The City’s top firms should not be forced to create a pool of money to help fund access to justice, an event to launch a ‘pro bono charter’ heard today. In the latest sign of City coolness towards a compulsory levy to fill the gaps left by cuts to legal aid, Hogan Lovells chair Nicholas Cheffings suggested that a levy would distract firms’ attention from voluntary pro bono activities.
Instead advice centres and government departments should be told that investing in legal advice and similar services would actually save them money, the event heard.
The pro bono charter encourages solicitors and firms to sign up to a ‘statement of commitment’ to improving access to justice through providing pro bono services.
It was noted during the launch that pro bono ‘should not be seen as an alternative’ to legal aid, sparking a discussion about the best way to ensure as many people get access to justice.
The event heard that there is a tendency by some lawyers, particularly those at the larger City firms, to specialise in one area and that gaining knowledge of a secondary area of law, related to civil matters, could increase pro bono output.
Paul Yates, head of pro bono at magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, said young lawyers should start pro bono work as ‘early as possible’ during their training and have the necessary supervision.
The work of universities and law schools, many of which offer schemes for students to give advice to and represent clients, was also praised.
However, a suggestion that the government might see pro bono as a viable alternative to legal aid and that solicitors should ‘let the system’ fail in order to show the effects of legal aids cut was described by Hogan Lovells chair Nicholas Cheffings as ‘fantastical’ and a ‘reprehensible line of action’ for a legal professional to take.
One audience member said the large number of attendees at the event should be welcomed but suggested that the problem lay with ‘the people not in the room’ and that there was still work to be done to encourage pro bono participation.
Law Society president Robert Bourns said solicitors do ‘a huge amount’ of unsung pro bono work providing free legal services. ‘This ranges from larger firms supporting law centres or providing pro bono legal advice to charities, through to smaller firms giving free advice to clients who are unable to pay.’
Guy Beringer, chair of the Legal Education Foundation, said solicitors’ and advice centres’ ‘involuntary’ work, carried out when funding has dried up, should also be praised.
Bourns added: ‘The pro bono charter offers a framework to unite the solicitor profession’s pro bono strategies, policies and learning and further enhance the impact of the pro bono work carried out by our members.’
He added that the Society would continue to monitor the impact of legal cuts.
A pro bono manual, published at the same time, provides practical support for solicitors and firms to develop effective pro bono programmes.
This week is National Pro Bono Week in the UK.
The event, which celebrates the breadth and impact of pro bono work undertaken by the legal profession, is sponsored by the Law Society, the Bar Council and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.
Pro bono week: cold water poured on levy plan
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