For nearly 150 years, the solicitors benevolent association has given financial help to solicitors who have fallen on hard times. Nicola Laver goes behind the scenes to find out how the organisation works
One Saturday afternoon in February 2003, sole practitioner Tony Clare was out riding his horse when he fell and broke his neck. Left paralysed from the waist down, unable to talk, eat or breathe on his own, he left hospital more than 18 months later, during which time his law firm closed and his income had dropped significantly.
The Solicitors Benevolent Association (SBA) came to his aid and provided substantial funds to buy a suitable car and wheelchair, which he would not have been able to purchase on his own.
The SBA is nearly 150 years old, and its beneficiaries are of all ages and needs. They range from elderly men and spinsters to students, and from sole practitioners who fall ill and cannot properly manage their practices to the widows of City solicitors.
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Over the past year, the SBA has greatly increased its grants and interest-free loans and now pays out around £1 million a year – roughly equal to its annual income.
The levels of assistance given to beneficiaries vary enormously. Some individuals need one-off financial gifts.
One young solicitor was provided with a lap-top computer to help her return to practice. She had a young family and her marriage had failed, and she needed assistance to return to work. Recently, the SBA purchased a wheelchair for a woman solicitor who has developed a severe form of multiple sclerosis.
Those with equity (in the form of ownership of their homes) but acute cash-flow problems may be offered interest-free loans. These are reviewed periodically and may be repayable on change of financial circumstances or sale of the house.
If there is little or no equity, outright grants may be awarded to needy applicants and their families to meet everyday expenses not fully covered by state benefits, such as transport costs, household essentials, television licence fees, certain insurance premiums and some ‘extra’ medical expenses.
As it is not an educational charity, the SBA will not usually fund private school fees – and even then, only to the next stage of education – but students at university whose parents cannot afford the full costs may get an annual grant to help with books and living expenses.
Five years ago, the wife of a solicitor was diagnosed with a severe brain tumour at the same time as her marriage failed. She cannot be named and she was left to cope on her own with two young boys. She says: ‘I didn’t know which way to turn. I was unable to work because I had to go for treatment at hospital.’ She eventually contacted the SBA, which initially paid her bills, gave her a leisure award to take her sons away, and helped her pay for basics such as school uniform.
She says: ‘Now I am more self-sufficient but they still gave me money for Christmas. It’s good to know they are there if I need them. If they hadn’t helped me when they did, I don’t know how I would have survived.’
In 2004, 354 beneficiaries were given help, a slight fall on the year before, and new SBA president Martin de Bertodano, a partner at Swindon firm Pooley Dale (see [2005] Gazette, 13 Jan, 4), says it is his mission to expand the base of beneficiaries.
He says: ‘My co-directors will get very bored this year of hearing me say that we need to expand the client base. There are a lot of people in need and have absolutely no idea that they are entitled to help.’
Solicitors who are or who have been on the roll and their dependents (whether or not they are living together) are eligible for support from the SBA, together with, at the discretion of the SBA board, former dependents in certain circumstances. When Mr de Bertodano first became involved in the SBA, it was providing financial assistance to one spinster in her 80s, whose father was admitted to the roll in around 1898.
Cases are looked at individually, so it is hard to say precisely what kind of person is considered to need help. Applicants on state benefits are those most likely to be eligible, but the SBA also helps people in full but poorly paid employment and those who have retired.
Jill Furnace is the elderly widow of a City solicitor who died in 1966 and lives in London. She came across the SBA some 20 years ago. Ms Furnace says: ‘I just got in touch with them when it got to the stage when I just couldn’t cope any more on my own financially. I filled in some paperwork – and they have been helping me ever since.’ She receives a quarterly grant, which varies from year to year after completing an annual renewal application.
As well as the quarterly grant, the SBA has provided Ms Furnace with cash for major purchases. ‘They have bought a new television set and I have had money for the re-covering of a three-piece suite, and help towards new curtains.’
She advises anyone who thinks they could be eligible for financial assistance to get in touch with the SBA, for which she is full of praise. She says: ‘They are very important and are very kind and helpful. They are lovely people and are supportive and behind me all the time.’
There is no sign of either the breadth or volume of beneficiaries decreasing over time, says Mr de Bertodano: ‘The profession has expanded enormously in the last few years and of course we are keen that all solicitors pay an annual subscription; some will fall on hard times, come under the remit of the SBA and need assistance.’
To publicise the work of the SBA and trace potential beneficiaries, an advertisement was recently placed in the magazine The Lady, whose readership includes many elderly women such as widows who no longer have any contact with either the legal profession or the legal press, and who are ignorant of their potential eligibility.
During the course of his work, Mr de Bertodano includes in his general correspondence a mention of the SBA, not as an appeal for funding but to draw people’s attention to its work and to consider whether they know of anyone who may be entitled to assistance.
The SBA stresses that none of the financial aid available to its beneficiaries would be possible without the help it receives from members of the legal profession Funding for the SBA comes from several sources, including annual fundraising events, subscriptions from lawyers (from £10 annually), endowment income, and investment income.
Another source is conditional donations, sourced from unclaimed balances in law firms’ client accounts, subject to Law Society approval. If consent is given, firms are saved the administration of such accounts, and also the need to include them in their accounts.
To be eligible to seek consent, firms have to show they have made full enquiries to trace the proper destination of the money, or that the reasonable costs of doing so are likely to be excessive in relation to the money held. They also need to provide evidence that six years or more have elapsed since the money was due to the client.
The Law Society plays its part in the work of the SBA, sending out a copy of its annual report to every practitioner – and Mr de Bertodano says he hopes solicitors take the time to read it.
Monty Martin, a member of the Sole Practitioners Group’s national executive, says the SBA is an ‘unsung organisation’. The two groups have links through LawCare, the lawyers’ health support service. He says: ‘I have long thought the SBA was insufficiently publicised within the profession. We seem to think that all solicitors must be wealthy and would not need benefits. However, the number of case histories belies this, especially relatives of solicitors who have become ill.’
Before handing over the reigns to Mr de Bertodano, immediate past president Tony Higman wrote in the SBA newsletter: ‘To visit beneficiaries in their own homes is both humbling and satisfying. In many cases one feels “there but for the grace of God”. The misfortune that some suffer, the illnesses they have to endure and the financial circumstances in which so many find themselves are daunting enough, but at least the SBA is there to listen and to lend a helping hand.’
Links: www.sba.org.uk
Tel: 020 8675 6440
Nicola Laver is a freelance journalist
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