NICHOLAS MURRAY DISCOVERS THAT NEARLY THREE QUARTERS OF ALL FIRMS OF SOLICITORS GIVE CASH DONATIONS TO CHARITIESNearly three quarters of UK law firms regularly give cash donations to charities.

Many large firms are besieged with requests for cash and sponsorship.

The tabloid press may rail against 'fat-cat lawyers' but there is little evidence that the profession is falling behind in the charitable giving stakes.That said, information on corporate donations is easier to come by than statistics on individual giving.

Charity fundraising and marketing has become more sophisticated but the sort of donor profile that would allow generalisations to be made about particular professional groups is still lacking.

Individuals are understandably coy about revealing what they donate, wishing to appear neither mean nor sanctimonious.The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) has carried out a 20-year study of charitable giving in conjunction with the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

It reveals that fewer people are donating to charity but those who do are giving more.

Overall, the top 500 fundraising charities are growing by about 11% a year.

One clear trend is a decline in charitable giving by young people, though the CAF is reluctant to stigmatise young people who may be attracte d more to direct action -- such as animal rights and anti-road protests -- than the establishment charities.Trainee Solicitors Group chairman Nick Armstrong is not surprised that young solicitors -- who are worse off than any comparable graduate profession and often carry debts after training of £7,000 -- find difficulty in giving.

However, he insists: 'I would resist strongly any suggestion that they are not generous.' Many give help in kind such as turning up at the local Citizens' Advice Bureau after work.

But the prospect of a generation of idealistic young professionals lost to the voluntary sector through being caught in a pincer movement of indebtedness and the long hours culture is real.The Law Society has carried out its own survey of a panel of more than 500 law firms -- excluding the largest -- which reveals that 72% of all firms give cash donations to charities.

Some 36% give benefits in kind, 31% sponsor and pay for events, 42% sit on charity and voluntary committees and half the firms do two or more of those activities.

This is quite apart from pro bono work which has been estimated to be worth £130 million a year (see below).The larger firms are often inundated by requests for donations and sponsorship.

One large provincial firm -- understandably not wishing to be identified -- admitted: 'We tend to be quite ruthless with it.' Others, such as Irwin Mitchell in Sheffield, have set up a charities committee to deal with the enormous number of requests for support that flood in.

But marketing manager Paul Wilson explains that sponsorship -- which is a business proposition -- is not the same as pure charitable giving.

'We try and divorce our charitable work from the marketing activity of the practice,' he says.

The one has an element of commercial payback, the other is 'something we feel we need to put back into the community'.During the summer, Eversheds Birmingham announced that it had set up a trust into which the partners committed themselves to donating £33,000 each year to local charities.

The Action in the Community Taskforce, as it is called, is pledged to match pound for pound charity donations made by individual members of staff.

Last year's profits were £24 million, but for struggling high street practices which may have no profits at all in a bad year, such gestures are beyond their wildest dreams.

Donations by individual partners and assistant solicitors are harder to track.

There are no statistics either about the total amounts given by solicitors as a distinct professional group or the types of charity -- establishment or unconventional -- that they support.Ten years ago, a group of Scottish solicitors came up with a novel idea.

In one month, solicitors were asked to waive their fee for making a will and invite their clients to donate an amount to charity instead.

A decade later, Will Aid has raised more than £3 million -- quite apart from any legacies that may come the way of the participating charities as a result of the scheme.

Will Aid -- which campaigns every other November including this one is frank about the benefits to participating firms.'Everyone wins', as Will Aid founder Graeme Pagan puts it.

'In 1996, most participating solicitors reported an increase in clients.

And as Will Aid also promotes a caring image, many stay loyal to your firm.' Individual charities are delighted with the scheme which Holly Ball of Christian Aid says is 'steadily growing'.The legal profession has its own charity, the Solicitors' Benevolent Association (SBA) (see [1997] Gazette, 18 June, 26), founded in 1858.

It is keen these days to dispel its old-fashioned image of ministering to genteel poverty at the seaside and makes the point that its loans and assistance often help lawyers in crisis during mid-career.

SBA deputy secretary Suzy Marshall is keen to build awareness of the charity's potential and to recruit more donations.

'We want to make the profession realise that we are an active society, and help many young solicitors who for particular reasons can't work and need financial support,' Ms Marshall explains.Only 17,000 of the 70,000-plus solicitors with practising certificates are currently members of the SBA.

