Welcome to the October 2014 edition of National Pro Bono News, from the National Pro Bono Resource Centre.

We welcome your feedback/contributions/ideas – please email info@nationalprobono.org.au.

In this edition, read about:

1. NEWS: Target’s influence continues to grow
2. REPORT: Survey results show pro bono growth in a time of change for large firms
   
3. NEWS: Victorian Court of Appeal unanimously says contingent liability to pay costs satisfies the indemnity principle
4. PUBLICATIONS: Volunteering and pro bono partnerships: CLCs working collaboratively
   
5. UPDATE: JusticeNet SA’s Self Representation Service success
   
6. CONFERENCE: 3rd Annual Asia Pro Bono Conference illustrates the power of pro bono
7. JOBS: For the latest jobs check out Social Justice Opportunities
   
8. PRO BONO IN THE NEWS: August – October 2014
   

The results of the seventh annual performance report of the National Pro Bono Aspirational Target, released this month, show that after seven years, the influence of the Target as a tool to drive pro bono performance continues to grow.

Of the 20 largest firms in Australia¹, 17 are now signatories to the Target of at least 35 hours of pro bono legal work per lawyer per year. Ten of these signatory firms (59%) met or exceeded the Target in 2013/2014.

Nearly 11,000 Australian legal professionals are now covered by the Target. Those reporting (84%) performed a total of 365,716 hours of pro bono legal work, equivalent to 203.2 lawyers working pro bono full-time for one year, or an average of 34.2 pro bono hours per lawyer per year.

The number of lawyers covered by the Target grew by 20% during the year, with the total number of hours reported under the Target growing by 24% due in large part to two large international firms becoming signatories this year. Approximately 47% of all reporting signatories indicated that they had met or exceeded the Target.

The growth in the number of signatories to the Target and the fact that almost half of them either met or exceeded it in 2013/14 demonstrates that it remains well-positioned as a benchmark for the conduct of pro bono legal work across the entire Australian legal profession. It provides a robust and achievable goal for all Australian law firms and, in conjunction with the Commonwealth government’s pro bono conditions in their ‘Legal Services Multi-Use List’ for purchasing legal services from the private profession, is effective in encouraging law firms to support and develop the pro bono legal culture, practices and programs within their firms.

The pro bono performance of Target signatories is better compared to non-signatories in relation to all the key metrics, and is consistently stronger in firms which have been Target signatories for a longer period of time. For example, firms which have been signatories for at least three years reported an average of 39.2 pro bono hours per lawyer compared with an average of 34.1 hours per lawyer for all signatories.

The Seventh Annual Performance Report on the National Pro Bono Aspirational Target is available in full online.

¹ By number of FTE lawyers as at 1 July 2014.

The decision of the Victorian Court of Appeal in Manieri & Anor v Cirillo [2014] VSCA 227 has confirmed that a conditional costs agreement, where a client being represented on a pro bono basis is liable to pay costs if a costs award is made in their favour, satisfies the indemnity principle. This decision brings much needed certainty to the issue of whether a party who is represented on a pro bono basis can be awarded costs.

The indemnity principle means that costs cannot be awarded to a party unless they have an obligation to pay their lawyer. A costs agreement that creates this obligation before the time when the costs order is to be made creates a “condition precedent”. A costs agreement that provides that the client only has to pay the lawyer if they are able to recover costs from the other party creates a “condition subsequent”. In the pro bono context, the costs agreement often creates a condition subsequent.

Whether such a “condition subsequent” in the costs agreement creates sufficient legal liability between the client and the lawyer to be the basis of an indemnity upon which a court can make a costs order, has been in doubt for some time. Courts have grappled with the circularity of the argument: the client has no obligation to pay the lawyer until a costs award is made, but costs cannot be awarded unless the client already has an obligation to pay the lawyer.

