Becoming pro active

On 9 June, the second National Pro Bono Week will begin.

This year, organisers intend to persuade lawyers to put their expertise where their mouths are, reports Victoria MacCallum

Pro bono legal work has undergone something of a transformation in recent years.

No longer the stereotype of junior lawyers with an hour to spare answering telephones in a dusty advice centre in inner cities, the modern image of pro bono is high profile and sophisticated, with leading commercial solicitors rubbing shoulders with big-name barristers at work on a huge range of pro bono projects.

National Pro Bono Week, which runs from 9-13 June, is another chance to spread the pro bono gospel.

Organised as a joint venture between the Law Society, the Bar Council, the Bar Pro Bono Unit (BPBU), the Solicitors Pro Bono Group (SPBG) and the Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX), it aims to highlight the pro bono work done by lawyers and encourage more members of the profession to get involved.

The first pro bono week took place last year and featured a plethora of events and receptions across the country attended by grandees such as the Attorney-General, Lord Goldsmith QC, who has a particular interest in promoting pro bono work and last year set up his national pro bono co-ordinating committee.

Former Law Society President and Irwin Mitchell senior partner Michael Napier is the Attorney-General's pro bono envoy.

He says pro bono week is important because it helps to map the work in the field currently being done by lawyers.

'The common factor in National Pro Bono Week is the willingness of an increasing number of lawyers to share the ethos of putting something back in the community - there is an energy and enthusiasm from lawyers who want to do all they can to help those in need,' he says.

The week will be launched on 9 June at the Law Society with a pro bono exhibition and the presentation of the SPBG's student awards.

Throughout the week, there will be 26 events around England and Wales (compared to 12 last year) to fly the pro bono flag - although, as SPBG chief executive Sue Bucknall stresses, that is not the sole objective for this year's pro bono week.

'Last year's event was excellent for raising public awareness of pro bono, but this year we want to promote actions rather than words,' she says.

'We want to encourage lawyers who haven't signed up yet to do so this week - we've sent out information packs to all our members about how to stage a pro bono event, and we want to get smaller firms across the country involved in work within their local communities.'

Alice Sheldon, director of the BPBU, agrees.

'The focus for this year's pro bono week is on getting volunteers actively involved with schemes, and particularly on a national basis,' she says.

The bar's organised pro bono work is divided into four areas: the BPBU, which matches up barristers who want to work on a pro bono basis with people who need their help; Bar in the Community, where barristers serve as charity trustees; the Free Representation Unit, which can arrange pro bono representation at tribunals in London; and the Circuit Free Representation Schemes operating in certain other parts of the country.

More than two-thirds of the BPBU's 1,400 members are based in the south-east, and this is something which Ms Sheldon wants to change.

'Although there is a growing culture of pro bono within the bar, and many barristers now see it as a badge of professionalism, we want to develop the unit's pro bono work around the country.

We hope that working in partnership with the SPBG, Law Society, and ILEX throughout this week will demonstrate that everyone involved in the profession can get involved with pro bono.'

This idea of all three branches of the profession working together for a common cause is a theme stressed by all participants in pro bono week.

'We want to work with the bar and the solicitors' profession in a supportive capacity,' ILEX secretary-general Diane Burleigh says.

'We're not looking to replicate what the bar or the SPBG are doing and be seen as leaders in the field, but we want to show our members - particularly those who have always thought that pro bono isn't for them - how they can get involved with pro bono initiatives across the country.'

ILEX has long been encouraging its members to become involved with pro bono work and last year set up a pro bono working party.

'Legal executives tend to think in a practical way, and many of them simply get on with giving practical pro bono help and support to people who need it in their local communities,' Ms Burleigh says.

ILEX also ran a competition last year on behalf of the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, to produce a plain-English alternative to 'pro bono'.

The winner was 'Law for free', but it has yet to catch on, despite calls at last month's Law Society Council meeting that in its efforts to encourage solicitors to stop using Latin phrases, the Society should also replace 'pro bono'.

One of the week's big events will be the launch of a Web site developed by the Society, the Bar Council, ILEX, SPBG and the College of Law, which aims to create an on-line community.

As well as being a portal for the public to find out how and where to get advice, it will also have areas accessible only to members where professionals can pick up cases, exchange ideas and share resources.

It is this practical aspect which will be the focus of pro bono week - recruiting new lawyers and securing concrete commitments and definite promises from pro bono novices.

With support for pro bono coming right from the top - as well as the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, Harriet Harman, is a vocal supporter, not to mention the profession's own governing bodies - there has never been a better time for pro bono virgins to take the plunge.

LINKS: www.probonouk.net

Calendar of events

Monday 9 June

- London - launch event and exhibition, presentation of Solicitor Pro Bono Group student awards and launch of Bar Pro Bono awards (3pm to 7pm), to be held at the Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane.

London - presentation of the Young Solicitors Group pro bono awards and Wig and Pen pro bono awards, to be held at the Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane (evening).

- Cardiff - launch event and exhibition (afternoon).

- Darlington - free legal advice session for charities at Age Concern (evening).

Tuesday 10 June

- Bristol - reception and exhibition at the Watershed Arts Centre (breakfast, morning and lunchtime).

- Leicester - reception for lawyers and voluntary groups, Voluntary Action (lunchtime).

- Norwich - tour of Norwich Advice Arcade; exhibition at Norwich City FC, Carrow Road, (lunchtime).

- London - social policy lunch to encourage senior solicitors to become involved in voluntary work, to be held at Toynbee Hall (lunchtime).

- Lincoln - exhibition of pro bono projects, Lincoln University (evening).

- London - training session for lawyers on disability issues at Allen & Overy (evening).

- London - pro bono information evening at Enfield Law Centre (evening).

- Doncaster - free legal advice session at the Citizens Advice Bureau (evening).

Wednesday 11 June

- Nottingham - pro bono exhibition, to be held at Nottingham Trent University (morning).

- Stockport - tour of Stockport Law Centre (morning).

- Manchester - reception for lawyers and voluntary groups at Urbis (lunchtime).

Manchester - tour of Trafford Law Centre (lunchtime).

- Darlington - free legal advice session on wills and elderly client planning at Age Concern (afternoon).

- Derby - reception at Derby Law Centre (afternoon).

- Manchester - reception for lawyers and voluntary groups, to be held at the Midland Hotel (evening).

Thursday 12 June

- Southampton - reception for lawyers and voluntary groups at Southampton FC (lunchtime).

- Birmingham - lunch and launch of FolkLaw e-newsletter, Wragge & Co (lunchtime).

- Leeds - gathering for lawyers and voluntary organisations at ASDA.

(lunchtime).

- London - pro bono prize giving and fund-raising event for Solicitors Pro Bono Group at Law Society, Chancery Lane (evening).

Friday 13 June

- St Asaph, North Wales - gathering for lawyers and law firms interested in working with ProHelp; lunch at Welsh Development Agency (morning and lunchtime).

- Nottingham - reception for lawyers and voluntary groups at the Grand Jury Room (lunchtime).

- Sheffield - lunch and launch of free legal information project, Law Society's Hall (lunchtime).

For more information, contact Claire McKendrick, National Pro Bono Week co-ordinator, tel: 020 7320 5936.