Following cuts in legal aid and government funding, Britain is experiencing a legal advice deficit in which hundreds of thousands fewer people are receiving free legal advice and assistance. Those Law Centres and advice agencies that have remained open are overstretched and under-resourced. Pro Bono Community is committed to providing these organisations with well-trained volunteers who can help them to overcome the challenges they face and improve access to justice for people in need.
By working closely with law firms and universities we hope that our training and volunteer placement schemes will serve to embed pro bono culture in the hearts and minds of young lawyers and that many of them will go on to become evangelists for volunteering and pro bono work in their future careers.
PBC was set up with support from The Legal Education Foundation and went live in 2014-15. Since then the charity has run over 90 training programmes involving more than 1800 attendees from law firms, universities and other organisations including Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills, Simmons & Simmons, Shearman & Sterling, Olswang, Ashurst, Morgan Lewis, Farrer, Hogan Lovells, CMS, City Law School, LSE, King’s College London, University College London, Manchester Metropolitan University, University of West England, University of Hertfordshire, SOAS, Greenwich University, BPP, University of Law, Royal Holloway University and London South Bank University.
As a result of the pandemic and the subsequent economic downturn, there has been a sharp increase in poverty and inequality. This has been exacerbated by a social security system that is failing people who are suffering extreme levels of hardship by rejecting their valid claims for welfare benefits. The Tribunals Service statistics from 2020 show that 73% of social security appeals are successful, with the claimant getting a better award than they originally received from the DWP.
The free legal advice system is achieving incredible results for individuals but lacks the capacity to deliver positive outcomes for the large numbers of people attempting to access it. For example, a BBC investigation showed up to a million people living in areas with no legal aid provision for housing and 15 million in areas with just one provider. The use of well-trained and properly-supervised volunteers represents one of the most cost-effective ways of increasing the amount of free legal advice, improving access to justice and relieving poverty. Since it was set up, PBC has trained almost 2,000 students and lawyers who we estimate have gone on to provide legal assistance and support to more than 40,000 people.
