News & Events 14 November 2022
Pro Bono Week: Partnerships and events
Co-inciding with this year's Citizens Advice Conference, pro bono week featured events with London Citizens Advice.
This year's pro bono week took place between November 7th and 11th. See https://probonoweek.org.uk/
The week which has been running for over 20 years celebrates and showcases the best in legal pro bono, including partnership work between local Citizens Advice and the legal sector, whether delivered by honorary legal advisers (HLAs), pro bono clinics attached to local Citizens Advice, partnerships with law schools and other arrangements, such as outreach sessions and projects supported by law firms or chambers. By pro bono we mean free legal advice available to the public but delivered voluntarity, rather than publicly funded legal aid provision (- see the professional bodies Pro Bono Protocol).
The launch event for this year's pro bono week included a presentation by London Citizens Advice, followed by a response from the Attorney General. Also taking part were Hogan Lovells and the Money Advice Trust (MAT). Hogan Lovells have been working to support new cost of living clinic - this was also the topic of a recent LawWorks Infoexchange also involving London Citizens Advice - you can see the infoexchange resources on LawWorks Website.
You can download the full presentation for the pro bono week launch below.
Citizens Advice Conference, which this year ran concurrently with pro bono week, showcased London Citizens Advice partnership work in a number of sessions, included a special session on pro bono partnerships which included contributions from RCJ Advice, LawWorks, and various LCA partnerships, for example Citizens Advice Brent's John Fisher Clinic. The presentation for the Conference session is simililarly available below.
Other sessions across pro bono week also featured mentions of London Citizens Advice - for example the All Party Parliamentary Group on Pro Bono and Public Legal Education (supported by LawWorks) has been continuing its "Mind the Gap" project with Hogan Lovells. The original Mind the Gap report into legal issues in London MPs surgeries was followed up with a more detailed study of the partnership, supported by 3 local MPs, to develop Lewisham Law Centre - a partnership between Southwark Law Centre and Citizens Advice Lewisham, see the Unmet Legal Need in Lewisham Report. The intention is to now scale this research project up nationally.
Several other LCAs across the London Citizens Advice network also operate pro bono partnerships.