In the NSW Court of Appeal decision of Wentworth v Rogers (2006) 66 NSWLR 474, Santow JA thought it did not matter whether the condition was expressed as a condition precedent or subsequent in order to justify a costs order.  However, Basten JA thought that there was a fatal circularity when the condition “made the existence of a right to charge dependent on recovery of the monies from which the charges would be paid and was of the view that there may be no extant legal obligation to be indemnified even when a costs order is made”. 

In the Queensland Court of Appeal decision of King v King [2012] QCA 81, Chesterman JA expressed a preference for Basten JA’s analysis in Wentworth, and White JA said in a very short judgment that he agreed with the reasons of Chesterman JA. While the judgement did not turn on this point, and Wilson JA expressly declined to provide a view on ‘the circularity argument’, the decision clearly supported the view of Basten JA.

In Manieri, the Victorian Court of Appeal unanimously agreed with the views of Santow JA in Wentworth, and expressly rejected the reasons identified by Basten JA as justifying the opposite view. The Court also warned against a “triumph of form over substance”.

“…[A]lthough it may be that an obligation to pay fees which is conditional on the actual recovery of costs would not impose a sufficient obligation to warrant an order for costs in accordance with the indemnity principle, logically it does not follow that an obligation to pay costs which is conditional on obtaining a costs order ought not be regarded as sufficient.”

In reaching this the decision, the Court recognised that the ongoing contingent obligation was not only “of a kind for which the Act expressly provides” but also regarded by the law as “just and socially desirable”.

Lawyers acting pro bono in litigious matters have typically used a form of conditional costs agreement which provides that the lawyer will charge the client for their services only if the client is awarded costs in the matter and only to the extent that the client is actually able to recover costs from the losing party (condition subsequent). However following the decision in King, many lawyers acting on a pro bono basis in litigious matters have drafted costs agreements to ensure that the client’s legal obligation to pay costs arises at the point at which the client is entitled to receive any benefit or financial compensation and not at any later point in time (condition precedent).  This is akin to a no win/no fee agreement.

It is a positive and welcome development to have certainty provided by the Victorian Court of Appeal decision in Manieri, subject to any appeal, that this form of conditional costs agreement satisfies the indemnity principle. However, the Centre maintains that it would be preferable for legislative reform to make it clear that courts can award costs in pro bono matters regardless of whether the client has contractually indemnified the lawyer for costs.  Acting pro bono is significantly different from acting on a no win/no fee basis and the law on costs should reflect this. This change has already occurred in the United Kingdom.

The key issue is not costs recovery but ensuring that a level playing field exists between the parties in relation to their exposure to the risk of paying the other’s costs.  Without this level playing field the party being represented on a pro bono basis is at a significant disadvantage when it comes to negotiating a settlement offer.

For more information from Clayton Utz, the firm that ran the case on a pro bono basis, see Lawyers acting pro bono for successful litigant can recover costs from losing party, by David Hillard.

Every year, thousands of hours of free legal help for the community are channelled through community legal centres (CLCs).  Two recent publications by the National Association of Community Legal Centres illustrate how CLCs facilitate the volunteer programs (said over the years to be the lifeblood of CLCs) and pro-bono partnerships with law firms that have increasingly facilitated CLCs to provide their services, to strategically tackle unmet legal need and to improve social justice for disadvantaged or marginalised groups.

Lawyers who work at community legal centres usually choose their job because they want to use their expertise to help those most in need – the family facing eviction, the young person being treated unfairly at work, the woman trying to escape family violence or the elderly person trapped in an unfair credit contract.  These motivations also induce private lawyers to become involved.

Private solicitor, Ron Lawford, has been volunteering at the Darwin CLC for over 20 years.  Ron supervises the legal advice clinic on Monday nights.  He finds the work rewarding, and he says it keeps him in touch with the “grassroots”, as he helps with day-to-day legal problems such as financial matters, family disputes and employment issues.

