This session aims to demonstrate how storytelling, through art and media, can inspire, sustain, and expand pro bono culture by humanising justice issues, amplifying marginalised voices, and motivating meaningful engagement across the legal ecosystem. Drawing on iProbono’s regional storytelling initiatives, and on presenters’ own experiences of being renamed and reclaimed by the communities they serve, the session explores practical, playful ways legal service providers can integrate storytelling into pro bono advocacy, awareness-building, and community engagement.

Pro bono work thrives when it is rooted in empathy, shared humanity, collective purpose, and joy. So much of legal storytelling focuses on adversity and traditional legal discourse, and often struggles to communicate the lived realities of injustice in ways that inspire participation and long-term commitment.

This session explores storytelling as a strategic tool for celebrating and inspiring pro bono culture. Through iProbono’s strategic Storytelling work, and lived experiences from the presenters’ own lives, participants will learn how community voices, through art, theatre, music, poetry, podcasts, online personas, and visual imagery can complement legal advocacy, make justice systems more approachable, and mobilise broader pro bono engagement.

Drawing on real examples from South Asia and Mongolia, including collaborations with community storytellers and human rights defenders, the session will highlight how storytelling: builds empathy and public trust in pro bono work, empowers beneficiaries, and providers, to own their narratives, counters misinformation and prejudice, and strengthens the visibility and sustainability of pro bono movements.

The session is designed to be genuinely interactive: audience members will be invited to share their own stories, not just hear ours.

Uranzaya Batdorj

CEO and Founder of Nomad Lawyer LLC