This event took place at Liverpool Law Society on 24 November 2016, with the aim of matching people in the legal sector with opportunities to provide pro-bono advice, volunteer or help third sector legal advice organisations in a range of other different ways. The event was chaired by Matt Smith (Weightmans LLP) and was organised by Matt, Siobhan Taylor-Ward (Jackson Canter), James Organ (University of Liverpool), Liz Weeks and Sarah Poblete (both of Liverpool Law Society).
Steve Cornforth (EAD) gave an opening presentation on the importance of pro-bono and CSR in the Liverpool City Region. Seven speakers from third sector advice agencies each then gave a short presentation, focusing on the opportunities available for delegates to provide CSR and pro-bono assistance. Amy Heading (DLA) gave a closing speech on the benefits to law firms of doing Pro-bono and CSR before delegates continued to network with each other.
A total of 32 People attended the event, split as follows:
• 3 speakers from law firms
• 7 speakers from third sector advice agencies
• 12 delegates from law firms
• 10 delegates from third sector advice agencies
Our seven speakers from advice agencies highlighted the following opportunities where they require support:
University of Liverpool – Liverpool Law Clinic – Lucy Yeatman
The Liverpool Law Clinic is in the process of restructuring its service into three distinct areas:
• Family Law: Child disputes, divorce and financial matters (non-urgent)
• Small Business: Employment, contracts, commercial property, intellectual property and partnership agreements.
• Disability: Community care, mental capacity and possibly also housing.
They also propose to move to clients getting verbal advice at an appointment, followed by a letter from students confirming advice and to extend the service to run for a longer period in term time.
They need:
• Solicitor volunteers to provide input on setting up their new service (e.g. to help draft client questionnaires in the above areas).
• Solicitor volunteers to help run advice services.
• To form partnerships with those in the voluntary sector who can make referrals.
• Input on the need for these services from private and voluntary sectors.
Contact: Lucy Yeatman
Lecturer, In-house Solicitor, Senior Fellow HEA
Tel 0151 794 5782
NWLST and The Access to Justice Foundation – Laura Cassidy
The Access to Justice Foundation aims to improve access to justice by raising funds and distributing them to organisations that support those who need legal help but cannot afford it.
They ask that:
• Lawyers submit their pro bono cost orders. If you are acting pro bono, please ensure you submit your pro bono cost order 24 hours before your final hearing. The foundation is the prescribed charity, under section 194 of the Legal Services Act 2007, to receive the funds, so you will be increasing the funds available for free legal advice!
• Firms consider donating their unclaimed client account balances. (NB. If such balances are ever claimed, they will be repaid).
• For more information, please visit http://www.atjf.org.uk/unclaimed-client-accounts.html
The Northwest Legal Support Trust (NWLST) is a grant-making charity, which raises and distributes funds to support free legal advice services and access to justice for all in the North West region of England.
The NWLST would like to appoint two new Trustees to its board. This will involve attending or dialling into board meetings in Manchester and assisting in the organisation of local fundraising events, particularly the Liverpool Legal Walk.
NWLST also asks that people take part in the following fundraising events, details of which can be found on the NWLST website:
• The Great Legal Bake.
• The Legal Walk.
• The Great Legal Quiz.
Contact: Laura Cassidy
Fundraising and Development Manager
020 7092 3973
Citizens Advice East Liverpool – Heather Brent
Citizens Advice Liverpool is looking for a new Chair, a Treasurer and also has a number of other Trustee vacancies. Details can be found here.
Citizens Advice East Liverpool also seek solicitor volunteers who can, for example:
• Check compliance with pre-action protocols.
• Check witness statements.
• Advise on costs issues.
• Provide information to individuals on how to represent themselves in court or tribunal.
Contact: Heather Brent
Chief Officer
Wavertee Office: 0151 522 1404
Belle Vale Office: 0151 329 0788
Merseyside Law Centre – Mary Heery
Merseyside Law Centre covers, asylum, debt, housing, mental health, public law, welfare benefits and immigration.
They would like the following support:
• Student volunteers.
• Volunteers/assistance from law firms. They would particularly be interested in receiving trainee solicitors from law firms on the mutually beneficial basis that trainees will receive training and ‘hands on’ experience in return for the help they provide. Possible secondments could be discussed.
• New Trustees to fill vacancies on their board.
• Advice from experts on fundraising.
• Advice from experts on profile raising.
Contact: Mary Heery
Solicitor
0151 709 0504
Vauxhall Law Centre – Alan Kelly
Founded in 1972, the Centre offers free advice and legal representation in respect of welfare rights issues, debt and housing law.
