Spike in Legal Need Due to COVID-19 and Bushfire Crises
Spike in Legal Need Due to COVID-19 and Bushfire Crises
The cumulative impact of the bushfires and the COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a spike in the need for legal services by the most vulnerable in our community. This increase in demand has been felt by a range of organisations within the legal assistance sector. Justice Connect has reported that traffic to its website has more than doubled since the start of March 2020. The organisation states, “Our overall response is driven by growth in need from both the exacerbation of existing legal issues and new need emerging. To respond, we’re leveraging pro bono as efficiently as possible to meet that need at scale.”
Unprecedented Number of Pro Bono Matters
The unprecedented increase in legal need has resulted in a significant rise in the amount of pro bono legal assistance being provided. In response to the pandemic, Makison d’Apice reports that it has taken on “an unprecedented number of pro bono matters since the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The firm has contributed over 300 hours of pro bono support in response to the bushfire and COVID-19 crises. Similarly, Clayton Utz reports that in the last two months it has opened 143 new pro bono files, compared to 99 that were opened during the same period last month – a 40% rise. In April 2020, King & Wood Mallesons found that more than 60% of new matters were COVID-19 related, stating, “We have seen a large spike in the number of requests received for advice and general guidance related to COVID-19. We have also received a variety of referrals via our clearinghouse memberships.” Colin Biggers & Paisley reports that its pro bono referrals have more than doubled during the COVID-19 crisis, having already experienced a significant increase in referrals and assistance sought both by individuals and not-for-profit organisations following the bushfires earlier this year.
Following the Lead of Community Legal Partners
In response to the bushfires, Justice Connect opened up its Pro Bono Portal, a platform used to match matters in need of pro bono help with appropriate assistance, to legal practices who were not previously members of the organisation. This has enabled more law firms to engage in pro bono work through the Portal. “This decision was made in recognition of the scale of the disasters and the need for on-the-ground assistance in the communities directly impacted”, states Justice Connect. Opening up the Pro Bono Portal has meant there are now 162 firms able to respond to the bushfires.
Given the significant increase in the number of people requiring legal assistance, law firms including Colin Biggers & Paisley, Lander & Rogers and MinterEllison have been guided by their community partners, pivoting their focus to ensure that areas of greatest unmet legal need are prioritised and directed to those most in need. Herbert Smith Freehills highlighted the importance of this, stating, “It was critical that pro bono support was coordinated and led by these community legal experts.” On their pro bono response to the bushfires, DLA Piper states, “It was important to us that we were part of a coordinated and strategic response. This meant taking the lead from frontline service providers about how and when we could best assist, recognising there is often a delay between crises occurring and requests for legal assistance.”
Embracing Innovation in the Face of the Pandemic
Embracing Innovation in the Face of the Pandemic
COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the legal assistance sector. The changes to regulations around social distancing and limits on gatherings have forced the sector to adapt rapidly. While some organisations have embraced technological innovation, the digital divide has also seen many already disadvantaged communities become increasingly marginalised.
Adapting Work Practices
Many organisations have been forced to find ways to offer their services remotely. The Marrickville Telephone Advice Clinic that Sparke Helmore holds in-house is now being run by lawyers working from home, remotely supervised by MLC solicitors. Wotton & Kearney’s lawyers have also adapted to the remote service provision models of their partner organisations by providing legal advice and representation by telephone or video conference, where appropriate. Makinson d’Apice is assisting clients remotely via telephone and videoconferencing facilities and Clayton Utz has begun appearing in courts, attending conciliation conferences and advising pro bono clients with the help of new technologies. MinterEllison’s pro bono clinics and outreach programs, run in collaboration with community legal services, have transitioned to phone-based appointments and representation. The firm has also transitioned induction training for new pro bono lawyers to online platforms.
