatives in Europe but it was agreed that it was necessary to pool expertise and strengthen individual and collective pro bono work.
It was from this collaborative spirit that the European Pro Bono Alliance was born. The Alliance does not take the place of individual pro bono initiatives. Instead it acts as a common voice on matters of general concern to all pro bono organizations and facilitates information sharing between the network.
The response has been overwhelmingly positive when this idea was pitched in 2011, and at a sidebar meeting of 20 representatives of European clearinghouses at the 2012 European Pro Bono Forum it was agreed to move forward with the project. In the spring of 2013, a planning meeting was held in Budapest with a number of clearinghouses where the mission, goals and activities of the Alliance were refined.