Access to the high-quality legal skills available at a law firm can make a huge difference to pro bono clients, both decreasing their exposure to risk and helping them obtain successful results in their legal matters. In addition to the day-to-day organisational support the firm provides to its charity clients, Baker McKenzie has grown its programme assisting individuals unable to access legal services.
The firm also operates a Know Your Rights series of workshops at Thameside Prison, in partnership with the charity Catch 22, and through an online queries platform run by Working Families, assists individuals who have had their employment rights infringed. Pro bono provides lawyers with the opportunity to develop their legal skills, sometimes in a new area of law, as well as essential soft skills, such as client interviewing.
Group involvement on a project can improve teamwork and collaboration skills, while lawyers can also develop leadership skills by getting involved with the organisation and co-ordination of larger projects.
Pro bono is also an important recruitment and retention tool, both at trainee level and with lateral hires. Pro bono can give lawyers a sense of pride towards their employer, while access to high profile and challenging pro bono work can be the difference when choosing between one firm and another.
Although pro bono does not generate tangible financial return for a firm in the way that commercial work does, its benefits are many and far-reaching, ranging from benefitting those in society who need it most, through to attracting and retaining top talent in a fiercely competitive field.
Connie Faith, a current trainee in the real estate team at Baker McKenzie, recalls her pro bono experience first-hand. And their clients? Pro bono work gives attorneys the opportunity to make their clients feel empowered and hopeful in situations that they thought were dire and hopeless.
How can an attorney find pro bono work? It is usually as simple as a phone call to your bar association or local legal services agency. They know they are working with busy attorneys and have streamlined the process as much as possible to make it efficient and provide you with the necessary tools to help you get started. If a commitment to pro bono is not possible for your law firm in the near future, consider making donations to legal aid foundations this year in lieu of sending traditional holiday gifts to your clients.
It shows your clients that you appreciate them while also helping the underserved access legal counsel. You also can leave a note below to share your most-fulfilling pro bono experience.
November 12, - Stephanie Kantor Holtzman. Twitter LinkedIn Facebook. Provides an Opportunity for Collaboration Along with opportunities to practice in areas outside their day-to-day work, pro bono cases also give attorneys the chance to work with other lawyers in their firms whom they may not otherwise know.
Builds Skills of Younger Lawyers While we are talking about younger talent, pro bono helps young lawyers gain experience and build their skill sets. Provides a Sense of Self-Fulfillment This may be the most-important aspect of pro bono. They may have a need for student volunteers to be trained to staff the advice line and we may be able to partner with them to staff this in the future. The commitment may be one afternoon per week engaged in staffing phones and drafting emails in response to queries on child law.
This Citizens Advice Bureau provides a number of services. They advise litigants in person at the Royal Courts of Justice but also provide legal advice to local residents. They need students to volunteer as reception and legal support staff at the RCJ clinic.
We have had groups of students to do this over the summer and then on a rota basis during the term time. They also need help with their social policy research and support for the Deputy Director. This could be particularly suitable for undergraduates. This is a charity based in Pump Court Chambers under barrister Mark MacDonald that takes up the cases of possibly wrongfully convicted serving prisoners.
Working in teams under the supervision of a member of the law school staff, students gather evidence and review papers with a view to getting cases reconsidered. The project has produced a number of successful appeals.
This is ongoing from previous years and depends upon good team-work, the availability of cases and staff supervision. A number of staff have ongoing involvement in supervising students in this project. It is aimed principally at more experienced students doing their professional training but there is some scope for academic stage students to get involved.
This small charity campaigns against deaths in the workplace and seeks to change the law to protect workers through such issues as corportate manslaughter legislation and inquest reform. In , five students formed a group to research 40 deaths of migrant workers and their subsequent inquests. This research was used in a published report that aimed to highlight the particular problems facing migrants.
We have also been asked to do further research with this group. The projects generally involve research on issues of law and procedure. The leading gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual charity campaigns on legal rights and legislative reform. They have however begun an advice and support service for members of the public. Past City students Ben Stimmler and Charlotte Threipland with the help of Dr Dan Wilsher, Senior Lecturer in Law , produced a guide giving information on the rights of gay asylum seekers and immigrants in relation to refugee status..
Check it out here. This is the leading UK legal environmental action group. They help local groups and individuals seeking to challenge environmentally damaging behaviour and projects. We have a close relationship with them and have had student volunteers already help with their work. They need students to audit their case-files to establish outcomes and produce data. We now have a student group updating a report on environmental justice.
There are a number of EU-level complaints they would like help with on legal research. This charity represents immigration detainees and also campaigns around detention issues.
They need research into a number of issues arising from the case-work on detention. They would like to use students to compile data and research on the length and reasons for detention. In a group of City Law School students conducted research into the fairness of expedited asylum appeals in relation to detainees held at Harmondsworth detention centre.
They attended hearings and collected data on the conduct of appeals. This data went towards the preparation of test cases seeking to challenge some of the procedures adopted in such cases. Dan Wilsher is on the executive committee of this leading charity and campaign group that seeks to improve the legal position of immigrants and refugees.
They require help with legal research and policy work. We have had individual students provide research for them. We may be able to establish a student group that may undertake such work. This is the UK branch of the leading international anti-bribery and corruption charity. The group attempts to change law and practice so as to combat corruption both in the Western and developing worlds.
Students may be able to do research in anti-corruption law and practice if a suitable project is available. An international human rights project that attempts to bring legal challenges in human rights courts such as the African Human Rights Commission.
Their main focus is the rights of indigenous peoples and land rights. In four City students provided background legal research on land-rights issues in international and african law for a report. The charity will consider interships mainly for long-term projects from students who have experience of human rights work. The leading UK human rights campaign group.
Usually they only take interns but in one City student conducted some one-off research on forced labour and Article 4 ECHR for a piece of litigation. We are working with Liberty in some of the Streetlaw projects where students devise presentations for schools on legal topics.
We may be able to ask about further such opportunities if a suitable student is interested and Liberty has appropriate work. This is a leading organisation campaigning and bringing legal cases against the death penalty. They have recently had a group of City students help them with research on the use of the death penalty around the world and this could be taken further by others wishing to form groups.
The work would be mainly web-based research with a view to providing briefings and bulletins. It would be useful for those interested in human rights law. This is an international human rights charity that takes cases before international courts like the European Court of Human Rights. They work mainly with qualified lawyers. They have a particular focus upon Central Asian and Eastern Europe.
They may consider volunteers who have experience in international human rights already. They will not accept volunteers without revelant experience.
0コメント