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International Edition

Clydes to allow fee earners to count pro bono as billable hours

Clyde & Co has introduced a new policy that will see UK fee earners allowed to include up to 50 hours of pro bono work in their billable hours targets. The new policy, which came into effect last month, means lawyers will be able to count some pro bono work as chargeable hours for the purpose of performance-related bonus targets.
2 minute read

International Edition

The art of austerity - the surprisingly close ties between the worlds of art and law

The Adelaide Nature Reserve is a community wildlife garden close to the railway tracks in Camden, North London. Last autumn, graphic artist Lindsay Noble was commissioned to design a mural to be painted over a graffiti-covered wall. An application was placed with the Arts Council for funding, but it was duly rejected. Corporate sponsorship was the next stop, Noble explains, which is how a team of lawyers from White & Case and bankers from The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) spent a Saturday applying colour to an 'encyclopaedia wall' of wildlife. "It turned out for the best," Noble says. "The law firm had its client day and the nature reserve got its mural. Everyone's a winner."
8 minute read

International Edition

Four firms win spots on NSPCC pro bono panel

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has appointed its first formal panel of law firms to provide pro bono legal advice. Clifford Chance (CC), Baker & McKenzie, Wragge & Co and Walker Morris have all been appointed to the roster after 21 firms were invited to pitch.
2 minute read

International Edition

Freshfields CSR report details fast-rising increase in pro bono efforts

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has seen the number of hours dedicated to volunteer work more than double over the last two years, according to the firm's latest corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. The magic circle firm spent 42,559 hours on pro bono activities during the 2009-10 financial year, according to the firm's second CSR report - up from the 16,409 hours detailed in the first CSR report, which covered 2007-08. Meanwhile, the total combined hours spent on volunteering and pro bono activities increased by 87% over the period, with just under 40% of the firm's staff now involved in either community or pro bono activities - a 10% increase on 2007-08.
3 minute read

International Edition

Linklaters reports 86% increase in pro bono hours over two years

Linklaters spent around £8m on pro bono activities during the last financial year, equating to around 63,750 hours invested by its lawyers in community and voluntary work. The figures, contained within the firm's annual corporate responsibly report, mark Linklaters out as one of the few UK law firms to place a value on its non-profit efforts.
3 minute read

International Edition

Law Firm of the Year

Neville Eisenberg, longstanding managing partner of Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), was on hand to collect the Law Firm of the Year Award, which was decided by the judging panel on the night. BLP beat strong competition from the other contenders. It won the judges' approval for the transformative journey it has been on under Eisenberg's watch. Since its creation via the merger of Berwin Leighton and Paisner & Co in 2001, BLP has been the definition of the innovative, upwardly-mobile City law firm.
2 minute read

International Edition

CSR Initiative/Programme of the Year

The Legal Response Initiative (LRI) is the result of collaboration among lawyers based at Oxfam GB and World Wildlife Fund UK and a number of law firms and barristers' chambers. Its purpose is to provide pro bono legal advice to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) taking part in the ongoing United Nations climate change negotiations. By doing so it seeks to redress the imbalance between the level of legal representation enjoyed by the world's richest nations and the advice at the disposal of the least developed nations, who rely on NGOs to support them. The LRI provided legal advice at last year's Barcelona and Copenhagen sessions and two sessions in Bonn this year. Liaison offices based at the conferences passed on legal queries to a 'situation room' in the London office of Simmons & Simmons.
2 minute read

International Edition

Off the clock - how pro bono can enhance lawyers' fee-earning work

I was recently honoured to receive the International Bar Association (IBA) annual Pro Bono and Access to Justice Committee Award and was asked by the IBA to provide my pro bono biography. Most lawyers I should imagine do not have a pro bono biography; pro bono work is often undertaken ad hoc. I was no exception. When putting this together, I was genuinely surprised by the large number of pro bono projects I have been involved with over my nine years at Allen & Overy (A&O). There has been no great plan behind this. My pro bono commitments have been rather opportunistic in a sense.
8 minute read

International Edition

CC signs up to £1m pro bono deal to provide trainees for legal aid work

Clifford Chance (CC) has pledged to provide pro bono support worth £1m to legal aid practice Law For All (LFA) over the next five years. The magic circle firm has signed a five-year agreement with longstanding pro bono partner LFA, which sees CC commit to supply up to five full time-equivalent trainees each year to the organisation - an investment CC estimates at worth more than £1m over the period.
2 minute read

International Edition

Bakers creates pro bono director role to lead on CSR initiatives

Baker & McKenzie has appointed Madeleine Schachter as global director of pro bono and corporate social responsibility (CSR), with the appointment coming as the firm moves to strengthen its CSR initiatives with clients. In the newly-created role, New York-based partner Schachter will work exclusively on CSR matters, including pro bono work with an emphasis on international humanitarian rights, constitutional law and civil rights issues.
2 minute read

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