Pro bono work
The legal sector is a world we commit our time to understanding and promoting, and as part of this we enjoy working pro bono with organisations such as the International Bar Association, and The InterLaw Diversity Forum. Outside of the sector we support many charities including Only Mums & Dads, which supports parents when separating to put the mental health of their children first. We were recently proud to help promote their latest 101 guide to separating.
In Christmas 2020 we ran a fundraising campaign in support of Reverse Rett and Skylarks Charity. Reverse Rett is a UK medical research charity dedicated to changing the lives of children and adults with Rett Syndrome, and Skylarks has a vision to create a world where children with special needs can thrive.
At our annual party we normally celebrate with a host of international guests at the Club at The Ivy. But instead for 2020 we put together a video campaign hosted by Eduardo Reyes, Law Society Gazette Features Editor, from his home in Peckham. As well as messages from our international friends and clients, Ed also entertained us on the piano. At our parties Matt Byrne Deputy Editor of The Lawyer magazine, usually fronts the band, so for our video he kindly contributed with some brilliant guitar playing as well as singing happy birthday!
Thank you to all our contributors to these videos, Moray McLaren, Daniel Goldberg, Joanna Goodman, Stephen Revell, Ekaterina Rozenbaum, Grzegorz E. Woźniak, Felicia Kemi Segun, Denise Laffont, Peter Taylor, Neil Montgomery and Chris Owen, Andrew Mackenzie, Matt Byrne, Christina Blacklaws, Gerald Schachner, Claudia Hong, Peters & Peters Solicitors LLP, Adam Sampson, Gerard McDermott – so many we met through the International Bar Association.
For every ‘like’ these social media posts received we donated £1 to the two charities, raising a total of over £2,000.
Our last physical event, the Meet the Media panel debate in February 2020, raised over £1,000 for Reverse Rett. The event was based around four journalists – The Independent’s Sean O’Grady, The Lawyer’s Matt Byrne, technology and business columnist Joanna Goodman and The Law Society Gazette’s Ed Reyes – who brought their century-plus of journalistic experience and the guests’ entrance fee went to the charity.
Pro bono campaigns for 2021
We are excited to announce that we are a founding partner, along with several big name organisations, of a new campaign around a parenting promise. The promise will support and encourage parents who are separating to do this in a way which protects and puts the mental health of their children at the forefront – watch this space for more details.
Organisations we have enjoyed supporting include:
- The InterLaw Diversity Forum – founded by Daniel Winterfeldt QC (Hon), its mission is to foster inclusion for all diverse talent working in the legal sector, and to promote meritocracy in all sectors by working to ‘level the playing field’ in order to create environments where the best talent can succeed.
- The Deaf Law Centre – now sadly closed, this worked to ensure justice and equal access to the law and legal services through advice, representation, education and training for deaf people.
- Westminster Foundation for Democracy – the UK public body dedicated to supporting democracy around the world. WFD works with parliaments, political parties, and civil society groups as well as on elections to help make countries’ political systems fairer and more inclusive, accountable and transparent.
- Legal Charities Garden Party – a yearly event (until recently), with the first Garden party held in Gray’s Inn on 6 June 1968, which raises funds for charities which provide financial support for lawyers (and their dependents) who find themselves in need.
- London Legal Walk – the main event held yearly by the London Legal Support Trust, an independent charity that raises funds for free legal advice services in London and the South East. In 2019, 15,000 people walked through London raising money to support pro bono and advice agencies.