Richard Adamczyk started volunteering at Western Suburbs CLC in Melbourne when he was a law student, but in the 11 years since he was admitted to practice as a lawyer, he has continued to volunteer regularly.  Richard finds this work very satisfying, and the CLC says that volunteers have enabled them to expand the service they provide.

Marrickville Legal Centre in Sydney is one of around 150 CLCs around Australia that have pro-bono partnerships with private law firms.  Since 2007, law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth has helped by providing lawyers to the centre to provide advice and casework to clients.  One of these lawyers, Annabel Lee, who helped at the centre’s specialist youth legal service said, “It was extremely rewarding to be able to assist these young people and provide a positive contribution to their lives”.

The Arts Law Centre of Australia introduced an “adopt a lawyer” program, which links up private law firms with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community arts centres.  The arts centres appreciate access to legal help on governance and contractual issues which might otherwise be unavailable to them.

AED Legal Centre specialises in disability employment issues.  A partnership with two law firms and the Victorian bar enabled the centre to run a case for underpaid disabled workers.  The outcome of this important case impacted about 20,000 people with disability.

Pro bono and volunteer legal services are not a substitute for properly funded legal assistance through community legal centres and legal aid offices, but they make a very valuable contribution that increases access to justice for disadvantaged clients.

Many more examples of the astonishing commitment of individual volunteers (lawyer and non-lawyer) and the achievements of pro bono partnerships are highlighted in the Working collaboratively publications on volunteer and pro bono contributions.

Volunteer programs and pro bono partnerships provide benefits for clients as well as the lawyers providing the services.  They also benefit the community as a whole by the provision of legal help with issues that could escalate (and increase pressure on the legal system) if not addressed.

Of about 150 centres that responded to the survey, 131 used volunteers comprising of about 4,500 volunteers contributing about 25,000 hours per week – over 85 per cent of those hours from lawyers or law students.

In addition, of these about 150 CLCs, 60% reported having worked with a pro bono partner in the previous year with over 50,000 hours being provided to the Centres and their clients (over 40,000 hours of direct help to clients) through pro bono partnerships.

For those interested in volunteering at a CLC start by looking at www.clcvolunteers.net.au to identify centres near you that may be seeking volunteers.

The Working Collaboratively reports can be found here. 

A year after launching its Self-Representation Service (SRS) in the Supreme Court of South Australia as a 12 month pilot project, JusticeNet SA continues to provide pro bono assistance to self-represented litigants and has now expanded the service to the Federal Court.

JusticeNet’s SRS is closely modelled on the SRSs operated by the Queensland Public Interest Law Clearinghouse (QPILCH) since 2007. Similar services were launched last month by JusticeConnect in Sydney and Melbourne to support self-represented litigants in the Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court.

Like the QPILCH SRSs, JusticeNet SA’s SRSs have been very successful in diverting unmeritorious matters from court. The majority of the matters in respect of which assistance has been sought, fall into two categories – appellate proceedings or mortgagee repossession proceedings.

With regard to appellate matters, as at May 2014, seven of nine clients who were advised by the SRS against commencing an appeal, to withdraw an appeal already underway or to refrain from commencing proceedings, appear to have accepted that advice.

The assistance provided in respect of possession-related matters has helped disadvantaged clients to avoid repossession or at least mitigate its impact.  For example, one client sought assistance to prevent repossession of the marital home pending the outcome of Family Court proceedings. The SRS helped the client to make an application to vary the possession orders to extend the time to deliver possession of the property to the lender.  Other clients have been aided in negotiating hardship arrangements with lenders or to set aside improperly obtained orders.

An interesting observation of JusticeNet SA based on its experience of running the SRS is that a client is more likely to accept the advice of the service to settle, discontinue or refrain from commencing an action when that advice is coupled with practical legal task assistance. In its submission to the Productivity Commission, JusticeNet SA offered the following explanations, which highlight the value of the SRS early in the litigation process and throughout the course of a matter:

• practical assistance allows for a stronger relationship to develop between service and client, which in turn allows for the service to deliver more persuasive advice; and
• the process of providing legal assistance on specific tasks, and the client obtaining a tangible result as a result of that assistance, demonstrates to the client the complexity of the legal matter that he or she faces and reinforces the difficult and time consuming road ahead in prosecuting their case.