They need:
• As Alan put it “money, money, money!”
• Support with fundraising.
• Second hand equipment such as computers.
• Technical/admin support.
• Sponsorship.
• New Trustees.
Contact: Alan Kelly
0151 207 5668
Law Works – Clare Johnson
Law Works aims to provide access to justice to individuals in need of advice, who are not eligible for legal aid and are without the means to pay for a lawyer and to broker legal advice to small not-for-profit organisations.
A law firm can register to be a LawWorks Member which offers benefits such as:
• training on how to provide pro-bono assistance.
• connections with pro bono clinics.
• resources and best practice guides.
• networking opportunities.
Law firms can help by:
• Volunteer at a LawWorks Clinic, or sign up to the LawWorks’ Not-For-Profits programme (must be a LawWorks Member to get involved with NFPP)
• Training – provide pro bono training sessions in specific areas of law, ‘soft skills’ training, or access to their own in-house training.
• Make available a venue for an event, roundtable or training session.
• Sponsor an event, an award or host a fundraising event.
For further details of the support that Law Works may be able to provide to the third sector, profession and Liverpool Law Society, please see the Appendix below.
Contact: Clare Johnson
Head of Clinic Support & Development
07525 116 520
Twitter: @Law_Works LJMU
Legal Advice Clinic – Rachel Stalker
The Legal Advice Clinic advises on Family, Employment, and Wills & Administration. Their wish list includes the following:
• Ad-hoc requests for advice – they are able to offer commercial property advice (subject to colleague’s availability) but would welcome the opportunity to reach out periodically for criminal law, housing, and immigration advice, to those happy to be contacted.
• Training – the LAC covers basic topics in the induction programme for students, but would be interested to have professional skills training as well, particularly interviewing and managing clients.
• Fundraising and profile raising – The LAC is grateful to hear of gaps that have been encountered where they may be able to develop new projects. Links with charities are welcome. With external sponsorship the LAC can develop better student materials, publicity for their services, client materials, and office equipment.
• Equipment – unwanted books (not too historic) are always welcome.
• Collaboration on projects – the chance to shadow solicitors working on pro bono cases in house; commercial property and housing advice provision.
Contact: Rachel Stalker
Senior Lecturer,
Legal Advice Centre Coordinator
0151 231 3530 / 07714 649 714
HEAT Kensington
HEAT were unfortunately unable to join us on the day, but have asked us to include some information on their requirements.
The Liverpool Domestic Abuse Service (LDAS) is a partnership approach to tackling domestic violence in Liverpool. The service is based with the Health Energy Advice Team (HEAT) at the heart of the community and benefits from the broad experience of HEAT in developing and managing innovative projects.
The issues that LDAS may need pro bono services for are:
• Family courts – contact issues/residence orders/care orders/adoption papers.
• Civil Orders – non molestation orders/occupation orders/prohibited steps orders.
• Counter allegations – for example, perpetrator naming women as perpetrators after an incident of domestic abuse and the police taking action against the woman.
• Immigration – habitual residence/no recourse to public funds/status of EU citizens/bio metric/spousal visas/SETDV forms/residence orders.
Contacts: Pauline Downey or Michelle Walsh
0151 263 7474
paulinedowney@ldaservice.org.uk or michellewalsh@ldaservice.org.uk http://heatkensington.org.uk/liverpool-domestic-abuse-service-ldas/
Feedback forms asked delegates to tick which speakers they would like to be put into contact with and what they would like to discuss (Regular visits from advisers/Ad-hoc requests for advice/Training/Fundraising and profile raising/Equipment/Trustees and Directors/Collaboration on projects).
13 delegates made requests to be put into contact with others. Most feedback forms contained requests for contact from multiple organisations and a total of 58 contacts were requested overall. Liverpool Law Society have sent each organisation a schedule detailing the people who have requested contact from them.
Delegates were very active during the networking sessions prior to and after the event and it is anticipated that more contacts will have already been made directly. Feedback on the event has generally been very positive.
An unexpected benefit was that, as well as contacts created between the private and third sectors, connections were also made between those in the third sector and it was clear that there are many areas where they can help each other. Here are some (unattributed – as I don’t have permission to use them) comments:
Comments from delegates feedback forms:
“Should be a regular event to raise profile further”
“Very well run event”
Comments from speakers:
“Just to say thanks for inviting me to speak today. It was a really great event and got some very helpful discussions going. From a personal perspective, these events are invaluable to me since I have no clinic colleagues to assist and it is easy to forget to find time for networking!”
