Pro bono

Our pro bono programme serves two purposes. It enables us to use our professional skills and experience to help members of our community. It also enables us to learn and to grow as lawyers. For that, we are indebted to the organisations which run local law centres, employment clinics and advice centres, and which year after year welcome our associates and trainees through their doors.

In London we have, over many years now, volunteered our time at evening drop-in clinics at Wandsworth and Merton Law Centre in Tooting (in south London) and at Tower Hamlets Law Centre in Whitechapel (in east London), and we continued to do so this year. We have had a connection with Tower Hamlets Law Centre since the late 1970s. The scope of advice needed is wide; people walk in with all manner of issues, often related to employment, immigration or benefits.

The Free Representation Unit in London (founded in 1972) provides people with representation at tribunals on employment, social security and child support appeals; it also handles some immigration and criminal injury compensation cases. We have a longstanding connection with the Unit. The Advice Bureau at the Royal Courts of Justice in London is another channel for our pro bono work – and an important means by which we broaden our litigation training.

Using our knowledge to help others extends to education, too. In France, the Education Nationale (Ministry of Education) joined forces with the Paris Bar to give students in secondary schools legal awareness training. Our Paris office began supporting the Initiadroit programme two years ago and has kept it up this year. The experience is not just good for the students; it engages lawyers and teachers alike.

We find that our pro bono initiatives are of particular benefit to our new and junior lawyers, giving them the opportunity to sharpen their skills as interviewers, analysts and good communicators. As a result, they acquire skills that will make them exceptional lawyers; they also feel positive about themselves and about the profession they have entered.