Lawyers on the SRS roster, supported by law student volunteers provided by Flinders University, provide such practical assistance.  This may include ensuring litigants have the correct information to appear in court, have properly drafted documents and forms, have obtained advice on options for alternative dispute resolution and have received an explanation of court processes and gained some understanding of these.

Elizabeth Boxall, Referrals Lawyer, Tim Graham, Executive Director, JusticeNet SA

and Deborah Ankor, Director of Professional Programmes, Flinders University

Finlaysons, a South Australian-based firm, is one of the firms providing pro bono legal assistance via the JusticeNet SA SRS. However, given their strong banking practice and client base and the risk of associated conflict issues, they do not provide assistance in respect of any possession, bankruptcy or winding up proceedings or other issues arising in a banking/finance context.

Kirsten Dow, Head of Finlaysons’ Pro Bono Committee, noted that the SRS has provided a great opportunity for Finlaysons to increase its pro bono contribution.

“The SRS provides a readily accessible opportunity for a firm to provide pro bono legal assistance in both a meaningful and manageable manner.”

Kirsten is responsible for rostering and supervising Finalysons’ lawyers who participate in the SRS and has seen the benefits for the lawyers involved.

“Participating in the SRS can be a very rewarding experience for our lawyers, particularly those who are ordinarily engaged in a solely corporate-focussed legal practice.  It allows our more junior lawyers to further develop their communication, legal skills and experience in an entirely different environment (and often in unique areas outside of their usual practice). They are appropriately supervised by more experienced lawyers with expertise in that specialty area, and have the opportunity to work with a different client base and feel as though they are making a contribution of a very different nature.”

On the occasions when Kirsten has provided advice to self-represented litigants as part of the SRS she said she has found it personally rewarding.

“It is very rewarding to see someone’s outlook and demeanour change after a consultation – often it means so much for a lawyer to have listened to them and to demystify some of the process.”

For more information about the SRS see JusticeNet’s website at www.justicenet.org.au/srs.html

The 3rd Annual Asia Pro Bono Conference held this year in Singapore has just closed. What was remarkable about it was how it illustrated the power of the concept of pro bono to make positive change in the region. The idea of lawyers doing free legal work for the public good was embraced not only through the traditional idea of helping indigent people, and the organisations that support them, with legal services but also as a tool to strengthen the rule of law and bar associations in the region, to help develop legal aid systems, and to help law students to learn about the law and go into the community to tell others about laws and human rights.

The power of this conference was demonstrated by the passionate expressions of speakers about what pro bono means to them, the broad community engagement at this conference and the diverse range of associated meetings that this conference spawned over nearly a week. The conference theme of “Public Private People Partnerships” resonated with the 350 plus delegates from over 25 countries, who attended. Conference proceedings were interpreted live into the languages of Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam and into English.

Mark Woods, Chair, Access to Justice Committee, Law Council of Australia with (l-r) Bar Association representatives from the

Philippines and Singapore, Malathi Das (Panel Chair), and Bar Association representatives from Malaysia, Laos and Myanmar

Meetings between legal aid organisations, pro bono coordinators, and university law schools took place around the conference. A full third day to the conference was devoted to the issue of law students and pro bono.

Strong speeches from the Senior Minister of the State Ministry of Law and Education in Singapore, a Judicial Commissioner from the State courts of Singapore, and the President of the Law Society of Singapore demonstrated their joint commitment to improve pro bono legal services in Singapore. More details on some of the recent initiatives taken and a full report of the conference will be provided in the next edition of National Pro Bono News.

