CPBS – The Hong Kong Centre for Pro Bono Service

Welcome to Pro Bono

We are an independent non-profit organization established in Hong Kong in 2014^. Our mission is to assist and empower the impoverished, distressed or vulnerable in our community, who are marginalized or disadvantaged due to a lack of financial or other resources and who cannot adequately protect, advance or represent their own rights and interests.

While our mission, our team, and charitable status will remain the same, between May and June, 2020, we are moving to a refreshed organisational identity, with a new name and logo.

Please say hello to Pro Bono HK, and stay tuned for our new website.

Our Access to Justice Fund Appeal

We have launched a fundraising appeal to build an Access to Justice Fund. This Fund will be used to meet the costs of running the legal clinics, including the facilities which we use to house its operations and, importantly, also to pay for the forthcoming professional indemnity insurance premiums for an expanded talent pool of volunteer solicitors at the clinic. The estimated additional insurance premiums to cover an expanded pool of solicitors is in excess of $200,000 per year. Therefore, we need your help to build up our Access to Justice Fund. Please contribute generously, so we can help our lawyers help more people. Every cent will help grow our legal clinic to provides access to justice for those who can’t afford it in our community.

You can donate to the Access to Justice Fund via simplygiving.com (click here)

or you can donate through PayPal below (No Paypal account is required).

Our goal is to improve access to justice for the poorest and most needy in our society, as there is a clear link between providing access to justice and the alleviation of poverty. It is also fundamental to the protection and promotion of all other human rights, and the rule of law. All our work assists those without the means to adequately exercise their lawful rights and interests.

We rely on the generosity of volunteers and donors to deliver our services to those in need. As a small grassroots non-profit organisation that relies on the generous contributions of individuals like you, your contribution no matter how small can help us make a difference to the lives of the people we serve.

QUICK DONATE HK$500 or

HK$1000

Join As A Volunteer

You can make a real difference now by joining the Centre as a member and volunteering for a project.

We are a small non-profit organisation that relies on the generous in-kind contributions of individual professionals like you.

So take action now by signing up through this website (Click here).

There are no joining fees to pay, no minimum qualifications or experience is not required. The only thing you need is commitment and a belief that change for the better is possible and a burning desire to make it happen.

You can make a difference! After all, isn’t that why you went to Law School?

Help Build A Pro-Bono Directory

The Centre is creating Hong Kong’s first and most comprehensive source of information about where to obtain pro bono legal assistance. Our directory will be a free, easily accessible online directory of organisations or schemes in Hong Kong which offer free legal assistance to the public (Click here). The Directory meets an identified and urgent need in our community for a single, easily accessible, bi-lingual point of reference for people who are looking for free legal assistance.

Unite With The Domestic Workers Roundtable

The Domestic Workers Roundtable is a collaborative platform created by the Centre to facilitate strategic consultation and cooperation between the stakeholders in our community, including non-profits, government and employer representatives to identify, address and implement solutions to systemic issues relating to the welfare of Domestic Workers in Hong Kong (Click here). Specific areas of priority are addressing financial abuse by agencies, the lack of access to justice experienced by Domestic Workers, the need for data transparency and aggregation, the establishment of an Inter-Government Working Group, and a uniform induction and orientation process for new Domestic Worker arrivals.

Our Access to Justice Fund Progress

% of target

HK$ amount raised ('000)

# of donors

# days

Our Mission

Promoting and Defending Consumer Rights

We are determined to assist the vulnerable, marginalised and disadvantaged in our community in understanding and asserting their rights as consumers to ensure transparency, equal treatment and non-discrimination in the supply of essential goods and services. You can help us with our work to overcome the inherent unequal bargaining power between suppliers and customers by helping them access available remedies and rights of redress.

Assisting The Vulnerable

We work with individuals, institutions and community non-profit organisations to ensure the effective delivery of direct services to those in our community that are identified as at risk, vulnerable and marginalised. We aim to assist by identifying, researching and eliminating systemic barriers and problems faced by these groups and preventing them from fully exercising their legal rights. Get involved now and help us change things for the better.

Advancing Law in the Public Interest

For a better Hong Kong, we promote fairness in the law and an equality in access by championing the practice of law in the public interest and advancing pro bono work by the legal profession.

Broadening Access to Justice

To alleviate poverty and relieve suffering, we work to improve access to justice by providing education and assistance to the marginalised and disadvantaged, who otherwise could not afford to pay for private legal assistance, to help them exercise their legal rights and to seek redress.

Developing the Law For All

We research, advance and advocate on matters of public interest law including how to improve access to justice in our community and how to make the law more accessible to all.

Strengthening the Rule of Law

We undertake outreach and collaboration projects in our community to inform, encourage and facilitate a greater public understanding of legal rights and responsibilities in order to strengthen the rule of law.

^Established in 2014 as a charitable society, PILAS is tax-exempt under Section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap 112). Pro Bono HK is the successor entity, with the same charitable purpose but incorporated as a limited liability company and its section 88 status is currently pending Inland Revenue Department approval. Please contact us directly if you would like us to issue you a tax-deductible receipt for your donation.