Sparke Helmore has implemented a range of changes in the way it assists clients referred to the firm by the Cancer Council. With urgent matters, particularly involving wills, powers of attorney and appointments of enduring guardian, where lawyers cannot meet their clients in person to execute documents, Sparke Helmore has had to develop alternate processes, consider other documents and provide clients with detailed telephone and written instructions on how to ensure their documents are legally binding. King & Wood Mallesons has also continued its Cyberlaw Project, partnering with Youth Law Australia to provide legal advice to children and young people under the age of 25. This project has been particularly helpful in reaching children and young people in remote, regional and rural communities across Australia. Lander & Rogers has adapted by providing virtual secondments, telephone and video appearances and telephone and video interviews at clinics. A number of other firms have also created virtual secondments to community legal centres and other organisations to help address rising unmet legal need.
The need for streamlined services in response to the COVID crisis has meant that some firms have begun making legal resources available online. For example, Ashurst has provided their pro bono clients with access to COVID-related webinars. Similarly, King & Wood Mallesons has begun offering webinars by partners and senior lawyers on various legal issues to assist many of their community clients at once and has built a dedicated section on its website to house COVID-19 related information and guidance.
Use of Technology
Technology has also enabled organisations to foster increased collaboration. For example, Ashurst has extended its High Q Collaborate software to develop a global COVID-19 coordination and planning platform. While the platform was originally used by the Association of Pro Bono Counsel to coordinate professional development issues globally, it has been extended to other law firms, in-house lawyers and key global and national stakeholders from the legal and not-for-profit sectors enabling organisations across 41 countries to share information and ideas. MinterEllison has also utilised High Q, introducing the software to the two Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinics (HPLC) it participates in through LawRight, which enabled them to operate smoothly and efficiently. Stephen Grace, HPLC Managing Lawyer, recently explained that, “MinterEllison has worked closely with LawRight to implement significant, targeted changes in our service delivery model. These innovations – the telephone clinic, the client and caseworker relationships, and the High Q portal – have been led by, and are only possible with continued support from, MinterEllison. As a result of these changes, we were readily and effectively able to adapt to digital service provision in the challenging times of 2020”.
Justice Connect continues to utilise technology to provide legal services remotely. Existing phone lines and online intake and referral tools remain in high use, as well as a new online legal clinic which is being piloted to quickly connect people with one-off questions to online pro bono advice. Justice Connect has also created new online self-help resources to help not-for-profits and social enterprises understand their legal obligations and implement good governance in response to the crisis. Clayton Utz has praised Justice Connect’s online platforms saying, “Justice Connect’s online platforms have helped make it easy for people and not-for-profits to access pro bono help. The work spent by them over the last few years has really shown its worth.”
Digital Divide
Sadly, COVID-19 has also highlighted the digital divide in Australia. Almost 2.6 million Australians do not use the internet. Many individuals with low levels of income, education and employment and people living in regional areas do not have access to digital devices and/or data connection. Ashurst states, “We have deployed a team internally to look into the issues and possible solutions to the digital divide especially given its impact on First Nations and rural, regional and remote communities.” Colin Biggers & Paisley has also sought to address the digital divide, stating, “We are providing a dedicated contact point for the most vulnerable people who cannot access the online Legal Assistance Form due to a disability or other condition or lack of access to a computer, the internet or language difficulties.” The Colin Biggers & Paisley Foundation has provided technology and equipment to community legal centres, including mobile phones, so that the centres have better access to people in need of legal advice.
DLA Piper is also working to address the digital divide. It is increasingly using online video conferencing technologies to provide remote advice to clients. However, DLA Piper states, “Some pro bono clients are still so vulnerable that they do not have access to such technologies, even on a mobile phone. In response we have worked with our Risk team to develop more flexible policies for onboarding new pro bono clients who we cannot meet in person and who are unable to obtain certified copies of identification due to the COVID-19 lockdown.”
