The General Office of the Ministry of Justice ("MOJ") has recently issued the Circular on Launching a Special Program on Contributions of Lawyers to the Fight Against Poverty (the "Circular").
The Circular requires that all levels of administrative judicial organs and all lawyers associations shall accelerate the availability of legal advisory services offered by lawyers in all impoverished areas and enable lawyers to help resolve contradictions and disputes of different types arising out of the targeted poverty alleviation; they are also required to arrange for lawyers to form service groups for the local region to contribute to the battle against poverty, and such service groups will perform "legal reviews" of development projects launched in poverty-stricken areas for poverty alleviation purposes, offer legal services for improving the business climate in poverty-stricken areas and serve as a go-between to attract investment. Moreover, the Circular notes that activities shall be carried out to have lawyers each paired with registered poor households to provide aid to them and practically play their role as "family legal counsels", requiring that they shall provide face-to-face legal aid to these households at least once every quarter. Furthermore, the Circular emphasizes that effective measures shall be taken to motivate and support law firms and lawyers to actively fulfill their social responsibilities and carry out special activities to offer pro bono legal services; and lawyers shall set up pro bono voluntary service groups to offer pro bono voluntary services for people living in straitened circumstances.