Care in the community

Law firms are eager to show they care as more pro bono officers are being employed.

Jessica Smerin investigates how this trend for community project work will develop

Since Lovells appointed a full-time co-ordinator for its pro bono work two and a half years ago, seven more top City law firms have followed suit.

Several major provincial players are now considering appointing full-time pro bono officers.

There is an element of competitiveness in this rush to 'give something back to the community'; firms are using pro bono officers to benchmark their commitment to humane values rather than profit.

Some see the full-timers as the latest US imported accessory, which no trendy multinational law firm can be without.Last month, the importance of the pro bono officers' role was highlighted when Yasmin Waljee, Lovells' pro bono officer, was named woman solicitor of the year at The Times's woman lawyers' conference.The pro bono officers are keen to point out that their relationship with one another is excellent and completely non-competitive.

They add that as the need for free legal advice will always outstrip supply, there is no need for firms to fight over pro bono work in the same way that they fight for litigation instructions.

The magic circle firms' pro bono officers meet regularly and informally, and co-operate on a number of projects: for example, the establishment of a Web site through which their litigation lawyers provide advice and information on the recent civil justice reforms to staff at law centres.The issue of marketing around pro bono work is a tricky one.

There is no reason why the world at large should not know about it, but firms do not want to be seen to be boasting.

One top practice recently circulated its annual pro bono report, detailing millions of pounds worth of pro bono work, on the basis that the journalists who received it could not write anything about it.But some are not so reticent, and such marketing can at least work at the level of awareness of the firm; the lawyers seen sorting through mountains of old clothes for Crisis last Christmas were wearing special Freshfields boiler suits.

Then there can be a temptation for individual solicitors to attempt to use their pro bono work as a personal publicity vehicle.

Clifford Chance's head of community legal affairs, Felicity Kirk, says: 'The solicitors' profession has not always been good at the publicity side of pro bono work.

I am very aware of the danger of using pro bono work as a marketing tool.' She adds that she is always cautious about entering individuals in the firm for pro bono awards.Ms Kirk is aware that the new wave of pro bono co-ordinators may discourage smaller firms, which cannot afford to pay someone full-time, from becoming involved in pro bono activity.

She adds: 'The job of the City firms is to take a leadership position.

Rather than firms with fewer resources thinking that they can't compete with us, we want to get the message across that all firms need to find the right level of involvement in pro bono work for them.

The Solicitors Pro Bono Group [SPBG], although it was initially set up with a large amount of funding from magic circle firms, exists as a vehicle for the whole profession.'However, the demand for pro bono work is increasingly coming not from firms' need to be seen to be caring, or even disadvantaged people's need to be cared for, but from individuals within the firm.

Younger corporate lawyers often find themselves working for months on transactions in which there is little human contact and awareness of tangible results.

Pro bono work enables them to have direct access to clients, experience the buzz of appearing before courts and tribunals, and also allows them to choose the work which best suits their individual interests.Ms Waljee says: 'Pro bono is the best way to get a diversity of work.' She adds: 'Before I was appointed as a full-time co-ordinator, there was a huge demand from lawyers in the firm who wanted to do pro bono work but couldn't get access to the parts of the voluntary sector they wanted to work in.' The SPBG's director, Sue Bucknall, sees an important part of the value of a pro bono co-ordinator as residing in their knowledge of both the organisations demanding pro bono lawyers and the interests of solicitors in the firm.

She says: 'A full-time pro bono officer brings a new degree of professional commitment to the matching process.

For example, one co-ordinator buys The Big Issue each week to look for new community groups which are setting up.'Pressure on firms to increase their commitment to good causes is also being exerted from the bottom, by the law students in the trainee recruitment market.

In a culture where students are increasingly environmentally conscious and hostile to the concepts of global capitalism which the City epitomises, recruiting the brightest of the year's crop of graduates is no longer straightforward.

For many desirable graduates, a fat pay packet for corporate work in the City is not everything.

More of them are turning to what they perceive as more rewarding work with human contact on the high street; offering these graduates the opportunity to represent the socially disadvantaged or help schoolchildren with literacy during office hours is seen as a way of tipping the balance towards the City.Working for a firm which is known to have a strong commitment to the local community pleases both legal and support staff.

City firm DJ Freeman, which does not have a full-time pro bono co-ordinator, recently began producing a regular newsletter on its pro bono work.

Linda Phelan, the firm's marketing director, says the newsletter is not sent out to clients - although it does figure in the firm's reception area.

One of its main functions is as a means of boosting internal morale.

Ms Phelan says: 'It's seen as important here to let everybody know that, despite the fact we're a leading London law firm, we're giving something back.'However rewarding pro bono work can be in itself, it is also important for solicitors doing it to believe that their work is recognised within the firm.

Many assistants are unwilling to devote time outside office hours to law centres or local schools if it then appears to their supervising partner that they are slacking in their fee-earning work.

A full-time pro bono officer can help, by raising internal awareness of the pro bono work carried out by colleagues.

Ms Kirk says: 'I have a management role in terms of allocating fee-earning hours to pro bono work, fitting community opportunities into solicitors' busy schedules, and looking at how to give them some recognition.