'We would obviously like more,' says Ms Marshall.

Individuals tend to pay around £10 per head but some firms donate much more, as do many local law societies.

The charity's income also comes from legacies from lawyers, as well as an arrangement whereby unclaimed balances that cannot be traced are deposited with the SBA.British charities continue to enjoy high levels of support -- with cancer and international aid at the top and education and AIDS at the bottom of the CAF's top 500.

Corporate donations have risen by 4% from 1996 to 1997 -- the last year for which statistics were available.

There is no evidence to suggest that lawyers -- of the fat or thin cat variety -- are bucking any of these trends.For further details contact Will Aid tel: 0171 716 2171 and SBA tel: 0181 675 6440.ROBERT VERKAIK TALKS TO CITY FIRMS AND FIND THAT COMMERCIAL CRITERIA MUST BE APPLIED TO REQUESTS FOR PRO BONO ADVICEIt seems nothing in life is ever straightforward.

Even a lawyer's simple act of pledging pro bono support to a charity can be fraught with complications.

Many City law firms now have strict criteria which they adhere to when approached by charities requesting pro bono work.For instance, firms such as Clifford Chance have a conflict of interest policy which precludes their lawyers from acting for charities which might be supporting issues that run contrary to the Clifford Chance business plan.

In practice, this means that a charity which had clear objections to the methods employed by one of Clifford Chance's existing clients would not be regarded as a suitable pro bono candidate.'This would suit neither client,' says Felicity Kirk, the firm's community legal affairs executive.

The more thorny conflicts are passed onto Clifford Chance's conflicts group which gives a final ruling.Clifford Chance also avoids taking on charities propounding views which might be offensive to any member of it staff.

The firm's written guideline is clear: 'The work must not be dedicated to a religious, political or sectarian point of view so that it runs the risk of offending significant numbers of lawyers in the firm.'Other firms with significant charity departments have to be careful not to offer pro bono help to charities which might ruffle the feathers of charities they are already working for.

It can, if they are not careful, open them to the charge of favouritism or unprofessional service.Conversely, it can be easier for law firms such as Clifford Chance and Lovell White Durrant, which have a restricted charity practice, to pick and choose the charity that they would most like to help.But perhaps the overriding consideration is that the law firm is capable of providing the right advice.

'It has to be within our professional expertise and there has to be the enthusiasm to do the work,' adds Ms Kirk.

'After all, we don't force our lawyers to do pro bono work.'Yasmin Waljee, the pro bono officer at Lovell White Durrant, say s her firm likes to remain flexible about which charities it supports, but still casts an eye at the accounts of all charities looking for pro bono assistance.

Ms Waljee acknowledges that many charities can afford to pay for their legal advice.Both Ms Waljee and Ms Kirk accept there is the potential for charities to take advantage of pro bono work, if the work is not properly recorded and co-ordinated.

Ms Waljee says it is important to note that the charities themselves often have their own legal advisers (see page 30).Peta Sweet, director of the Solicitors Pro Bono Group, says pro bono charity advice makes sense for a legal business and can lead to more fee earning advice.

'It's like the first free interview if you are a high street firm and in a sense there's nothing wrong with that,' says Ms Sweet.

'Few lawyers are true altruists as much as I would like them to be.'Ms Sweet maintains there is a wider business case for doing this kind of work.

'It's good for staff development, good for morale, good for your reputation as well as being good for the charity you help at the end of the day.'Partner Jeanette Holland, chair of the pro bono committee at Baker & McKenzie, says it is important for the firm to support the smaller, less well known charities.

To this end, the firm has chosen as its two dedicated charities Body & Soul, an organisation which helps AIDS sufferers, and family and friends of sufferers, alongside the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

She also says lawyers should not hide their charity pro bono light under a bushel.

'If lawyers are providing pro bono assistance then I think they should say so,' says Ms Holland.

'It makes it easier to co-ordinate.'Baker & McKenzie, in common with around a dozen other law firms, plays a key role in Lawyers in the Community, a sub group of the Business in the Community charity.

The participating firms provide qualified lawyers who attend committees of voluntary organisations which serve a variety of purposes in the community.Most are charities.

Ms Holland says this kind of work tends to be of commercial assistance to the charities, advising on structure and constitution and even simple tasks such as how to take proper minutes.

