Yasmin Waljee manages pro bono work at city Law firm Lovells. Here she offers a glimpse of a week in the life of a pro bono officer
There is a wealth of pro bono clients who have amazed me pretty much every day I’ve been in this role – the blind theatre director who took her cast of blind actors on tour; the woman who, from a disused warehouse, helps hundreds of refugees with training to get employment; the woman who set up a charity to help victims of crime abroad when her husband was killed after being violently attacked in France. Here are some I encountered in the last week:
Monday
The telephone rings. It’s an enquiry from a victim support group requesting an advocate for a criminal injuries compensation appeal hearing in two weeks. The client has been the victim of domestic violence and is now living in a refuge with virtually no means to support herself. Her initial application was refused on the grounds that she failed to co-operate with the police. But this was because she was intimidated by the assailant. We have a pool of trained litigators I can refer this to, and an e-mail quickly finds someone who is willing to help.
The morning post brings three cases for appeals against refusals of disability living allowance (DLA) from Community Links, an innovative charity in Newham, east London. We work closely with their casework team, 80% of whom were former users of Links’ services. They are always under pressure – the team of 20 caseworkers there see more than 9,000 clients a year. So it helps if we can prepare the representations and relieve some of that pressure by sending along solicitor-advocates to the tribunals. As there is no legal aid funding for DLA cases, it is one area where we can help; we should be there to fill the gaps.
The Community Links head office on the Barking Road is far removed from Holborn Viaduct [the location of Lovells’ office] and has play groups, youth clubs, after-school clubs and the occasional bouncy castle located immediately below the advice team. Trying to communicate when there are several hundred children enjoying the half-term break in the background is a challenge for them.
That afternoon I go to the office of the head of a busy charity which we recently helped to draft a lease. I find it set to one side in her tidy office. I express concern that has not been sent to the landlord. I am told that it was kept aside to keep it safe. The organisation cannot afford stamps, so they have to collect their mail and, once a week, buy a travelcard for one of their volunteers to deliver the mail all over London.
Tuesday
The Muslim Youth Network is a small but very creative charity that raises awareness of the different social problems that affect young Muslims and provides culturally sensitive support to them. It e-mails me because it is putting on a concert the following weekend to bring together young Muslims from around the UK and give them an opportunity to express their social concerns through music. The network would like to record some of the pieces and maybe make an album, so it needs some intellectual property advice quickly.
That afternoon, we host our six-monthly training course on housing law run by a local money advice centre. We offer the training to other charities working in the sector. This will train six volunteer lawyers from Lovells to work with the 12 already volunteering as duty solicitors at the local county court, representing people applying to suspend warrants of possession.
Wednesday
We spend the day at one of the regular ‘entrepreneurship networking events’, which we host for Action for Blind People and their self-employed members. We give talks and take questions on employment law. We have recently provided some of this information in Braille to help us reach more of their members, but a question-and-answer session is very helpful for more specific issues. Action for Blind People trained our reception staff in blind awareness, so they can now expertly guide the delegates round the building. They also remember to organise the bowls of water for the dogs. My training was less successful – on my first attempt, I walked a colleague into a door by mistake.
Thursday
I receive an e-mail overnight from our Beijing office asking if we can provide the constitution for a UK-based charity which is opening up a local office there. The charity grants the wishes of children with life-threatening diseases and also needs tax advice on the most efficient way to donate funds.
Our worldwide offices, which are willing to help, can be a welcome additional service for charities with an international reach. I have asked the office in Madrid if it could assist a British victim of crime who was injured while on holiday in Spain. The advice arrives but there is a suggestion I check with the Brussels office about the EU’s position on the harmonisation of the state compensation systems around Europe. Another e-mail resolves this.
Later, I get a call from the pro bono manager of another City firm. She confirms her practice is willing to support a proposal to fund jointly with us a part-time caseworker for two years for a local homeless centre that is open 365 days a year, supporting the needs of this marginalised community.
The pro bono managers are a committed group of inspirational people, and a remarkable power-house of ideas and enthusiasm. It is always refreshing to be around them.
Friday
I get a telephone call to say one of the charities we work closely with will have to close in two months and the advisory service, used by hundreds of people every year, will be lost. The local authority has refused a grant application that took months to write.
The firm’s charity committee agrees to give the charity some interim funding until it can obtain a new source of permanent funding, though its staff’s commitment is such that one of them tells me he would work without pay if he could get enough to pay his rent. An extraordinary commitment.
