PBO's executive director says opportunities abound for lawyers to make a difference in access to justice
Pro Bono Ontario is pushing the boundaries of legal aid, expanding its reach as demand for free legal help in the province hits new highs, says executive director Kirsti McHenry. The organization’s model is built on relentless service delivery, strategic partnerships, and a call for more lawyers to step up.
Access to justice has defined McHenry’s career, from her early days at a national firm to nearly a decade at Legal Aid Ontario and a stint at the Law Foundation. She’s seen the impact of legal barriers up close. “The legal issues are not always complicated, but the problems are always hard-hitting,” she says. Clients face eviction, job loss, and legal problems that disrupt their lives.
Self-represented litigants often feel abandoned by the system. McHenry recalls a client who felt “that no one cared and that she had been left behind, that society …wasn’t interested in her problems or in helping her.” For her, this is where Pro Bono Ontario makes a difference.
Taking over from founding executive director Lynn Burns, McHenry is only the second person to lead the organization. She credits Burns with building Pro Bono Ontario into a “powerhouse of an organization that’s providing 30,000 services a year.” McHenry’s focus is on scaling up what works, not reinventing the wheel.
Technology is a cornerstone of this strategy. The free legal advice hotline now uses “pretty cutting-edge technology to bring clients into the system,” McHenry says. Recent upgrades have enabled better triage and data analysis, making it easier to spot trends and respond quickly.
“We don’t advertise the free legal advice hotline very widely because the demand is simply so high,” McHenry says. Global events drive spikes in legal needs, from COVID-19 to interest rate hikes and economic shocks.
Partnerships are essential. Pro Bono Ontario collaborates with organizations like CLEO and OpenJustice at Queen’s University, leveraging new tools and AI to improve access to justice. “Many of them, like us, receive substantial funding from the Law Foundation of Ontario,” McHenry says.
For law firms and legal departments doing pro bono work, McHenry says structure is key. “The things that work are having a policy, having a bit of [a] formal structure, setting out what the goals are, what kinds of work would qualify under the pro bono policy,” she says. Recognizing pro bono work as billable has made it easier for associates to participate.
For individual lawyers, the entry point is simple. “The free legal advice hotline is the perfect entry point because it is time limited. You get to sign up for a shift of four or eight hours. You start your shift at a known time. You end it at a known time. There’s no homework. You don’t take clients home with you,” McHenry says. She urges lawyers to start small and coordinate with firm leadership.
Sponsor days, where law firms and in-house teams work side by side, have become a highlight. “What we do is basically set up the hotline in a boardroom, and everybody comes to the laptop and a headset, and you’re on calls together,” McHenry says. The energy and team-building benefits are real.
Despite the scale of the problem, McHenry keeps the focus on service delivery. “We really have our heads down doing service delivery. We really are looking for ways to improve the service, looking for ways to find partners to collaborate with, to smooth out the bumps, to make it easier for clients to connect to the services that exist,” she says.
The opportunity for lawyers to make a difference is significant, and McHenry says the programs are scalable and could absorb more volunteers without trouble. “We have a substantial number of lawyers [who] volunteer with us every year, but it’s a small group as compared to the number of licensed professionals in the province,” she says.
Most legal questions aren’t complex. “People want to know how to start a statement of claim, how to respond when they’ve been served with a claim, [and] what form to fill out. … When their landlord’s trying to evict them, a lot of it is not legally complicated,” McHenry says. The real value is in the trust and relief that comes from speaking to a lawyer.
Getting involved is straightforward. “All the information about how to get started is on our website, and I am also always thrilled to hear from lawyers who want to join us. So you can call and email me. There’s a forum on the website that you can fill out to get started,” McHenry says. For those too busy to volunteer, financial support is just as valuable. “If you don’t have the time but you would like to support us financially, that makes a huge difference in terms of our ability to run these programs and create opportunities for lawyers to volunteer,” she says.
This conversation is based on an episode of CL Talk, which can also be found here:
The episode can also be found on our CL Talk podcast homepage, which includes links to follow CL Talk on all the major podcast providers.
