APBC&A2JX FAQ

In conclusion: Pro bono uses professional legal skills, volunteer work offers general support, and legal aid provides government-supported legal services.

• Develops skills of junior lawyers: Pro bono work helps junior lawyers build confidence, practical legal skills, and professional judgment through hands-on experience.
• Improves access to justice: Pro bono enables individuals and communities who cannot afford legal services to access legal representation, promoting fairness and equality within the legal system.
• Enhances a firm’s reputation and values: A strong pro bono culture reflects social responsibility and ethical commitment, strengthening a firm’s public image and attracting like-minded clients and talent.
• Creates opportunities for collaboration: Pro bono work encourages collaboration across practice areas and organisations, strengthening professional relationships and networks.
• Provides personal fulfilment: Pro bono reminds lawyers of the purpose behind their profession and offers the satisfaction of making a meaningful impact.
• Broadens legal experience: Pro bono allows lawyers to work in areas outside their usual practice, expanding legal knowledge and exposure to diverse types of matters.

Legal pro bono is important because the justice gap and unequal access to justice still exist in many countries. Many people cannot afford legal services, even when their rights are at risk. Pro bono legal work helps bridge this gap by allowing qualified legal professionals to provide free legal assistance to those in need. While the term pro bono can apply to free services in other professions, it is most commonly associated with legal services because access to justice means access to legal help.

APBC & A2JX are open to both legal professionals and non-legal stakeholders who are interested in pro bono and access to justice initiatives. Participants may include:

• • Lawyers and legal practitioners
  • Law professors
  • Law students
  • The judiciary
  • Government officials
  • CSO members
  • Others from the region, regionally and internationally involved in pro bono and access to justice initiatives

The dress code for the conference is smart casual.

Please note: session room temperatures may vary; we recommend you wear layered clothing to ensure your personal comfort.

Selected sessions from the 14th Asia Pro Bono Conference and Access to Justice Exchange will be live streamed to a virtual audience.

On-site registration will not be available. All participants attending in person are required to register before the registration deadline. Virtual registration will remain open during the event.

We, the Asia Pro Bono Conference and Access to Justice Exchange, seek to keep registration costs as low as possible for as many people as possible. We appreciate everyone’s professional contributions. The registration fee structure published on the conference website applies to all participants, including presenters, as this helps ensure the event’s costs are covered, as well as its continued sustainability.

 The accommodation and transportation are not included in the registration fee.

Please visit our website https://www.probonoconference.org/ regularly for further updates on the conference program, presenters, and so on.

We’ve found that if you Google, for example, “UK to Japan Standard Time (JST)” (replace UK with your country or region) it will convert the current time for you. Another way is to include the time, for example, “10am JST time to New York” also works well.

This may be because:

• the confirmation email has gone to your SPAM folder.
• some orders require manual confirmation from our team, please allow some time.
• the registration process wasn’t completed. After filling out the form in the first step, please then click the “Add to cart” button and then “Proceed to checkout” on the Cart page.

If you have completed all compulsory fields of the registration form (including mandatory document uploads), and successfully paid the application fee (If has), the APBC&A2JX system will send a confirmation email.

• Please check spam, and if you couldn’t find it please contact [email protected]

If you have any technical issues or concerns using the online registration form, please contact the APBC&A2JX secretariat at [email protected]

All the sessions at the Asia Pro Bono Conference will be in English.

In order to pay the registrations fee successfully, please try/make sure to

• use a supported browser;
• check the balance on your account;
• check your limit for online payments (maybe the purchase limit was lower than the sum of all purchases on that particular date);
• finish the transaction within 5 minutes.

If you still have problems, please consult your bank for assistance.

If you register for in-person participation with an add-on option for a refund, you will be eligible to claim a refund. A request must be submitted in writing by the set deadline.