NPBW: 'celebrating pro bono work'
Nick Hanning recaps some of the events during National Pro Bono Week (NPBW) to support, promote and commend pro bono legal work.
About the author
Nick Hanning is chairperson of the CILEx Pro Bono Trust.
T he week from 7 to 11 November saw the 15th National Pro Bono Week take place. NPBW is a nationwide campaign of events to celebrate the free legal services provided by the legal profession to those who would otherwise be unable to get the legal advice they need.
The aim of NPBW is to celebrate the breadth and impact of pro bono work undertaken by the legal profession across the year, and each year aims to focus on a specific theme. This year the emphasis was volunteers: recruiting more volunteers; helping those already volunteering; and celebrating the amazing work they do.
As an early kick-o ff (and now an after-the event reminder) the Law Society, Bar Council and CILEx created a short video introducing NPBW. Featuring the leaders of the three professions, including our own vice-president, Millicent Grant, the video explains the importance of pro bono work: not just to those who need help, but the value it brings to those who deliver it. If you have not already seen it, then please check it out!1
Monday evening saw possibly the most inspirational event of NPBW through the delivery of a series of short talks by students, lawyers and others about their own pro bono journeys. Space does not permit full justice to be given to them all, but as each talk was unique and personal to the speaker, they provided a refreshing change from many of the more formal speeches which take place.
As ever, the range was broad. For the lawyers, CILEx Council member and past CILEx Pro Bono Award winner, Patricia White, explained the importance she attaches to making time in her own practice to provide pro bono help. For the students, examples of practical work in which they have engaged that added ‘real life’ to their studies and discernibly brought home to them how small pieces of work impact on people’s lives. For those looking for volunteering opportunities, the news that a ground-breaking service from the USA will soon be starting here. Kids in need of defense (KIND) provides legal advice to children caught up in the immigration system; fighting for them to have the life opportunities we take for granted. And perhaps most intriguingly of all, for law firms: a passionate argument that doing pro bono provides ‘psychological sustenance’ to lawyers, and so - listen up Practice Managers(!) - improves their performance.
NPBW also saw the launch of CILEx Pro Bono Trust’s own Pro Bono Survey. As mentioned in an earlier Journal article, we want to find out how many of our members are doing pro bono and what pro bono they are doing (( 2016) October CILExJ page 47). If they are not doing pro bono, we would like to know why they are not and how we can best help them.
- To complete the survey (which should take no more than a few minutes) and have a chance of winning up to £100 of Amazon vouchers, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/cilexpbt2016
NPBW also saw the launch of a new service developed by the Bar Pro Bono Unit to link law firms with volunteer barristers. Working in a similar way to the scheme devised a few years ago between the then ILEX Pro Bono Forum and the Bar Pro Bono Unit, Pro Bono Connect aims to provide full casework support for those needing it in civil cases, and enables cross referrals between law firms and barristers. For firms keen to provide pro bono, but uncertain about developing their own scheme, this is an ideal way to offer as much or as little pro bono help they would like, with the minimum of fuss.
As noted earlier, a key theme for this year’s NPBW was volunteers and especially a concerted effort to encourage more people to join the fight to preserve access to justice by helping those in need. As part of that goal, NPBW was an opportunity to highlight a new service on the National Pro Bono Centre website, which is dedicated to helping those interested find a suitable opportunity.2
The site hosts a centralised record of current volunteering opportunities from all over the country. On the site, you can filter by location, by whether a volunteering position is legal or nonlegal, and also by the type of role. With so many different types of role listed, there really is something for everyone.
The opening event of NPBW combined high-level debate and real help in one fascinating session. The Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC, took time away from the topical distraction of a certain High Court decision to open NPBW formally, while President of the Law Society, Robert Bourns, oÿcially launched the excellent Pro Bono Manual and the accompanying Charter.3
The Charter provides a straightforward but comprehensive way for law firms to make a public commitment to pro bono work. This encompasses not just engaging in pro bono work as a firm, but more importantly for the bulk of our members committing to supporting staff in their own efforts to do pro bono work. Firms that sign up promise to develop a formal pro bono policy and to appoint a person or committee to be responsible for its pro bono work.
The Pro Bono Manual is a really excellent piece of work. Developed with help from across the pro bono and advice sector as well as the profession, it contains a mixture of commentary, advice, precedents and background information. Taken together, the manual provides an essential and practical source of help and advice for organisations seeking to develop or expand their pro bono practices.
Following the introductions, there was a very engaging series of questions and answers about pro bono and its future. The panel, comprising important bodies such as the Legal Education Foundation and LawWorks as well as leading law firms in the pro bono field, was constructive in advocating areas for enhancing pro bono provision, for example, through the use of technology while also highlighting the increased need for the help.
Not everyone has the time or capacity to do pro bono work, but a good example of how everyone can support pro bono (and have fun at the same time) is the Great Legal Quiz. Organised by the London Legal Support Trust, the Great Legal Quiz is a pub quiz run simultaneously across the country. Law firms, advice agencies and others are encouraged to organise events to raise funds for the advice sector.
At each event, the teams answer the same set of questions (thankfully not related to law at all) in the hope of winning not just their own event, but perhaps being crowned national champion. This year more than 50 events were hosted across the country, raising thousands of pounds for the advice sector.
By the way, if you prefer to bake in the privacy of your own kitchen (rather than risk public humiliation at not knowing which animated film was the first to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar®) the Great Legal Bake takes place in February 2017.4 There is plenty of time to start planning your legal advice themed cake.
As ever, NPBW was an impressive reminder of the enormous contribution the profession, as a whole, makes to access to justice through pro bono work. NPBW served to reinforce the huge benefits to be gained by students and lawyers as well as those helped by pro bono work.
But perhaps most importantly of all, NPBW served, once again, as a testament to the power of collaboration and cooperation. All branches of the profession, all levels of lawyer, student and teacher, and - holding us all together - advice services of all shapes and sizes come together every day to make life better for everyone.
- Visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=49PtGMBKzQo
- Visit: www.nationalprobonocentre.org.uk/volunteering
- Pro bono manual: a practical guide and resource kit for solicitors, available at: http://tinyurl.com/gwbxhb4. The Charter is available at: http://tinyurl.com/zjtnwjf
- It was ‘Beauty and the Beast’, in 1991, apparently