The lawyers will also give legal advice.

'The sort of business experiences which commercial lawyers have acquired is extremely valuable on these occasions,' says Ms Holland.In the last 13 months, four City law firms have appointed permanent pro bono officers which co-ordinate the lawyers' pro bono work for charities and other free legal assistance work.

The Solicitors Pro Bono Group, established last year, has played an important role in raising the profile of this kind of function.Although there have been many positive developments in the last year, Peta Sweet argues that many firms should be more professional about how they organise their pro bono charity work.She says: 'It's always difficult with charities.' Lawyers, she explains, argue that the larger charities which can afford legal advice should not receive pro bono assistance.

But she says it is equally valid to say that the larger charities can reach out to more people.

'Law firms each make their own value judgement,' she adds.

'We encourage them to address these issues and put in place policies and procedures so that the firm and its partners and staff know how best to put its pro bono efforts into effect.'Some firms have a policy of only working for charities which have a turnover of under £100,000.

Ms Sweet suggests it is better to have fixed policies rather than basing a decision on cr iteria such as 'a relative who had kidney problems once'.

Ms Sweet says: 'If you are going to do it, then you have to treat it in the same way as any fee earning work.'But there is clearly a lot more work to be done.

Ms Sweet says: 'I've been into some of the large City firms and talked to trainees on induction and they just sit there with their Rolex watches on and cuff-links and look at you as if you are from another planet.'STEPHEN WARD FINDS OUT WHETHER THE SOLICITORS WHO LEFT PRIVATE PRACTICE TO WORK FOR CHARITIES ARE TRULY HAPPY ON A PITTANCE'It wasn't really me,' says Rachel Newman, describing her time at medium-sized City firm Fishburn Boxer.

'I wasn't unhappy, but I hated timesheets and billing targets.

I didn't want to clockwatch my time away.'Ms Newman trained at Fishburn Boxer and then worked in insurance litigation.

Five years ago, she followed her convictions and is now head of prosecutions for the RSPCA.She is typical of most solicitors who have left private practice to work for charities in that she regards it as a permanent change of direction.

'I recognise that I have left for good the office where other people are doing the same work as me and can expect to make partner after so many years, and get an annual pay review,' she says.John Gallagher, one of three solicitors who work for the charity Shelter -- which helps the homeless find and keep homes -- is even more sanguine.

He knows his salary will probably never go up by more than the cost of living.

The bottom line is that charities cannot afford more, so he and other solicitors in similar posts have to take the rate their employers can pay.

They all know that the more a charity spends on them, the less it can spend directly on its primary purpose.'However, I feel that the money they spend on the work I do contributes directly towards their primary aim,' adds Mr Gallagher.Deborah Cullen, the only solicitor employed by the British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), agrees.

'Charities are always anxious about spending, making sure they meet their budgetary targets for the year,' she says.But Catryn Edwards, head of the legal department at the Royal British Legion, the ex-serviceman's charity behind the annual Remembrance Sunday poppies, is like the other in-house solicitors when she says that despite the lower salaries she is content with her lot.

'The whole culture is completely different,' she says.

'It is more satisfying.'Given that the jump from commercial firm to charity is effectively irreversible, it is not surprising that most solicitors think long and hard before making the change.

In many cases, a crucial factor has been a commitment to the cause.In deciding she wanted to move away from timesheets, Ms Newman analysed her interests and wrote just one letter.

She was passionate about animal welfare, so the letter was to the RSPCA, pleading for a job.Mr Gallagher was working for a firm in Liverpool, doing almost entirely legal aid work, when he decided to make the switch to the voluntary sector in the early 1980s.

Mr Gallagher decided that the voluntary sector was the most efficient model for delivering legal services to the poor.

'I felt this strongly even though I was working in the late 1970s, a time when legal aid was much more freely available than it is today,' Mr Gallagher comments.

'Solicitors then would not have believed the legal aid restrictions which have been imposed now.'Ms Edwards qualified with Slaughter and May in the City, and worked there as a property lawyer, but she wanted a more hands-on job.

After seve n years, she moved to the Women's Royal Voluntary Association.

Then in 1997 she moved to the British Legion, which was setting up a legal department in-house for the first time.

Ms Edwards had the qualifications it needed.