At the end of the week, I am always left with a feeling of respect and admiration for those in the voluntary sector. As for our role? Discussing it with a senior lawyer returning to the office after his weekly session on the advice line to help ex-offenders back to work, he says: ‘The key to participating in pro bono work is the notion that, both for the sake of our own sanity, sense of self-worth and for the wider sustainability of society, action is better than consumption. Lawyers have so many skills that they can make available with relatively little effort.’ There’s little you can add to that.
Events during National Pro Bono Week.
For more details, visit www.probonouk.net or contact the Solicitors Pro Bono group, tel: 020 7929 5601; or pro bono press officer Wendy Nelson, tel: 01608 682 049, e-mail: wendynelson@tesco.net
London
Monday 6 June
Royal Courts of Justice, 2pm.
Mass signing of Solicitors Pro Bono Group joint protocol.
Law Society Common Room, 6pm.
Launch of National Pro Bono Week. The reception will be followed by presentations of the Young Solicitors Group pro bono awards and the Wig & Pen pro bono prize.
Tuesday 7 June
College of Law, 3pm to 4pm, Street Law presentation on Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and criminal convictions.
Law Society Hall, 6pm to 8pm.
Lecture on ‘Pro bono: the international dimension – how to get involved’. Hosted by the City of Westminster & Holborn Law Society, in conjunction with the Law Society’s Greater London Regional Office, aimed at London lawyers who wish to offer pro bono expertise and assistance to international projects.
Allen & Overy, 6pm to 7.30pm.
LawWorks training session on introduction to charity law, aimed at corporate lawyers willing to provide pro bono advice to small not-for-profit organisations.
Irwin Mitchell, 6.30pm to 8pm.
Reception for all interested in pro bono.
Wednesday 8 June
BPP Law School, midday to 2pm.
Panel debate – ‘Practitioners and law students: models for joint pro bono provision’.
Portcullis House, 3pm to 5pm.
MPs reception – by invitation only.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, time tbc.
LawWorks training session on advice skills for clinic volunteers for anyone advising in pro bono clinics.
Vanderpump & Sykes, Enfield, time tbc.
Free legal advice session for the public.
Thursday 9 June
Law Society Hall, evening.
Solicitors Pro Bono Group ball.
Friday 10 June
The Law Society, 10am to 4pm.
Streetlaw training session: ‘Pro bono as public legal education – making it happen.’
Birmingham
Monday 6 June
Wragge & Co, 55 Colmore Row, 6pm to 8pm.
Networking (Pro Help), aimed at the Young Solicitors Group/Trainee Solicitors Group.
Bournemouth
Friday 10 June
Bournemouth Football Club, lunchtime. Event explaining to voluntary groups how to access pro bono.
Bradford
Tuesday 7 June
8.30am to 1pm.
HRH The Prince of Wales Trust ‘Seeing is Believing’.
Bristol
Thursday 9 June
All events at the Law Society’s South West Regional Office.Breakfast – bringing together criminal lawyers and university students to become involved in miscarriage of justice cases.
From midday – drop-in lunch and exhibition for solicitors and trainees.
6pm to 8pm – evening reception to help Bristol Citizens Advice Bureau recruit solicitor volunteers.
Cambridge
Thursday 9 June
Law Society’s Eastern Regional Office, lunchtime. Reception, including introducing the new Streetlaw project at Cambridge University.
Carmarthen
Wednesday 8 June
The Ivy Bush Royal Hotel, lunchtime.
Launch of West Wales Pro Bono Clinic.
Guildford
Wednesday, 8 June
Guildford High School, time tbc.
Streetlaw presentation by the College of Law on ‘drugs and the law’ for year 10 pupils aged 14 and 15.
Leicester
Tuesday 7 June
Law Society’s East Midlands Regional Office, 12.30-2.30pm.
Recruitment and networking (aimed at students, young solicitors, trainees and young legal executives).
Norwich
Thursday 9 June
The Assembly House, 12.30pm to 2pm.
Discrimination – is there access to justice? Speakers and network lunch, and launch of plan for new law centre. Bookings required in advance to guarantee a place (e-mail: kaiyin@nnrec.org.uk).
Nottingham
Wednesday 8 June
Nottingham Law School, 5.30pm to 7pm.
Reception.
Other events for which details are still to be confirmed:
Barnsley
Free legal advice clinic – John Healey MP surgery.
Birmingham
Tutorial on pro bono in France; tutorial for community groups attending event on 6 June.
Doncaster
Free legal advice clinic – Rosie Winterton MP surgery.
Harrogate
Free legal advice clinic – Phil Willis MP surgery.
Manchester
Recruitment and networking.
York
Free legal advice clinic – Phil Willis MP surgery.
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