National Pro Bono week
NPBW supports justice for all
Valerie Robertson and Nick Hanning recap a few of the many events that marked the 14th National Pro Bono Week (NPBW), the annual countrywide campaign celebrating the range and impact of voluntary free legal services provided by the legal profession.
The 14th NPBW, which ran from 2 to 6 November 2015, used different events to highlight lawyers’ pro bono contribution and raise awareness of pro bono opportunities among the legal profession. NPBW is sponsored by CILEx, the Law Society and the Bar Council.
On a bright Monday morning, over 60 members of the legal and voluntary profession attended the launch and panel discussion. Chaired by the Attorney General’s pro bono envoy, Michael Napier CBE, QC (Hon), this breakfast launch provided the opportunity to discuss issues about regulatory barriers to pro bono with the regulators themselves. The panel consisted of:
- Sir Michael Pitt, chairperson of the Legal Services Board (LSB);
- Andrew Donovan, a CILEx Regulation board member;
- Paul Philip, chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority; and
- Dr Vanessa Davies, director-general of the Bar Standards Board.
Sir Michael opened the panel by stating that, in his experience, no other profession did quite as much as the legal profession in giving their time and resources. The Attorney General Jeremy Wright QC also spoke, and addressed the misconception about pro bono - that it is only an adjunct to and not a replacement for legal aid funding.
Mandie Lavin, CEO of CILEx, was in the audience. She felt that the profession should be doing more to promote pro bono and its ‘unsung heroes’ . ‘We’ve kept a lot of it quiet and I think we’ve got an awful lot more we should be doing to market it’ , she said.
Nick Hanning spoke about how Chartered Legal Executives did not have automatic rights to participate in reserved legal activities. Some pro bono work could be seen as being an ancillary to reserved legal activities such as conducting litigation, and this was a barrier for Chartered Legal Executives providing pro bono advice.
The general consensus from the panel was that regulation was not ‘killing’ pro bono; however, Andrew Donovan conceded that more could be done to support it.
This evening reception was designed to provide a series of inspirational talks from members of the profession who participated in pro bono. CILEx president David Edwards opened the session by remarking: ‘I think it is fair to say that we are well and truly ‘down the rabbit hole’ . We now have pro bono filling in where publicly funded support has retrenched. In the face of the onslaught of unmet need, thousands of lawyers are not standing by, but are pitching in where they can to support the most vulnerable – doing so out of kindness, not out of compulsion – and so often without the infrastructure they once had to make it work. I hope that this week’s fantastic series of events will show just how dedicated Chartered Legal Executives, barristers and solicitors are who work pro bono.’
There were about 60 attendees, and speakers included the following:
- Alexander McLean is founder of the African Prisons Project (APP), a barrister and a Technology, Entertainment and Design Fellow. APP is a Uganda-based organisation working to improve the lives of men, women, and children living in African prisons through healthcare, education, access to justice and community reintegration. APP has worked with more than 20,000 prisoners in Uganda, Kenya and Sierra Leone, and has been invited to begin work in a variety of other countries.
- Dr Alison Prendiville MSrec, MA (RCA), a senior researcher in the School of Graphic Design at London College of Communications, University of the Arts London, focused on how design practices can support the development of community-based services to address complex social challenges.
- Rebecca Stevens is a family solicitor with Withy King. In 2014, she provided over 100 hours’ free legal support to a father with learning disabilities who was battling to try and prevent Swindon Borough Council from having his young son adopted. She was praised by the President of the Family Law Division for her pro bono work.
- Paul Yates runs Freshfields’ London pro bono practice. Paul appears as an advocate at the asylum support tribunal, and is vice-chairperson of the Asylum Support Appeals Project. He also acts for victims of human traÿcking , and is closely involved in developing the firm’s third-party intervention practice.
- Student pro bono champion, Samantha Leung, who was winner of the student pro bono competition.
There were no dry eyes in the audience after Rebecca Stevens’ talk! She spoke about her own personal struggles, and those of her client who she helped (and is still helping) pro bono. Samantha Leung was an inspirational student speaker, who spoke with passion about why all law students should get involved with pro bono work.
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The focus was on solicitors and their involvement in pro bono; however, it also highlighted a debate in the pro bono profession regarding how pro bono can be measured. Some believe that the measurement should be through how many hours are spent doing pro bono and the amount of money to which this equates, while others believed that the measurement should be in impact.
The issue with measuring impact is that it is not always about winning cases. In many pro bono instances, clients who lost their case were still happy that they had their case heard and considered properly. In other cases, the lawsuit led to a change in procedures or highlighted an issue which, again, could have a significantly positive impact, despite the client having lost their case in court.
There is also of course an issue with the definition of pro bono. Everyone within the legal profession seems to have a differing opinion on what pro bono means to them which will affect the measurement.
Evidencing the importance of pro bono across the whole country and the power of partnership, this event celebrated the Law Centre’s appointment of a Justice First Fellowship training contract. This scheme, which is led by the Legal Education Foundation (LEF), funds training contracts in social welfare law.
The Law Centre will take on a trainee solicitor, with the cost being met by the LEF and four Bristol firms: Burges Salmon, DAC Beachcroft, Osborne Clark and TLT. Guy Beringer, chairperson of LEF, and Clare Carter, director of the Law Centre, both spoke with authority and passion about the impact of the austerity measures and the importance of working together to maximise the effectiveness of limited resources.
The Law Society hosted an intimate reception to mark Michael Napier’s stepping down after 14 years as the Attorney General’s pro bono envoy. Many of those who had worked with him over the years gathered to hear well-deserved tributes from Robert Bourns, vice-president of the Law Society, Robert Buckland, the solicitor general, and Dominic Grieves, the previous Attorney General.
The importance of Michael’s work over those 14 years cannot be overstated. He remarked that there had been a good deal of discussion about the title of ‘envoy’ ; nevertheless, it was well chosen. Not only did he lead the way in bringing all parts of the pro bono sector together to work more effectively, but he has also worked tirelessly to deliver the message about the importance of pro bono to the legal profession and to access to justice. Michael has long been a good friend to CILEx, and would be greatly missed were it not for the fact that we will be sure to keep closely in touch with him.
Nick Hanning writes:
As ever, given the wide range of activity during NPBW, it can be hard to discern a single theme and, as it is impossible to attend every event, everyone will have his or her personal perspective. For me, the striking feeling was one of unity. Besides the focus on working together, the mood was one of shared commitment across the profession and the advice sector. Irrespective of professional, geographical or personal background, there is a common purpose to the cause of delivering access to justice to the vulnerable and those who cannot afford legal services. Unified commitment to the cause, which lies at the heart of being a lawyer, is to be applauded long and loud.