Unfortunately, COVID-19 has meant that some of Australia’s most vulnerable people are further disadvantaged through their lack of access to technology. Hopefully, with COVID-19 having shone a spotlight on the digital divide in Australia, more will be done in the future to ensure that access to justice is not impeded by a lack of access to digital technology.
Rise in Pro Bono Coordination and Collaboration in Response to COVID-19 and Bushfire Crises
Rise in Pro Bono Coordination and Collaboration in Response to COVID-19 and Bushfire Crises
While the bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic have had catastrophic consequences, they have also given rise to greater cooperation and coordination among the organisations providing legal assistance to individuals and organisations affected by these crises.
Coordinated Pro Bono Bushfire Response
Leading the coordinated pro bono legal response to the bushfires is Justice Connect. The organisation has played a critical role, providing a framework for coordinating the pro bono response to support individuals and organisations impacted by the bushfires in both Victoria and NSW. Justice Connect’s Pro Bono Portal, which matches matters in need of pro bono help with appropriate assistance, was opened up to legal practices who were not members of the organisation for the purposes of the bushfire response. This has increased the number of firms able to provide assistance through the Pro Bono Portal to 162. DLA Piper states, “It was fantastic that Justice Connect took the lead in coordinating the response so that it was streamlined for both help seekers and pro bono firms.”
The coordinated response to the bushfires was also assisted through the secondment of lawyers from Ashurst and Makinson d’Apice. When the bushfire crisis began, Ashurst seconded their Australian Pro Bono Manager, Jilly Field, to Community Legal Centres NSW (CLCNSW), the peak body for community legal centres in NSW. Jilly helped to assist with the coordination of resource responses for the sector. Similarly, Makison d’Apice seconded its Pro Bono Senior Associate, Ella Alexander, to Justice Connect where she has been working since the start of February on coordinating the pro bono bushfire response in NSW and Victoria. Her work has focused on identifying and addressing systemic legal issues facing bushfire-affected communities, as well as connecting help seekers impacted by the bushfires with pro bono assistance.
More broadly, the bushfires prompted significant cooperation across the legal assistance sector. As part of a coordinated response to mobilise resources, a number of organisations within the legal assistance sector (including Legal Aid NSW, Victorian Legal Aid, Justice Connect, CLCs NSW, the Law Society of NSW, the Law Institute of Victoria, the Victorian Federation of CLCs, the NSW and Victorian Bar Associations and the Australian Pro Bono Centre) have together developed a formalised process for providing legal support for those affected by the bushfires. These organisations have continued to collaborate to ensure legal needs and gaps are addressed, and to coordinate on referral pathways, systemic issues, recording and reporting, training and quality assurance.
Pro Bono Collaboration in Response to COVID-19 Crisis
A high degree of collaboration by legal service providers has also followed the outbreak of COVID-19 in Australia. Ashurst has been one of the firms driving a coordinated law firm response to the pandemic. “Our team is focused on responding to the crisis through broadscale collaboration and resource deployment,” states Ashurst. Globally, Ashurst helped coordinate UK, US and Australian responses to front-line service needs. Ashurst has been chairing weekly COVID-19 pro bono response meetings with pro bono and corporate responsibility practitioners at Australian firms, organisations within the legal assistance sector and other key stakeholders, and has extended its High Q Collaborate software to create a global COVID-19 coordination and planning website platform. This has enabled a range organisations and individuals to track and analyse the legal issues emerging from the pandemic in 104 jurisdictions across 41 countries. The Australian Pro Bono Centre has also assisted in setting up and regularly updating the Australian section of this portal.
While we can only hope that the circumstances that have prompted this type of response will not be repeated in the future, both crises have highlighted the importance and benefits of collaboration across the legal assistance sector.
Pro Bono Activities in Response to the COVID-19 and Bushfire Crises
Pro Bono Activities in Response to the COVID-19 and Bushfire Crises
Due to the COVID-19 and bushfire crises, there has been a dramatic increase in the need for legal assistance in Australia. This has put significant pressure on frontline legal service providers. Law firms are helping to address this through a range of pro bono activities, including secondments, factsheets and law reform work.
