Pro bono

Pro bono – access to justice

Our pro bono initiatives are designed to give individuals and organisations, both at home and abroad, the opportunity to access levels of legal advice that would not normally be obtainable.

We provide free legal advice and representation to individuals and community groups, both in the UK and abroad, who cannot afford to pay and where public funding is not available.

Our work in this area includes partnerships with law centres across London where trainees and qualified solicitors attend as volunteer advisors on a broad range of legal issues.

We also advise several charities, including our long-standing charity partners, on strategic and business issues, allowing them to focus on providing their much-needed services.

Refugees at Home

https://www.refugeesathome.org/

We have provided extensive pro bono support to Refugees at Home, a charity that connects those with a spare room in their home with refugees in need of accommodation. In 2016, we were honoured to receive three awards for our involvement in this project:

“Law in the Community/Pro Bono Award”: Halsbury Legal Awards
“CSR Initiative of the year”: British Legal Awards
“Best contribution by a firm with a London head office”: LawWorks Awards

City YMCA London

http://www.cityymca.org

We have provided pro bono legal advice to City YMCA London for several years. The bulk of our support has focused on the following two areas:

Construction of a new 146 bed hostel. We have provided a range of advice to support this £22 million construction project. This has included general legal, real estate and construction law and finance advice. City YMCA made us a ‘Room Sponsor’ in recognition of our extensive pro bono contribution.
Merger of City YMCA with YMCA North London. We have provided general legal advice to City YMCA in relation to the merger, including assisting in negotiations between the parties, project planning, as well as specifically on pensions.

Our relationship with City YMCA goes well beyond pro bono legal advice and is a good example of an integrated CSR commitment to a charity partner. For example, our Partnership Board took part in a ‘Sleep Out’ to highlight City YMCA’s work. We have also provided financial support via our Foundation.

A4ID

http://www.a4id.org

We support Advocates for International Development (A4ID) - a global charity that works with lawyers to promote international development and eradicate global poverty through its pro bono broker and legal education services.

We also provide pro bono legal support to a number of our long standing charity partners, including Stonewall, Series Q, Giving Time, Mind, Brighter Futures Zambia, and many more.

Read Sam Cottman Profile