Mark Smulian asks pro bono group LawWorks how it won funding of £190,000 for its community groups project

LawWorks, the operational name of the Solicitors Pro Bono Group, gained a £190,000 award from the Big Lottery Fund for its community groups project in January (see [2006] Gazette, 2 February 4).

The grant will last for two years and will support provision of free legal advice to small charities, voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises.


Two legally qualified project managers will receive requests for help and offer these to participating law firms, which will then, if they choose, deliver the advice as part of their pro bono work. Some 80 firms are taking part, as well as in-house departments in some major companies, such as Vodafone.


James Waugh, who manages the project, says that since its inception in 2001, it has helped 700 organisations, saving them legal fees of some £3 million in all. Put another way, it is equivalent of 13,000 hours of free legal advice.


The programme also provides training for lawyers who advise charitable clients, and for community groups, educating their members in ‘very basic legal topics’.


Mr Waugh explains: ‘It is designed to focus on community groups in deprived communities. We look in particular at the most deprived parts of the country where there are opportunities to support groups.’


He says the legal advice sector has historically been ‘perhaps not as active in attracting funding as other charitable causes’, preferring to rely on the generosity of law firms. But a further problem is that although there are lots of charitable trusts and foundations, ‘only a handful would support projects for legal advice’. Most others have specific remits into which advice services do not easily fit.


LawWorks applied to the Big Lottery Fund strategic grants programme because it felt it met the criteria of providing help to disadvantaged communities, and the fund was open to the idea. ‘The need is huge, and it has not been something charitable trusts have supported in the past,’ Mr Waugh says. ‘I would like to see more trusts realise the value of good legal advice to these groups. It can make the difference to them going under or not.’


Application is a lengthy process. LawWorks made a submission last May and met a grants officer in October. ‘The Big Lottery Fund is like a lot of trusts, in that it is interested in real impacts and the difference its money will make to a project’s results,’ Mr Waugh says. ‘It uses an outcomes-based approach to ask what are the key changes that beneficiaries will see.


‘We could point to groups that did not want to spend their small funds on legal fees, because they wanted to concentrate on their core task and grow. You need to demonstrate that and have feedback.’


LawWorks does not employ full-time – or even part-time – fundraisers, and fundraising is ‘very much something we do in addition to our jobs, and it is time-consuming but worth it. You need to give applications a lot of thought’.


Since it was set up in 1997, the Solicitors Pro Bono Group has relied on membership fees, donations and sponsorship, with the Law Society Charity playing a big role in the early years.


In addition to lottery funds, the programme received £50,000 from the Lloyds TSB Foundation, a charity which helps disadvantaged communities, including people with disabilities.


‘As a piece of general advice, it is very good to get several donors, because it demonstrates to others that the project is worthwhile,’ says Mr Waugh. ‘It is a bit like if you are trying to get investment in a company, the more investors you have, the more attractive it is to others.’


Where an application is being made for a wholly new project, Mr Waugh’s advice is to ‘demonstrate that a need exists, use questionnaires and academic research’, though this can be hard to find.


If a law firm has an idea for pro bono work, it would be best placed to pursue this through LawWorks or some other recognised body. Mr Waugh says: ‘The largest firms have the resources to do pro bono work themselves and may even employ someone to organise it. But law firms are not charities, so they cannot normally get funding from charitable bodies.


‘However, they can certainly put ideas to us, and we are always keen to talk to firms, but we cannot fundraise for them. It is best if they find a local charitable partner that can approach funders.’


Solicitors volunteer for a wide range of reasons, he says. Some see pro bono work as part of their role as a lawyer, while others find it gives them a chance to use a skill they would not otherwise use, and some simply wish to give something back to their local community. ‘It improves their skill-set and raises the profile of their firm, so it is a win-win,’ he says. But the most important winners from the LawWorks programme are the beneficiaries. He says: ‘We have testimonials saying that the work we have done is a godsend to these people.’


One ‘thank you’ letter from a charity that helps sufferers from a little-known medical condition is typical. Although Mr Waugh is unwilling to name the group for confidentiality reasons, its gratitude is clear: ‘We cannot thank you enough for finding [the solicitor] to help us with our legal work for our move to office premises. We are already moving this forward, and hope to be in the office very soon.



‘By saving on the legal fees for this transaction, we will be able to use the funds to pursue our goal of raising awareness of the condition and addressing the deficit of services that continues to severely impact [our users] and their families.’