Much of the thanks for this stimulating conference must go to the hosts, The Law Society of Singapore, the National University of Singapore, BABSEA CLE and BABSEA CLE Singapore, but also to the speakers at this and the previous Asia pro bono conferences who have so generously contributed their experiences. This shared knowledge has led to many people gaining not only a great enthusiasm for pro bono but also a much clearer understanding of how to develop a stronger pro bono culture in their respective countries.

Save the date NOW to join us at the 4th Annual Asia Pro Bono Conference and Legal Ethics Forum to be held in Mandalay in Myanmar from 4-7 September 2015. Further information is available on the conference website.

U Hla Ko, Mandalay Bar Association (with others from the Myanmar delegation) receiving the banner for the

next Asia Pro Bono Conference from Lok Vi Ming, SC, President, The Law Society of Singapore

Check out Social Justice Opportunities (www.sjopps.net.au) for information on finding a job or volunteering in the social justice sector. The website includes a ‘Latest Opportunities’ section, which provides a list of current employment and volunteering opportunities around the country.

To keep abreast of all the latest opportunities you can join almost 1,600 people following @SJOpps on Twitter or join more than 800 liking us on Facebook.

If you would like to advertise a social justice job or volunteer position on the site, particularly one aimed at law students or new lawyers, please email us for details. It’s easy and free!

Here’s what’s going on in the Twitter feed right now:

Tweets by @SJOpps

Articles of interest to the pro bono community from August to October 2014. Click through to read any news article in full.

AUSTRALIA

Taking good care of yourself includes getting legal help [media release]
6 October 2014 – Justice Connect

Justice Connect Seniors Law has urged Victorian seniors not to be afraid to seek legal advice, even for what might seem at first like a trivial matter, during the 2014 Victorian Seniors Festival. Seniors Law offers free legal help to older Victorians who can’t get legal assistance any other way, through connecting pro bono lawyers drawn from the Victorian legal community to those who need them.

Australian Law Firms Hit Pro Bono Targets

6 October 2014 – LawFuel
Australian lawyers at the top firms either met or exceeded their pro bono quotas, according to the Australian National Pro Bono Resource Centre, which involved an annual target of 35 hours per lawyer per year. The target was reached by over half of the top 20 firms. Seventeen firms are signatories to the target. Among the recent additions to the group are Herbert Smith Freehills, King & Wood Mallesons, Holding Redlich and Gadens among the more recent additions.

Lawyers scramble to sign up for national target to do it for free [paywall]

3 October 2014 – The Australian
The amount of free legal work provided by the nation’s lawyers is booming, driven by government policies and strong growth in the number of lawyers who aim to complete 35 hours of pro bono work every year. Lawyers who have adopted this national pro bono target undertook 365,716 hours of free work last financial year – an increase of 24.2 per cent – which is the equivalent of just over 203 lawyers working full-time for a year.

Large law smashes pro bono target

2 October 2014 – Lawyers Weekly
Over half of the 17 Australian top 20 law firms signed on to an aspirational annual target of 35 hours of pro bono work per lawyer met or exceeded it last financial year. The National Pro Bono Resource Centre released its annual performance report on the National Pro Bono Aspirational Target today. Seventeen out of the 20 largest firms in Australia are signatories to the Target, with Herbert Smith Freehills, King & Wood Mallesons, Holding Redlich and Gadens among the more recent additions.

Top pro bono lawyers find rewarding work

30 September 2014 – Lawyers Weekly
The Pro Bono Award finalists at this year’s Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards are as diverse as they are impressive… Corrs Chambers Westgarth lawyer Krista McMeeken… Kathryn Booth is a director at Maurice Blackburn… HopgoodGanim partner Freda Wigan and special counsel Lisa Lahey… A partner and the head of pro bono at Wotton + Kearney, Heidi Nash-Smith… Claire Schneider, a senior associate at Norton Rose Fulbright.

