Our Pro Bono - Free Legal Services
Access to justice for all
With a heritage steeped in providing ‘access to justice’, it is not surprising to find that the provision of advice and support to those who need it the most, yet who are often least able to afford it, is at the very heart of Irwin Mitchell’s philosophy.
We have an obligation to ‘give something back’– be it via traditional pro bono legal services or more broadly, by supporting schemes and initiatives that help the local communities in which we operate. Our approach comes all the way from the top: Senior Partner Michael Napier CBE QC is the Attorney-General's Pro Bono Envoy.
Under our firm wide pro bono scheme we provide free legal advice and representation to individuals and community groups who can not pay and where public funding is not available. Our commitment earns us a place in the Legal Business Pro Bono Survey where we’re ranked in the top 20 law firms in the country who spend the greatest number of hours working on pro bono activity.
Casework
In 2007, our biggest pro bono commitment came from the aftermath of the July 2006 bombings in London.
Irwin Mitchell came to the fore to assist with this disaster – we lodged our intention to help with the Law Society and accepted 18 cases on a pro bono basis – by far the largest commitment of any law firm.
Free advisory clinics
Much pro bono work is delivered by support to Citizens Advice and Law Centres across the country, where our lawyers attend regular advisory sessions. Regular sessions are held in Birmingham, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield.
Free advisory sessions for the Polish community in the North East and also strong links within the West Midlands ethnic community has seen our team introduce pro bono to a diverse range of communities throughout the country.
"Free advisory clinics are important as they provide access to legal advice to members of the community, many of whom may not otherwise be able to afford solicitors."
- Rupesh Masani, Trainee Solicitor attends free legal advice drop-in clinics at the Nechells Association for Community Education (NACE), in the heart of the Somali community in Birmingham.
Links with Students
Pro bono plays an important role to our team and so it is right that we help to instill the importance of this in the legal professionals of the future.
Links with local universities ensures that we are able to work directly with students and provide support for their pro bono projects. Schemes operate in virtually all of the cities in which we have offices.
In addition, every year the firm awards the Irwin Mitchell International Clinical Scholarship to one student from Northumbria University. The money is used to support an exchange visit to Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, where the student works on pro bono cases.
ProBonoUK.net
The team that assembled the website ProBonoUK.net included legal advisers from Irwin Mitchell and the Solicitors' Pro Bono Group, all working on a pro bono basis.
As well as giving support to those who currently give pro bono legal advice, the website aims to encourage more volunteers from all branches of the legal profession including students and law schools which increasingly include pro bono as part of clinical legal education.