Our Social Impact

Delivering a route out of domestic abuse

The SafeLives mission is as ambitious as it is inspiring: to end domestic abuse, for everyone and for good. It primarily does this by influencing government policy, driving improvements in the frontline response and raising awareness – including development of the ‘Ask for ANI’ codeword scheme, which will have been a lifeline for those needing urgent help during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

When Jamie Kennaugh, Partner in the Family team, who has been providing Pro Bono legal assistance to survivors of domestic abuse referred by SafeLives, came forward with concerns about a particular piece of paperwork, it was an eye-opening experience. It was through this work that Jamie realised the difficulty involved in filling out the C1A form, the court document in which allegations of domestic abuse are detailed and which can set the course in terms of how a matter is dealt with. “It suddenly came to me that this document is not fit for purpose. For someone who is suffering and has been through an abusive relationship, it is a very painful and damaging process.” SafeLives then sought feedback on the form from a range of domestic abuse survivors and has created a briefing document to take to the Ministry of Justice, with the aim of creating a revised form or process that does the same job without retraumatising survivors. Says Verona Blackford, Public Affairs and Policy Officer at SafeLives: “While we have a goal to change the system and make it more trauma informed, fixing this form felt like something that we could achieve in just a few months, and which could have a real impact.”

Over the past year, other members of the Family team, including Partner Sarah Higgins, Associates Henry Dawson and Zandra Beaumont and Trainee Solicitors Isabella MacPherson, Nicola Denison and Hilde Resseth (then a paralegal and now a Trainee), have also given Pro Bono support to survivors of domestic abuse during what can be a prolonged legal journey for them. This has included stepping in at short notice to represent successfully at Appeal a mother who had been engaged in proceedings since 2017 – largely representing herself at more than 20 hearings – in a matter involving a five-year-old child. We worked with a barrister (Juliet Chapman from 1 King’s Bench Walk who also acted pro bono) to represent the mother.

Jamie, along with other members of our Family practice, has acted Pro Bono for a variety of clients in complex and sensitive domestic abuse cases. Very recently, she celebrated “a brilliant result” in a complex case that had been referred to SafeLives by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner. The team found a barrister to act Pro Bono (Leonie James of 1 King’s Bench Walk) for a client who was unable to access legal aid and provided an outcome “which hopefully now gives her space to live her life without fear of court proceedings”.

“The combination of working with the Firm and the Foundation has resulted in a really good partnership – they're helping us reach into places we couldn't reach on our own, and to navigate a professional area that's not very familiar to us”

– Liz Thompson, Director of External Relations, SafeLives

Changing the culture

We’ve also helped SafeLives to secure funding from the Legal Education Foundation for a Cultural Change Training programme aimed at family law practitioners. Whereas current training around domestic abuse can be very skills focused, this multi-year project aims to promote greater understanding, especially of coercive and controlling behaviour. We are helping SafeLives to develop documentation and giving early feedback on the training, and have helped the charity promote the training to the legal community, with well over 100 legal professionals responding immediately to the outreach. “The support that we've had from Charles Russell Speechlys has helped us pump up our public affairs capacity and make a case to Government so that it understands what's really happening and where it can best intervene,” says Liz Thompson, SafeLives’ Director of External Relations. “The combination of working with the Firm and the Foundation has resulted in a really good partnership – they're helping us reach into places we couldn't reach on our own, and to navigate a professional area that's not very familiar to us.”

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