'They have many regional branches, all with property, and they wanted someone with property expertise,' she explains.Ms Cullen wanted to specialise in child law, and moved from Hodders in Harlesden, north-west London, first to Hounslow Council, then to the BAAF, an umbrella group which has a large lawyer membership.Charities use external solicitors as well as in-house lawyers.

The Royal British Legion instructs the City firm Vizards for some specialist work.

The RSPCA has panels in each area for the actual court work.Shelter instructs Bates Wells & Braithwaite in the City when it needs specialist advice on charity law.

The BAAF uses external solicitors for employment and property expertise.

In fact, many large charities, including Oxfam and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) have no in-house lawyers, and put all their legal work out to private firms.One point that solicitors with charities insist on is that their status does not make them less efficient.

'This charity is as commercial as any profit-making organisation,' Ms Edwards says.

But she adds that there are cultural differences and the work is more hands on.

'In a large firm everybody specialises,' she says.

'But I now do a wider range of work than I was doing when I was in private practice.

I advice on fundraising, for example.' She has also become to some extent an expert in charity law.Ms Newman at the RSPCA agrees that 'the idea of job description goes out of the window'.

Her central role is to manage prosecutions for the RSPCA, advising the various local inspectors, in a sort of animal Crown Prosecution Service capacity, but she also gets asked to read for libel, gives a lot of employment advice, and handles some civil proceedings.Mr Gallagher at Shelter mentions that he is consulted on forthcoming legislation, and he also trains Shelter non-legal staff on the basis of his experience of casework.All these solicitors are clearly fulfilled in their jobs, which seems to more than offset the financial disadvantages of their choices.

Mr Gallagher describes how he is able to give extra advice and assistance through Shelter even if a client loses a legal action.

He is also able to conduct some cases when legal aid has been refused, and to give a better service than legal aid will pay for.Ms Cullen at the BAAF says that although there is not a career structure, she has a varied and interesting job, making sure all the staff are up-to- date with child law, responding to consultations on planned legislation, passing on developments to member agencies, training, writing in the journal for members and acting as the centre of a network of solicitors and other experts in childcare.Ms Newman at the RSPCA speaks enthusiastically of how successful legal action can prevent an animal from suffering, and is content enough not to have to give a second thought to her next career move.

'It's different everyday,' she says.

'Until I get bored, I don't have to face that.'THE DUTIES OF CHARITY TRUSTEES, BY ANNE-MARIE PIPERThe term 'charity trustees' is defined in s 97(1) of the Charities Act 1993 as 'the persons having the general control and management of the administration of a charity'.Charities can be established using a variety of legal structures including trust, company, unincorporated association, royal charter, industrial and provident society, fri endly society, statute and Charity Commission Scheme.

Many of these structures bring with them particular duties for charity trustees -- for example, compliance with statutory filing obligations.In addition, there are a number of general duties which apply to trustees irrespective of the legal structure of their charity.

These include:-- At all times, to act in the best interests of the charity.-- To familiarise themselves with the terms of the charity's governing documents.-- To use the assets of the charity only for the purposes set out in its governing documents.-- To act within the powers conferred on them by the governing documents or the law.-- To act without remuneration save for reimbursement of reasonable out of pocket expenses, unless there is a provision in the governing documents to the contrary.-- To avoid and/or deal appropriately with conflicts between the interests of the charity and their personal or other interests.-- To exercise proper stewardship over the charity's assets and the running of the charity.CHARITY LAW: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS BY ANNE-MARIE PIPERCharitable statusThe big event of the year for charity lawyers was the publication in May of a consultation document entitled 'Framework for the Review of the Register of Charities' -- now widely known as the 'framework document' -- together with two detailed position papers, on unemployment and urban and rural regeneration.These papers form part of the commission's project to review charities on its register for the first time since the register was established in 1960.

As the framework document makes clear, this is a three-part project:-- An examination of charities on the register to see whether they are charitable according to current charity law.-- The issue, for consultation, of guidelines on topics where the law is currently unclear and/or potentially in need of review and/or development.-- Consultation to develop 'a clear and simple statement to assist the review that will cover:(a) the principles that currently underpin the law of charity; and(b) the boundaries within which charities should work and be governed, reflecting the nature and ethos of charity, which can be backed up, as far as possible, by informed consensus, to help the understanding of how the legal concept of charity has to develop to deal with changing social needs and circumstances.'Charity lawyers are agreed that the first part of the project is much needed and long overdue and that the second part is both a practical and a sensible way forward.