Charles Darwin Uni to help asylum seekers get legal representation in collaboration with Harvard

25 September 2014 – ABC News
Charles Darwin University (Darwin) has created a program to pair law students with firms in the Territory that wish to provide legal assistance to asylum seekers. In consultation with local practices and Ms Ardalan of Harvard University – which runs a similar program – the course has been designed to bridge the gap between students and firms while allowing practices to work for asylum seekers without charging them a fee.

Clayton Utz win for elderly widow provides certainty around costs awards in pro bono litigation [media release]

19 September 2014 – Clayton Utz
Clayton Utz welcomes a decision of the Victorian Court of Appeal that has clarified the issue of whether a successful party in litigation who is represented on a pro bono basis can be awarded costs. The Court’s decision in Mainieri & Anor v Cirillo confirms the entitlement to such a costs award, giving much needed certainty to a previously grey issue in pro bono representation.

Legal battle to save dog Izzy will go to High Court

15 September 2014 – The Age
The legal battle to save four-year Staffordshire terrier Izzy from death row will go to the High Court. Mother-of-five Tania Isbester has been fighting to save Izzy from being put down since the dog was seized by Knox City Council officers in June last year. Barrister Graeme McEwen, founder of the Barristers Animal Welfare Panel and one of the lawyers working pro bono to help Ms Isbester, confirmed the case would go to the High Court after Ms Isbester lost her last-ditch appeal to save Izzy in the Court of Appeal.

Legal aid restored for family violence victims

1 September 2014 – The Border Mail
Victoria Legal Aid will restore free legal help for family violence victims in child custody battles, reversing cuts that left some to face their attackers in court alone. The organisation stopped funding legal assistance for people in the Family Court if they were against a person who was also without a lawyer last year, amid drastic cuts to its services to save money.

Two million NSW residents get free legal help [media release]

1 September 2014 – NSW Department of Justice
The State Government’s free legal information service LawAccess NSW has reached a new milestone answering two million calls since it began operating in September 2001. Attorney General Brad Hazzard said LawAccess assisted a record 205,613 callers in 2013/14 – an increase of almost 5% on the previous year.

Asylum seekers get big law backing

29 August 2014 – Lawyers Weekly
The head of Maurice Blackburn’s social justice practice has claimed the firm’s recently-filed class action is the most effective means of seeking redress for any injured asylum seekers on Christmas Island. Full-time pro bono lawyer and practice leader Elizabeth O’Shea told Lawyers Weekly that while Maurice Blackburn has a long history of advocating for asylum seekers on an individual basis, it’s class action that could better serve the dozens of alleged victims of abuse or neglect while in detention.

INTERNATIONAL

CANADA

Pro Bono Canada to hold its first National Pro Bono Conference

24 September 2014 – Canadian Lawyer
As legal aid budgets are squeezed, more members of the public are looking for pro bono services to help with their legal needs. Into that gap comes the recently formed Pro Bono Canada. The organisation, incorporated last autumn, will be having it’s coming-out party at the National Pro Bono Conference in Regina this week, which will be for many lawyers their first exposure to the organization.

Denied legal aid in Alberta? There’s now a toll-free number to help you get it

29 August 2014 – Calgary Herald
Groups representing defence lawyers in Calgary and Edmonton said they expect hundreds of low-income Albertans denied legal aid coverage will begin deluging the courts with applications seeking financial relief. The Calgary Criminal Defence Lawyers’ Association and its sister organization in Edmonton announced Thursday they’ve set up a toll-free phone line to help people who have been denied legal aid successfully petition the court for coverage.

Legal-aid lawyers take action over funding

28 August 2014 – The Canadian Press
Alberta’s legal-aid lawyers are threatening to clog the courts with applications from people denied coverage to draw attention to what the lawyers say is a severely underfunded system. Ian Savage, president of the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association in Calgary, says the government has raised the bar so high that people living on income support or with major disabilities can’t get a legal-aid lawyer.