Secondments
In response to the COVID-19 crisis and the bushfires, many law firms have seconded staff to expand the capacity of organisations within the legal assistance sector to address legal need. By way of example, in response to COVID-19 Ashurst has recruited four graduates on part-time, six-month secondments to four community legal centres and has extended its other secondments for approximately three months. Wotton & Kearney has seconded two lawyers to Settlement Services International and to Economic Justice Australia to assist with matters arising out of COVID-19. To assist a community legal centre facing triple the number of requests for help and advice due to the COVID-19 crisis, Colin Biggers & Paisley has seconded an employment lawyer to the centre. Similarly, Herbert Smith Freehills has organised a part-time secondment to support lawyers at Illawarra Legal Centre. To help with the coordination of the pro bono bushfire response in NSW and Victoria, Makinson d’Apice has seconded a Pro Bono Senior Associate to Justice Connect and Norton Rose Fulbright has seconded a full-time lawyer and administrative assistance to BizRebuild, a charitable organisation helping communities and small and local businesses to rebuild after being devastated by the bushfires. Clayton Utz has also created four full-time virtual secondments to community legal centres to help address increasing unmet legal need.
Despite the physical closure of clinics, secondments have enabled law firms to continue to provide pro bono assistance, especially through telephone and video interviews. Lander & Rogers states, “Our face to face client work has migrated almost entirely to telephone or video conference.” Norton Rose Fulbright states, “With the move to working from home, a number of our face-to-face clinic opportunities disappeared. However, where possible, we have seconded our lawyers to assist the organisations representing the vulnerable clients we would otherwise assist through our clinic work.” Similarly, through talking to their CLC partners, DLA Piper states, “It became clear that a virtual secondment to Economic Justice Australia and Welfare Rights Legal Centre was critical to the urgent dissemination of public legal information so that the community could navigate the various COVID-19 related welfare payment schemes.”
Factsheets & Resources
Another way law firms have helped meet the increasing demand for pro bono legal advice is by creating and updating legal factsheets. Colin Biggers & Paisley has helped update community law factsheets in order to assist legal centres meet increased demand for legal advice services and provide community members with up-to-date and easy to understand information to assist in resolving their legal problems. Similarly, Sparke Helmore is currently working with Justice Connect to produce bushfire-related community legal education factsheets. The firm is also looking into developing a legal factsheet for farmers impacted by drought and bushfires.
With traffic to its website having more than doubled since the start of March 2020, Justice Connect has aimed to leverage pro bono as efficiently as possible to meet the large increase in legal need. It regularly publishes information on its website on a range of issues including tenancy and government emergency powers. It has also created new online self-help resources and delivered a series of webinars to help not-for-profits and social enterprises understand their legal obligations and implement good governance in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.
Law Reform
Law firms have also engaged in pro bono law reform work. Ashurst states, “[We] have instructed over 90 lawyers and graduates on law reform work including research relevant to COVID-19 and other systemic legal issues.” Similarly, Herbert Smith Freehills states, “HSF has been committed to working collaboratively with Legal Aid, the community legal sector and other law firms to identify unmet legal needs that could be addressed through pro bono legal support.” Through its ‘legal health-check’ calls with strategic community clients, King & Wood Mallesons is working to identify legal need, both regarding operational matters and to explore support for law reform, policy advocacy, research and analysis. Makinson d’Apice’s secondee to Justice Connect, Ella Alexander, has also worked to identify and address systemic legal issues facing bushfire-affected communities.
Given the overwhelming rise in the need for pro bono legal assistance, many firms have adapted swiftly and innovatively through virtual secondments to organisations, utilising factsheets and engaging in law reform work to address the significant unmet legal need arising from both the bushfires and, more recently, the pandemic.