“Just a quick note to say superb event today and very many thanks for inviting me to join! I found it really interesting and it was great to have the opportunity to connect with everyone there.”
What Next?
The following are some suggested follow up actions and ideas for discussion at the Access to Justice Forum on 9 December:
• Speakers to follow up on the schedule of requests for contact;
• Follow up e-mail to be sent in 3 months time to ask whether there have been success stories from the event;
• Decision to be taken as to whether to hold a similar event in future, based upon success of this event;
• The opportunities above to be published in Liverpool Law Magazine and on the LLS website;
• Completion of the mapping exercise will assist in identifying further gaps in provision and may help in targeting specific areas at a future event;
• Possible database of opportunities/contacts in the third sector;
• Possible database of the pro-bono expertise that law firms are willing to offer/contacts.
• Amy Heading spoke about creating a Liverpool ‘chapter’ of the Collaborative Plan and having more regular meetings between law firms to talk more generally about pro bono, share ideas on best practice, talk about opportunities and potential collaboration. The Plan is a new law firm led initiative, free to join, with no obligations except for anonymous reporting of some simple statistics and a commitment to increasing pro bono ("aspirational target" of 25 hours per fee earner per year – the majority of firms aren’t close to that) and a commitment to an increasing percentage of pro bono time to help individuals through clinics or legal education. More information can be found here and anyone interested can contact Amy.Heading@dlapiper.com
http://news.trust.org/spotlight/Collaborative-Plan-for-Pro-Bono-uk/
Matthew Smith
Associate Employment, Pensions and Immigration Team
Weightmans LLP
DDI 0151 243 9566
Appendix: Law Works
Essentially, LawWorks is a neutral organisation who facilitates and coordinates pro bono. We encourage the profession (and students) to get involved in pro bono and match them with local opportunities, or develop new pro bono projects. In addition, we can assist the third sector to coordinate their pro bono clinics/rotas, expand their offering to the local community, and provide legal advice directly to them.
How LawWorks can help local firms/solicitors:
• Coordinate and encourage law firms/individuals to engage in pro bono through our two programmes; the Clinics Network, and/or Not-For-Profit programme.
• If neither of these programmes suit their requirements, we can support a firm/group of solicitors to establish their own pro bono clinic (in partnership with a third sector organisation, if desired)
• By joining LawWorks Membership firms can take advantage of training, networking opportunities, our Pro Bono awards etc. Further information can be found here, and in the first document attached: https://www.lawworks.org.uk/why-pro-bono/lawworks-membership-join-us
How LawWorks can help local charities/advice agencies:
• Encourage registration of pro bono clinics to the LawWorks Clinics Network. Once registered on the Clinics Network, organisations can take advantage of a range of benefits (see second attachment) [I would be happy to contact the agencies directly about our support offering]
• Broker pro bono legal advice for not-for-profit agencies, when required, through our not-for-profit programme, further information can be found on our website here: https://www.lawworks.org.uk/legal-advice-not-profits
In addition, for both advice agencies and law firms/pro bono volunteers, we can provide factsheets and best-practice guidance to support running pro bono projects, training for pro bono volunteers, and opportunities to network.
On the point of ‘what next?’, I hope that as the dedicated point of contact in the North West, the following support that I can give will also be of benefit to the Liverpool Law Society:
• Advertise and manage enquiries for pro bono volunteer opportunities; I understand that there is a desire to advertise local pro bono opportunities in the LLS website and in the magazine, however LawWorks and the National Pro Bono Centre can also support with this this:
o For pro bono clinics registered on the LawWorks Clinics Network, the LawWorks website can advertise volunteering opportunities: https://www.lawworks.org.uk/solicitors-and-volunteers/get-involved/pro-bono-opportunities
o The National Pro Bono Centre website has hosted a range of volunteering opportunities as part of an initiative for National Pro Bono Week 2016, this can be found here: http://www.nationalprobonocentre.org.uk/volunteering/
• Provide a record and detailed analysis of all pro bono activity taking place in our programmes which forms a picture of pro bono legal advice being delivered across the network (and specifically, Liverpool, if requested). I have attached our 2015 report for information.
• As a neural body, assist with facilitating and running regular Roundtables which bring together parties interested in pro bono to share information and build referral links. In addition, hold Roundtables/discussion groups which bring to the table those not currently engaging in pro bono to discuss topics such as the ‘business case for pro bono’ and ‘challenges to pro bono’, thus aiming to alleviate any barriers to getting involved.
Inform and support firms who would like to learn more about and sign up to the Law Society Pro Bono Charter and Manual. More information can be found here: https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/practice-management/pro-bono/