CHINA

Pro Bono: Lawyers Making a Difference

31 August 2014 – Hong Kong Lawyer
A curious thing is happening within the legal profession in Hong Kong. Over the past few years, there has been a growth spurt in the “pro bono” sector – a rapidly growing number of lawyers providing their legal services “for the public good”. Many lawyers are responding to shortfalls in access to justice by volunteering their legal services, either as individuals, through law firms, or through pro bono organisations.

Hong Kong Lawyers to Offer Pro Bono Aid to Pro-Democracy Protesters

28 August 2014 – The Wall Street Journal
Dozens of Hong Kong lawyers are lining up to offer pro bono assistance to pro-democracy protesters, in a move that highlights the legal community’s growing concern over potential infringement on the city’s judicial independence by Beijing.

SINGAPORE

Token fees for pro bono work in criminal cases

5 October 2014 – The Straits Times
Lawyers who do pro bono work for the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme (CLAS) will be paid an honorarium for the first time. The token fees would amount to a few hundred dollars for each case and be scaled according to several factors, such as whether the case goes to trial, said Mr Tanguy Lim, director of Pro Bono Services at the Law Society, which administers the CLAS.

Law Society launches $2m Justice for All project

29 August 2014 – The Straits Times
The Law Society yesterday launched a $2 million project to increase public access to legal aid. The plans include expanding the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme to benefit 6,000 a year, instead of the current 400, and new mobile legal clinics to reach out to sex workers.The funds for this Justice for All project will be raised from the legal sector and the community, beginning with a charity walkathon next year.

Law Society aims to dispense legal aid to 6,000 yearly

28 August 2014 – Channel NewsAsia
The Law Society on Thursday announced it will enhance its Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, which would increase the amount of assistance it could provide to those needing legal help… the Law Society launched its “Justice for All” project to make legal knowledge more accessible in Singapore… it aims to extend legal assistance to about 6,000 qualifying individuals annually – an increase from the current 400.

UNITED KINGDOM

TrustLaw launches first course for lawyers on social enterprise

19 September 2014 – Pioneers Post
TrustLaw – the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s programme helping NGOs and social enterprises from around the world access high-quality legal support for free – has launched the TrustLaw Training on Social Enterprise and Impact Investment course. This is the first course in the UK specifically for lawyers on social enterprise and the legal issues around the sector.

Law centres: Picking up the pieces

1 September 2014 – The Law Society Gazette
Dealt a huge blow by cuts in funding, law centres are reinventing themselves to survive. Last year’s double-whammy of civil legal aid cuts and curtailed local authority funding has had a dramatic effect on the work of law centres. But thanks to a spirit of innovation and sheer doggedness, dire predictions that the changes would annihilate many centres have so far not materialised.

UNITED STATES

Big firms’ pro bono work knows no borders

21 September 2014 – Washington Times
It’s a big world, and it takes a big firm to help people negotiate the international legal system. And for many large U.S. firms, expanding their pro bono efforts to the global community has become just another aspect of the practice. At Miles & Stockbridge P.C., international pro bono work ranges from assisting foreign citizens in the U.S. to helping Americans who find themselves in legal predicaments overseas, said Stephen J. Cullen, a principal at the firm.

Standing With Survivors — POD’s Pro Bono Legal Network Marks 1st Anniversary

17 September 2014 – Huffington Post
Jenny was on her first duty assignment with the Marine Corps when a superior raped her on ship. When Jenny reached out to Protect Our Defenders (POD), she was facing an investigation that was going nowhere, with the military claiming they could not locate her active-duty assailant. POD found Jenny an attorney to fight to protect her privacy rights and demand answers from the NCIS. Our staff is now helping her with an Inspector General complaint regarding the continued mishandling of her case.

Exonerated death row inmate had Boston legal team behind him

9 September 2014 – Boston Business Journal
Henry Lee McCollum has been exonerated by DNA evidence after already serving 30 years of his life sentence. In the past 20 years,15 different WilmerHale attorneys have worked pro bono on McCollum’s case, some of them from the law firm’s Boston office and others from the Washington D.C.