Pro bono work is now a factor which is mentioned on our appraisal forms and taken into account when allocating bonuses.'The private practice trend towards making pro bono work a criterion for preferment is extending into in-house departments.

The Attorney-General, Lord Williams of Mostyn, recently indicated his intention to make a demonstrable involvement in pro bono work a promotion criterion for lawyers in the Government Legal Service.

Lord Williams told the Gazette that pro bono work is not essential for promotion - he recognises that some people, such as single parents, do not have the time - but it would be considered as part of the whole of what an employee does.

'I'm very keen on pro bono,' he says.

'I always did it myself, and I think that if you have the privilege of practising law, you should give something back.'A good way for pro bono officers to persuade sceptical partners to allow their assistants to pursue pro bono projects, during downtime in transactional work, is to emphasise the training opportunities that it offers.

Most pro bono officers are qualified solicitors who have themselves qualified in City firms, and this helps them to identify the type of voluntary work which offers maximum training opportunities to solicitors.

Ms Kirk says: 'Firms increasingly want their litigators to gain advocacy experience with a view to qualifying as solicitor-advocates.

With this in mind, I'm developing a pilot scheme for giving advocacy support to families with autistic children at special needs tribunals.'City giants also need dedicated pro bono officers to co-ordinate their international pro bono strategy.

This is far from straightforward, as Ms Kirk discovered when she began to consult on the development of a pro bono policy which is applicable worldwide.

In Germany and the Scandinavian countries, where there are very developed welfare systems, lawyers are prohibited from doing pro bono work.

In the US, where there is no legal aid, the commitment of New York and Washington firms to pro bono work - and, indeed, to full-time pro bono officers - is long-standing and vital.The US-spawned trend for law firms to invest heavily in pro bono work is already filtering into British industry.

Last year, the lawyers at BAe Systems, formerly British Aerospace, became the first in-house team to be granted a waiver of the Law Society regulation prohibiting in-house lawyers from acting for any party but their employer, and hence from conducting pro bono work.

Now, the department is encouraging the outside firms which it instructs to sign letters of engagement indicating their commitment to pro bono work and their willingness to work in partnership with BAe on community projects.

The head of legal at BAe's regional aircraft division, Philip Perrotta, says: 'This new policy is about our preferred port of call for legal advice being people with whom we can build a meaningful relationship, who provide their services in a way which is in line with our company's own philosophy.'Working side-by-side with long-standing clients on community projects and consequently deepening the client-solicitor relationship is a major benefit of pro bono work to City firms.

Two of Lovells' retail clients have recently asked Ms Waljee for help in establishing their internal pro bono units.Ms Bucknall believes the demand from clients for solicitors who can demonstrate a commitment to pro bono work is set to increase.

She explains: 'Clients think that if you look after your community, you will also look after them.'X The closing date for nominations for the Gazette-sponsored Young Solicitors Group Pro Bono Awards 2000 is 14 May.

Contact 020 7320 5727 for details.Jessica Smerin is a freelance journalist

A view from down under

Clayton Utz is one of Australia's leading national firms, with more than 185 partners and 600 legal professionals in offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth and Darwin, writes David Hillard.The firm runs an organised scheme that it claims is a best practice model of how a large commercial law firm can efficiently provide a high volume of pro bono work.

Clayton Utz has increased the number of new pro bono matters it accepts twenty-fold in the last five years to more than 250 matters.

More than 90% of the firm's lawyers participate in the scheme.I was appointed the firm's full-time pro bono director in May 1997, and have worked closely with the partnership to institutionalise at Clayton Utz an innovative and highly effective way of maximising the firm's commitment to pro bono work.Like most English firms, the Clayton Utz commitment to pro bono work had traditionally been on an ad hoc basis.

The most important element of the new scheme is the formalisation and coordination of the firm's pro bono commitment.

A written policy was developed in 1997, with clear guidelines for the types of matters which would be conducted and described as pro bono.

The system specifically excludes matters conducted for free for business development purposes or at reduced rates for acquaintances, family, staff or clients.A key part of this has been attempts to develop an institutionalised pro bono culture, so as to ensure that pro bono work is recognised within the firm as 'real' work, expected as part of each lawyer's professional practice.

A pro bono budget target has been set this year for the Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra offices at A$3.5 million (1.3 million) worth of the firm's professional time.

The Clayton Utz pro bono commitment is a shared responsibility.

The conduct of pro bono matters is compulsory and forms part of each solicitor's annual professional review.

Solicitors are not just encouraged, but expected, to conduct at least one pro bono matter each year.Pro bono work is fully recognised within each solicitor's budget, and the firm's accounting processes ensure that people are not penalised for conducting pro bono work.

Pro bono matters do not get second-rate attention.

Solicitors are supervised on each pro bono file by a partner, as with any other file at the firm.The majority of the pro bono work is targeted towards assisting individuals with 'ordinary' legal problems, who have no capacity to afford a solicitor.

Most of the firm's pro bono clients are individuals with legal issues which would not perhaps otherwise attract the attention of a public interest lawyer or a lawyer prepared to act on a speculative basis.

One quarter of the total pro bono work is on behalf of community organisations and charities.

David Hillard is a lawyer and Clayton Utz's pro bono director.