Law firms granting pro bono legal advice are expecting an increase in pro bono requests for the years to come, say Jornal de Notícias and Diário de Notícias da Madeira newspapers (edition May 2, 2011). VdA's partner reponsible for the firm's Pro Bono programme, Margarida Couto, stated that "we knew these would be demanding times and we set a target of 5000 hours of Pro Bno work for the firm. However, in the first term of 2011 we have already dedicated 1500 hours to pro bono work, which means we probably will go beyond that number."