GUIDE TO BUILDING AN EVALUATION TOOL
GUIDANCE NOTEThis is a guide to creating an evaluation tool such as a survey, interview or feedback questionnaire.
Precedents in the Australian Pro Bono Manual are provided with the generous assistance of leading Australian law firms, and have been developed to reflect best practice in pro bono.
There are two or more examples of each type of precedent to accommodate the various ways in which firms coordinate their pro bono programs. Use the precedent that best reflects the firm’s size, structure, systems, organisational culture and policies. Precedents should also be adapted as necessary to comply with the firm’s house style and terminology.
The Centre welcomes feedback on the usefulness and ease of use of these precedents, especially from firms in the early stages of developing a formal pro bono program.
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Outcome (What is being evaluated?) / Standards(What does achieving this outcome looklike?) / Questions
(What questions could be asked to evaluate whether the outcome has been achieved?) / Answer types
(What format should the data take?) / Evaluation tools
(What format should the questions take?) / Participants
(Who should answer the questions?)
Staff satisfaction and engagement / Staff feel satisfied
Staff feel confident
Staff feel low levels of stress
Staff feel good about their work
Staff feel engaged in their work
Staff feel pride in the firm
Staff are willing to take on more pro bono matters / Did you enjoy doingpro bono legal work?
Would you like to be provided with more opportunities to do pro bono legal work?
To what extent did working on the pro bono matter develop your skills? Which skills were enhanced?
How confident do you feel about dealing with pro bono clients?
Do you feel like your pro bono legal work made a positive difference to the client?
What percentage of your time would you like to be spending on pro bono legal work?
How does doing pro bono legal work affect how you feel about the firm?
How important is it for you that the firm you work for provides pro bono opportunities?
Would you recommend to others at the firm that they do pro bono legal work? / Scaleeg 1-5 (rating)
Rankeg choose 1-5
Yes/No, Open (descriptive answer)
Multiple choice
or a combination of any of these / Questions included with matter closing procedure
Questionnaire at end of secondment
Questions included in annual staff survey
Questionnaire as part of staff exit interview
Questionnaire as part of staff performance appraisal system / the lawyer doing the pro bono legal work
The partner supervising the pro bono legal work
The supervisor from the partner community organisationeg CLCs
Provide high quality legal advice and assistance to individual pro bono client / Client’s legal and related non-legal needs are identified and understood
The legal information/advice provided to the client addresses the legal issues identified
Targeted referrals are made to address the non-legal needs identified
Client understands their options
Client understands what the next step is
Client feels less stressed
The negative impact of the client’s problem has been reduced / Did the legal information/advice provided to the client address their legal needs?
If the client hadn’t received advice from this service, what would they have done?
If the client hadn’t received advice from this service, what would have happened to them?
Did the client leave the service having a better idea of what to do next?
How did the client’s level of stress about their matter after they received advice compared to how they felt beforethey received legal advice?
How could the provision of advice to clients be improved in the future? / Type of questions include those based on:
Scaleeg 1-5 (rating)
Rankeg choose 1-5
Yes/No
Open (descriptive answer)
Multiple choice
or a combination of any of these / Client questionnaire at end of advice/matter
Questions included with matter closing procedure for lawyer at the firm and referral/partner organisation
Feedback from referral/partner organisation / The client
The referral/partner organisation
The lawyer doing the pro bono work
Support a partner community legal organisation to increase their capacity / The partner organisation is able to undertake legal work and/or provide legal services that it previously couldn’t. The partner organisation is happy with the quality of the work/assistance provided by the firm
The firm and the community legal organisation feel positive about the collaborative relationship
There is strong communication between the firm and the community legal organisation, including the ability to resolve difficulties/challenges / Was the community legal organisation’s capacity to provide legal assistance to its clients increased? In what ways?
Were lawyers from the firm able to quickly adaptto working well within the culture of the partner organisation?
Was the community legal organisation able to easily make contact with the firm and resolve issues that arose? (and vice versa)
Was the community legal organisation satisfied with the assistance provided by the firm?
What could be done differently or improved?
Would your organisation/firm work together again?
What was the impact of the collaboration on the community legal organisation’s clients? / Type of questions include those based on
Scaleeg 1-5 (rating)
Rankeg choose 1-5
Yes/No
Open (descriptive answer)
Multiple choice
or a combination of any of these / Questionnaire at end of a project
Periodic questionnaire during the course of an ongoing pro bono partnership / The lawyers doing the pro bono work at the community legal organisation (particularly the lawyer coordinating the work)
The partner community legal organisation (particularly the person coordinating the relationship with the firm)
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