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Dear friends,

As the year winds down, we want to thank everyone who has worked alongside us in 2025. It was a milestone year, marking TrustLaw’s fifteenth anniversary. At its core, TrustLaw remains driven by a simple idea: that pro bono has a unique power to protect, support and empower organisations working to drive social change. This year, that mission has never felt more necessary.

It was a year of political upheaval, foreign aid cuts, humanitarian crises, and AI transforming our lives and work. It was difficult terrain for all of us to navigate - for civil society and the legal community alike. From the proliferation of ‘foreign agent’ laws [[link removed]] that we spotlighted at Trust Conference to the rising needs of civil society [[link removed]] highlighted in our recent report for Human Rights Day, we have been hard at work to support organisations on the frontlines.

Addressing the Trust Conference audience on the weaponisation of the law against civil society.

To do this, we have drawn from a long track record, strong partners, and a global network that now stands at more than 8,000 members. Over fifteen years, TrustLaw has connected nearly 12,000 pro bono projects and enabled more than $332 million in pro bono support to the sector: numbers that represent real people, organisations, and impact - from helping outlaw child marriage [[link removed]] in Colombia, to safeguarding community journalism [[link removed]] in Kenya, to supporting survivors to escape domestic violence [[link removed]] in the UK, and countless others.

In 2025, we doubled down on our work with the legal community to support the practice of pro bono. We released our sixth TrustLaw Index of Pro Bono [[link removed]] in February - an essential resource for benchmarking the practice globally. Across all regions, our team was a driving force behind pro bono efforts. We co-hosted the second India Pro Bono Week as a founding member, supported the development of landmark pro bono guidelines in East Africa, and brought together law firms and tech experts during the UN General Assembly to explore the potential for AI to expand access to justice [[link removed]]. All these efforts were carried out alongside incredible partners, showing the power of community.

This year saw welcome expansion in new directions, too: we deepened our work to support essential journalism through the Legal Service for Independent Media [[link removed]], and we were honoured to be recognised with a prestigious award from the Inter American Press Association [[link removed]]. In the New Year, we will launch an initiative to strengthen NGO resilience, the next Index survey period will open, and we will co-launch a collaborative global pro bono resource that has been more than a year in the making (watch this space!). On a personal note, I've had the privilege of serving as Acting Director, leading our wonderful team until Carolina's return from maternity leave in early 2026.

The TrustLaw team came together in London for a week of workshops.

It's been an unexpected year, and like many of you, we’ve found ourselves reflecting often on what kind of future we want to create and safeguard, and what role we can best play. In the community we have built together, and despite the challenges, we see hope and possibility in the year ahead.

None of this would be possible without our Giving Programme [[link removed]] members, whose partnership helps sustain our work and to whom we offer profound thanks. It is an honour each time a new firm joins us, and we welcome more to become part of this essential effort in the year ahead.

We wish you and your families a peaceful holiday season and a bright New Year.

Warmly,

Kathryn Beck

Acting Director and Head of Legal, TrustLaw

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