The partners and staff at BWB are committed by our ethos statement to “do worthwhile work to the best of our ability, for clients we respect …and always with a commitment to justice and the public interest.”

We recognise that there are times when that requires a contribution without financial reward, and that is where our Pro-Bono programme can play a part. The partners recognise that Pro-Bono has its own unique reward of providing fresh experience and insight for those who take part. We encourage every lawyer to be involved.

We want to focus the current Pro-Bono activity to ensure that our efforts are directed where the need is greatest.

As the following list shows the type of activity we undertake is very wide and includes:

Individual Pro-Bono Instructions

The following are the criteria which we use to determine whether we can offer a Pro-Bono service;

a) Ability to fund by the client, we want to assist those who cannot pay not those who would prefer not to pay.

b) Availability of alternative funding, e.g. in litigation a CFA may be a better solution.

c) BWB’s capacity and competence to undertake the work, e.g. we do not have competence to deal with criminal matters.

d) Public interest benefit, e.g. are important legal issues involved?

e) Planting the seed corn, e.g. if we think some initial Pro-bono support would get your exciting or worthwhile project launched into self sufficiency.

f) Current clients, this is not to say we will turn away non-clients but if a current client had a case that fitted these criteria we would be more likely to assist.

g) Personal interest of our lawyers, our Pro-bono work is undertaken on a voluntary basis, if a member of staff is willing to commit we are more likely to support them.

Charitable Trustees

Virtually every department at BWB has charity clients and we regard it as a high priority for our people to get involved as charity trustees. We currently hold over 60 trusteeships. We always have solicitors with charity law (some very extensive) experience who would be willing to assist as a trustee. As always those services are unpaid.

Free Legal Advice Clinics

We supply volunteers to support a regular local free legal advice clinic who operate an open access policy to their clients.

Pro-Bono Use of Facilities at BWB

For charity and not for profit organisations we regularly offer the use of our wonderful conference room facilities overlooking St. Paul's Cathedral. We estimate that benefit to be worth over £30,000 per year and it is particularly used for larger trustee meetings, new charity launches or events to note a merger.

The Charity Fee Discount

Every department applies a fee discount to every charity and a larger discount for smaller charities. This is embedded into our system and applied automatically. By value that discount is worth £1,000,000 per annum.

Access to our Pro-Bono services

The best first point of contact is your normal BWB contact.

Our Pro-Bono co-ordinators are Lucy McLynn and Stephanie Biden.