US firms work pro bono for UK terror victims

US law firms in London are working pro bono to help families of the 100 British victims of the 11 September terror attacks.US firms Arnold & Porter, Dechert, Broebeck Hale & Dorr, White & Case, Brown Rudnick Freed & Gesmer, Davis Polk & Wardwell and Dewey Ballantine were contacted by the Foreign Office and the Solicitors Pro Bono Group and asked to form a panel giving legal advice to families bereaved by the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.The lawyers have waived their income eligibility criteria and are giving advice pro bono on how to complete the affidavit required to obtain death certificates from the New York authorities.

If families have specific questions that cannot be answered by the firm - such as trust, will and probate enquiries - lawyers put them in touch with local specialists in New York.The UK-based pro bono initiative complements the work being done by US lawyers in New York (see [2001] Gazette, 4 October, 6).

A group of 130 volunteers has been working in shifts at a makeshift 'drop-in centre' in the city, helping bereaved families fill out affidavits.Felicity Kirk, pro bono officer at White & Case, said some families who came to the firm simply wanted to see a friendly face.

'Much of my role here is to liaise between the families and the lawyers in our New York office who are helping with the affidavits,' she said.

'Bereaved families need to have a point of contact at a firm who can tell them exactly what stage the process is at: the legal side, but also the practical details which need to be sorted out and tied up.'Victoria MacCallum