Allen & Overy, Crowell & Moring become first firms to join Net pro bono project

City giant Allen & Overy and the London office of US practice Crowell & Moring have become the first law firms to sign up with LawWorksWeb, the pro bono project to deliver legal advice using the Internet.LawWorksWeb, launched by the Solicitors Pro Bono Group in conjunction with the Law Centres Federation and the Bar Pro Bono Unit, will allow law centres and citizen's advice bureaux to e-mail requests for advice.

These requests will then be distributed automatically to volunteer lawyers in the required area of expertise to answer within a certain time.Lawyers can sign up either as a firm or individually, and commit to a certain amount of hours per year working on e-mails.

Once the time has elapsed, the system will automatically remove the lawyers from the rota, but not before asking if they want to do any more.

The advice will be returned anonymously through LawWorksWeb.The next stage of the LawWorks project will be to add representation to the services on offer.Project manager Graham Bucknall said: 'Pro bono legal advice can be brought to areas of the country where, at present, it is difficult to find such help and can use lawyers nationwide who have a desire to give pro bono help but, up to now, have been unable to find suitable projects.'Mr Bucknall said that a number of law firms have indicated that they will sign up in the near future.

'In our meetings with a large number of solicitors' firms in London and elsewhere, we have received a very positive reaction.

The firms can see that this is a way of delivering legal pro bono help without leaving the office and in a way that fits in with busy schedules.'Jeremy Thomas, the corporate partner at Allen & Overy who sits on the LawWorks for Community Groups advisory committee, said: 'This is an exciting opportunity to develop our activities further and allow even more of our lawyers to deliver pro bono advice.'Crowell & Moring associate Rachael Wellby said: 'Crowell & Moring's offices in the US have been dedicated to pro bono work for many years, but opportunities in London have traditionally been more limited.

By using new technology, the LawWorksWeb project makes pro bono work accessible for any lawyer in the country who has access to an e-mail account.'LINKS: www.probonogroup.org.ukNeil Rose