However, it seems there are few fans of the third part of the project which introduces into the technical subject of the law on charitable status all sorts of issues some of which have little to do with charitable status or registration.The framework document lists other position papers which the commission expects to issue shortly.

Practitioners will need to be vigilant to find out about these and to ensure that they make an appropriate response on behalf of their clients.There is no doubt that the review project will profoundly influence the development of the law on charitable status.

Another major influence will be the Human Rights Bill, due to become law during 1999.

The commission is likely to come within the definition of a 'public body' for the purposes of the new law and this means that it will have a new and enforceable obligation, in carrying out its functions, to comply with scheduled provisions of the International Convention on Human Rights.The balance of legal thinking is that this leg islation is not only going to affect the way in which the commission works but, more importantly, the law which it has to apply.

It is likely that a number of areas of charity law will be fundamentally affected.

Given this, it is perhaps surprising that the issue was not identified by the commission for early comment in one of the review position papers.One area of the framework document about which there has already been a great deal of debate are the circumstances in which, on an application for registration as a charity, the commission is entitled to look at activities of an organisation.

This matter was considered by the court in the as yet unreported case of Southwood and Another v Attorney General for which practitioners are eagerly awaiting publication of the case transcript.The Charity Commission's powersThis summer saw a crop of unreported cases dealing with the commission's powers under the Charities Act 1993.

In Scargill and Cave v Attorney General, Chancery Division, Neuberger J, in a lengthy judgment, dealt with the parameters for the exercise of the power of removal of trustees under s 18 of the Charities Act 1993.In Weth v Attorney General, The Times, 12 October 1998, the question arose as to whether the commissioners should be a party to an appeal against the exercise of their powers under s 18 of the Charities Act 1993.

The Court of Appeal rules that they need not be and it was sufficient if the Attorney-General, as protector of charity, was present before the court.

The court recognised that there might be exceptional circumstances where it was appropriate for the commissioners to be a party and, of course, the commissioners might choose to be a party in cases where there was some special interest for the commission.National LotteryThe National Lottery Act 1998 made substantial changes to the way in which funds from the lottery will be distributed.

The shares of the organisations entitled to distribute money to good causes have been changed to accommodate two new good causes: National Endowment for Sport and the Arts and the New Opportunities Fund.

The National Lottery Charities Board and the other distributing bodies also received new powers under the Act, for example, they can now delegate their grant-making functions -- subject to certain safeguards -- and they can also join forces to run joint grant-making schemes.

Distribution bodies are also required to draw up strategic plans and to distribute their shares of the lottery funds in accordance with those plans.TaxationThe outcome of the long awaited charity tax review, lead by Customs & Excise, and first promised for Spring 1998, has still to appear, schedules for late October 1998.The main point of interest in the Budget was the Millennium Gift Aid which has a lower threshold -- of £100 rather than the usual £250 -- for gifts to aid certain listed countries in the developing world.

There were also provisions to grant tax relief to business which provide goods for the same purpose.Millennium Gift Aid is time limited and it is to be hoped that it does not mark the beginning of a trend away from the principle that charity tax reliefs are available to all.

However, with the ever increasing number of charities and a government short of funds for its other programmes this must be a risk.Other developments applicable to charitiesThere have been a number of legislative developments which will have a serious impact on charities including:-- The Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997 SI 1997/3032 which came into force on 1 January 1998 and which bring into English law the terms of the EU Directive on the legal protection of databases.-- The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 which, from 1 December 1998, will affect charities employing 15 or more people.-- The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interests) Act 1998 which when it comes into force will affect charities and their trading subsidiaries.There were also developments in the courts, in two non-charity cases which will have a bearing on charity trustees.

In Wight v Olswang, The Times, 17 August 1998, the court ruled that if there is any doubt about the scope of the trustee indemnity clause it will be construed against the trustees.

In Edge v Pensions Ombudsman 1998 3 WLR 466, the court considered the subject of the inherent conflicts of interest for member/trustees of pension schemes.

This case is likely to offer food for thought for charity lawyers if the trend towards 'user trustees' continues.-- The framework document and the position papers are available from the Charity Commission's offices; tel: 0171 210 4477 and from the Internet, http://www/charitycommission.gov.ek/).