Many years ago Establishment publications like the Telegraph carried advertisements for the Distressed Gentlefolks Aid Association. This charity’s raison d’être appeared to be to ease the money problems of well-bred Home Counties types who had fallen on hard times. I remember thinking then that this must have been a ‘tough sell’, but I was wrong to judge by appearances. Now called Elizabeth Finn Care, the organisation makes a point of helping people ‘from all walks of life’ (and advertises the fact that solicitors are among its beneficiaries, incidentally). Nevertheless, it is not difficult to discern why it changed its name.

I was reminded of this image problem by last week’s rebranding party for the Solicitors Benevolent Association, now SBA The Solicitors Charity. The barrister turned comedian and media personality Clive Anderson once described the Solicitors Benevolent Association as ‘an oxymoron’, adding that he could not think of a more redundant body. There is no such thing as a poor or needy solicitor, after all.

Business development director Phyllida Wilson put Anderson right at a convivial lunch at which he agreed to be the public face of an organisation determined to raise and update its profile. Indeed, the last time the Gazette wrote about the SBA we illustrated the piece with a picture of Florence Nightingale, and its chair pointedly asked me not to do so again.

Wilson herself certainly has the experience needed for the job; former marketing manager at Olswang, she has worked for the Prince of Wales and, earlier in her career, was the first person ever appointed to market a barristers’ chambers. She is the charity’s first full-time employee in its 152-year history and one of her first tasks is to find a commercial sponsor.

Independent of the Law Society, the SBA was established in 1858 to ‘help the professional brotherhood’ (no sisters then) ‘in seasons of adversity’. If this conjures an image of the helpless orphan throwing himself on the mercy of the parish, then there was an element of truth in that. Historically, the SBA provided help to solicitors and their dependants in need because of illness and bereavement, but in recent years it has received an increasing number of calls from solicitors suffering the consequences of redundancy, debt and stress. The age profile of its beneficiaries has changed too, with more young people seeking help. This month it took an application from a young solicitor who was homeless and sleeping on a park bench after losing her job.

As Anderson says in a personal letter to potential donors: ‘It may be that solicitors and charity are words that go together like barristers and brevity, but all lawyers are human beings too and looking after members of their own profession is the humane and professional thing to do. Not all solicitors are the fat cats of popular imagination; not all have been able to cope with the recession and reductions in government spending; not all are able to cope with the stresses and strains of legal life.’

So how good is the profession at looking after its own? Not all that good is the answer. Under 14% of solicitors have made a donation to the charity, which is a depressingly low proportion, though admittedly the organisation’s hitherto poor visibility may have something to do with that.

There is no element of compulsion either, which contrasts with the approach of some other professions. Lionheart, the benevolent fund for past and present members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, benefits from the fact that each year RICS members are asked to include a donation to the charity (£15 most recently) through a pre-printed notice on their subscription notice. It is a flint-hearted surveyor who begrudges such a modest sum.

Perhaps the closest comparator is CABA, the charity that has been supporting chartered accountants and their families in England and Wales since 1886. It has even fewer donors – an estimated 4% of the 134,000 members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales – but then it hardly needs them. Hefty bequests and windfalls have left CABA sitting on net assets of £75m; its charitable spending last year totalled £2.4m.

SBA The Solicitors Charity listed investments of £10.6m at the end of 2009, loans to beneficiaries of £3.5m and £400,000 cash. Each year it helps hundreds of solicitors and their families, distributing grants of just under £1m in 2009 and making secured loans of £500,000 (beneficiaries are means-tested).

A perennial headache is the fact that donations go down in recessions, when the cash is really needed. Indeed, certain big firms have slashed their contributions in half over the last two years, according to Wilson.

Writing this before yesterday’s Comprehensive Spending Review announcement, I have no idea precisely how invasive is the fiscal surgery planned by George Osborne. It seems reasonable to suppose that calls on SBA The Solicitors Charity’s funds are hardly going to diminish regardless – especially as it is making a determined effort to be noticed. As it is, beneficiary enquiries have doubled in the last five years, which should not surprise you. After all, solicitors are four times more likely to develop depression than a member of the general public; twice as likely to develop alcoholism; and a startling six times more likely to commit suicide.

The Gazette hopes that solicitors take note of this relaunch for, as Clive Anderson counsels: ‘How appropriate and benevolent it is to help a fellow professional in trouble. And how forward thinking. One day it could be you.’

  • For more information on SBA The Solicitors Charity go to its website.

Making a difference

John is 49. He spent more than 10 years working as a senior prosecutor with the CPS but last worked over two years ago. The pressure of a heavy workload contributed to the breakdown of his relationship and the loss of his job. He now lives with his ill, elderly mother, but sees his children at weekends. He has made hundreds of job applications but rarely gets an interview. He thinks that his age is now against him, especially since there are so many younger solicitors looking for work. The charity helped John with living expenses, enabling him to spend more time with his children.

Kabir is 24 and a newly qualified doctor. He read medicine at King’s College, London. His father initially qualified as a barrister but then became a solicitor. When his father suffered several prolonged periods of unemployment, the family finances deteriorated sharply. The charity helped Kabir with his expenses while studying medicine – including extra tuition fees, all his books and even his stethoscope.

Lorraine is 48. She has a 17-year-old daughter she has brought up alone and with no financial support from her previous partner. Her daughter was her ‘inspiration’ to study law and qualify as a solicitor. Although her early years were very successful and she was head-hunted to her second firm, she suffered severe bullying in the workplace and fell into a deep depression. Forced to take sick leave and no longer able to make the minimum payments on her credit cards, the debts that she had started to incur during her training became overwhelming and she reached breaking point. She was made redundant in 2008. On income support and no longer able to work, she was on the verge of having her house repossessed. The charity counts Lorraine as one of its real ‘success stories’ after helping her with the general experience of bringing up a young family, and lending her money for accommodation. She is now on a three-month work placement scheme and has been told that she is likely to be offered a permanent job.

Julie was married to a solicitor for more than 10 years and had two children. After her daughter Felicity was diagnosed with a brain tumour, her husband stopped supporting the family. Felicity’s mobility was permanently impaired by the operation to remove the tumour and it was considered a miracle that she survived. Julie has recently suffered from breast cancer. The charity helped Julie to bring up both her children on her own by paying for various living expenses and extras such as school trips and petrol for the school run. This has meant that Julie has been able to give her children an annual holiday each year.