Alex Aldridge goes behind the scenes at CC, winner of the CSR Project of the Year at the 2008 British Legal Awards

Despite its current status as holder of the British Legal Awards CSR project of the year award, Clifford Chance (CC) isn't the kind of institution you'd immediately associate with community advice clinics and initiatives to help the world's poor. But during 2007-08 an impressive 54% of the firm's fee earners (including trainees and paralegals) have been involved in such projects, with more than 10,000 hours of pro bono work recorded out of the Canary Wharf HQ alone during the last year – the same amount a small legal aid solicitor would typically bill.

Based around three central pillars – 'access to justice', 'access to education' and 'access to finance' – the programme sees CC lawyers involved in projects ranging from preparing habeas corpus petitions for Guantanamo Bay detainees to reading to children in East London primary schools.

Justice

'Access to justice' is overseen by CC's full-time pro bono lawyer Tom Dunn, who joined the firm in May 2008 from the College of Law, having previously spent seven years as a legal aid lawyer specialising in social housing disputes.

Alongside providing free legal assistance at four weekly evening advice sessions in centres across London, the firm seconds trainees for three months at a time to human rights group Liberty and Law for All, a not-for-profit community solicitors, while also doing glitzier international work, such as the Guantanamo Bay petitions and representing defendants on death row in the US and the Caribbean.

"There is always a danger of focusing too much on the high-profile work," says Dunn, "but as someone who has worked in this area for 10 years, I know what is worth doing and I think we get the balance right. A good programme has both elements."

Most of the 50-plus CC lawyers on the rota at the Canning Town and Stratford advice centres are junior associates and trainees, although there are three partners who also regularly attend. Each assists one evening every five weeks. Their assistance is in huge demand. Jude Simmons, head of community work at the Community Links advice centre at Canning Town in East London, says that "there are always 40 people queuing outside". She adds that the recession and continuing cuts in the legal aid budget look set to make the situation even worse.

"Typically you'll stay an hour and a half, in which time you aim to see two to three people," says William Reay-Jones, a four-year qualified associate in CC's tax team, who has arrived at the centre in Canning Town directly from the office. "On top of that," he adds, "there's the follow-up work: a letter, advice, general research – it can take anything from 15 minutes to a few hours." Sometimes when there is a big deal on, Reay-Jones says he and the other volunteers will go back to the office after
the session.

"It's worth it," he continues, "because I enjoy it: you meet different people, get to tackle different legal issues. It's also good to give something back to the community, and it is a contrast from what I do during the day."

Education

The 'access to education' initiative centres around providing mentors for students from local inner city schools. Overall the firm has 65 mentors – these include partners, associates, business services professionals and secretaries.

Gail Orton, an adviser in CC's public policy team, has spent the last year mentoring a girl in the second year of her A-levels at Tower Hamlets College.

"She came down to CC for an hour every month, plus we were in regular contact over email, and I helped her with things like brushing up her CV, applying for bursaries and filling out application forms. She's recently begun a law degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies, which I'm obviously delighted about."

Orton, who also conducts regular mock interviews with GCSE students from local schools, says that most of the young people she works with have never been inside a building like CC's sprawling glass and steel Canary Wharf headquarters.

"Initially they are quite nervous, but you see them gradually getting more relaxed with the surroundings, which means that if they ever have an interview in this sort of place in the future, it won't be too intimidating," she says.

Orton adds that she gets a big kick from her involvement in the programme.

"It's that variety which I like, working with people from such different backgrounds. I can't imagine meeting people like this if I wasn't involved in the programme."

Finance

The 'access to finance' initiative is based around a standardised loan document, developed by CC in conjunction with Citibank, which can be used by commercial lenders to provide loans to microfinance institutions anywhere in the world, regardless of legal system. Crucially, it can be used without further professional legal involvement of any kind, meaning that costs are kept low.

Banking partner Chris Wyman, who has been involved in the initiative since its inception, describes it as "the boring one". Unlike those involved in the other aspects of CC's CSR programme, Wyman and the four colleagues who assist him with the scheme (which "constantly requires ongoing maintenance") don't get to enjoy tangible benefits from what they do: "Each microfinance institution is monitored by the commercial bank lender, so we don't tend to see direct results out of this. The satisfaction comes from knowing that you are doing something that will lead indirectly to greater financial inclusion in other parts of the world," explains Wyman.

Nor does the microfinance work – which consists mainly of contract law and drafting – provide much relief from the day job. "That's the whole point of it, I suppose," he adds. "We are using our professional skills as finance lawyers. Clearly, there is a limited amount of time available to spend on CSR, and I believe that doing something like this maximises the value I can give. Hopefully, the hours we put in will be multiplied many fold in terms of the benefits derived from the use of the loan document."

Like all finance-related ventures, the microfinance initiative is exposed to the effects of the credit crunch. "If banks are struggling to make money available to corporate borrowers, I'm sure they won't see this sector as sacrosanct," says Wyman.

But in the long term, as firms expand internationally and expertise on local law is shared more effectively, he is optimistic about the future of such projects.

'A modern liberal institution'

Even in its well-run guise, CSR has its critics. In particular, unease is often expressed at the growing amount of private sector involvement in traditionally state-funded areas such as social welfare. At the same time, firms' willingness to promote their CSR commitments in, for example, graduate recruitment brochures, has led some to question the motives behind such programmes.

Michael Smyth (pictured), CC head of public policy, and architect of the firm's CSR programme, stresses that the aim is to "supplement not supplant" public social welfare provision, suggesting that twinning arrangements between commercial firms and social welfare firms – such as CC's tie-in with Law for All – "could be the future of legal aid".

On the issue of motivation, Smyth insists that any PR benefits derived by CC from its CSR programme are ancillary, the major driver being a moral obligation to give something back to society.

"I see social engagement as part of an individual lawyer's duty – the legal equivalent of a doctor's Hippocratic oath – and, as a result, something that CC, as a modern liberal institution, is bound to encourage," he explains.

Isn't it stretching it a bit to describe a corporate law firm as a modern liberal institution?

"I don't mean it in a political sense, more that lawyers are members of a noble and liberal profession," says Smyth.

"And, of course," he adds, "if you have some level of variety in what you do, it probably makes for a more productive working environment."

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Pro bono in the City

Tom Dunn, Clifford Chance's first ever pro bono lawyer, qualified as a solicitor in 1997. He began his career as an adviser at Southwark law centre in Peckham, where he spent seven years acting for homeless people and social housing tenants in public law challenges against local authorities.

Dunn then joined the College of Law as pro bono projects co-ordinator. During three years at the College's Store Street branch in London, he oversaw a pioneering government-funded legal education project on a Brixton estate, before he was hired by CC last year.

"The opportunity to work at CC was very different: an interesting chance to deploy some large resources really effectively. That is why I took the job," explains Dunn.