Understanding pro bono motivations and barriers

This year we conducted a pro bono survey with all of our UK lawyers to understand more about their motivations and barriers to participation, the social issues that interest them, and how we can engage more lawyers in our practice.

The survey results highlighted that lawyers are interested in undertaking pro bono work and are proud to work for a Firm that offers such opportunities. Our UK lawyers also noted that they would be more likely to participate if pro bono is treated equivalently to chargeable work and incorporated into their utilisation reports and daily targets.

We have acted on these findings and updated our finance system, with pro bono now treated as equivalent to chargeable work for internal purposes.

This is part of a wider strategy to boost pro bono participation rates across our groups and divisions within the Firm. To drive participation, we have set a pilot KPI as of 1st November 2023 of 6 hours pro bono per lawyer for the remainder of the financial year (12 hours for the full year if pro-rated). Following the pilot, a further KPI will be set for the full financial year 24/25.

Windrush Legal Initiative: Innovative pro bono collaboration to support those impacted by the Windrush scandal

In April 2021, Charles Russell Speechlys joined forces with the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit and seven leading law firms to establish the ‘Windrush Legal Initiative’.

Through this initiative, our lawyers have provided pro bono assistance to clients seeking to claim compensation through the Home Office’s Windrush Compensation Scheme.

The Windrush Generation refers to citizens of the Commonwealth who arrived in the UK from 1948—1973. They were incentivised to come to the UK by the Government to work in sectors impacted by post-war labour shortages and promised the right to live permanently in the UK.

In 2017, details of the Windrush scandal emerged, revealing that thousands of immigrants who arrived during that period had been wrongly detained, deported, denied their rights, and subjected to terrible injustices at the hands of the UK Government.

Charles Russell Speechlys is currently assisting nine claimants, and as part of this work, we have onboarded intermediary Grant Thornton to provide innovative forensic accountancy support for our clients. The innovative collaboration has gone from strength to strength, receiving a commendation at The Lawyer Awards 2023.

Through this work, we have gained greater insight into the devastating effects of the Windrush scandal. Our clients have had their families and lives torn apart—births, deaths, marriages, graduations, and many other milestones missed, all the while enduring devastating financial losses and missed opportunities.

Legal Advice Clinics: Access to justice in the cost of living crisis

Decades of welfare reform[1] and rising inflation have left millions of people living in Britain in a cost of living crisis. One in six UK households (4.4 million) are estimated to be in ‘serious financial difficulties’, compared to one in ten households (2.8 million) in October 2021[2] and they tend to be in some of the already most deprived areas of the country.

As part of our work to support these vulnerable individuals, the Firm runs weekly pro bono legal advice clinics in partnership with frontline legal advice centres, focusing on Family, Employment, and Social Housing law.

As part of our Social Housing Law clinic, in partnership with the Legal Advice Centre (University House), we advise on disrepair and reallocation of housing. The individuals we speak with often present with a myriad of issues, and as well as facing desperate living conditions, could be elderly, have a disability and be accessing benefits. The Firm has recently increased its appointments to three per week due to demand, and there is clearly a greater need for much more support.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/01/the-decade-that-broke-britain-the-disastrous-decisions-that-left-millions-in-a-cost-of-living-crisis

[2] https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2022/july/increase-in-ukhouseholds-financial-difficulties.html#:~:text=One%20in%20six%20UK%20households,any%20point%20during%20the%20pandemic.

Bearing in mind the needs of those living in “legal advice deserts” outside of London, our family and employment clinics partner with Plymouth Citizens Advice with the aim of supporting those living in the South-West who cannot afford legal advice, are not eligible for legal aid and cannot access pro bono services locally. These two clinics were initially set up as innovative webcam clinics during the COVID-19 lockdown, aimed at reaching people outside London in areas where pro bono help is scarce.

We have extended the pool of specialist support available to vulnerable people living in the South-West with a new partnership with family firms. Family lawyers working at Hunters LLP and Withers LLP have joined our partnership and were added to our clinic rota. Our support enabled them to use our telephone pro bono clinic structure and engage in high-impact pro bono work. As a result, the pool of lawyers available to meet the increasing need for free advice has significantly grown.

Our collaborative project targets family firms that do not have the resources or capacity to develop or manage a pro bono clinic infrastructure directly and aims to change the way in which pro bono work is practiced in the family justice sector.