Pro Bono Activities of Lawyers in Japan, the US and the UK-its Principle and Practice

本研究通过与美国和英国律师的比较，探讨了日本律师应如何开展公益活动。通过采访可以看出，即使在今天，从富人那里赚取费用并将其转移给穷人的传统公益模式仍然是日本公益活动的主要方式。另一方面，据发现，在美国的大型律师事务所，有一个称为公益干事的律师，他或她为所有组成的律师开展公益活动。作为一个初步的结论，日本律师也内在地包含着与美国和英国律师类似的“公共利益”，因此无偿服务活动与他们的基本职责相关联。然而，在日本，无偿服务的制度安排并不足以适应当前律师执业的趋势。我们需要发展多元化的公益活动，这些活动不一定以大律师公会为基础，而是由私人律师和消费者支持。

This research project explored how pro bono activities of lawyers in Japan should be by comparing with the US and the UK lawyers. Through interviews, it became clear that, even today, the traditional model of pro bono-earning fees from the rich and transferring it to the poor-was still the major way of pro bono activities in Japan. On the other hand, it was found that in the US large law firms there was an advocate called pro bono officer and he or she conducts pro bono activities for all constituted lawyers. As a tentative conclusion, Japanese lawyers also intrinsically contain "public interest" similar to lawyers in the US and the UK, and thus pro bono activities are connected to their fundamental part of duties. However, in Japan, the systematic scheme to practice pro bono is not sufficiently prepared for current trend of lawyer practice. We need to develop diversified styles of pro bono activities which are not necessarily based on bar associations but supported by private lawyers and consumers.