Pro Bono & Community Work at a Magic Circle Firm

Dec 03, 2014

Written By Billy Sexton, Editor, AllAboutLaw.co.uk

Kate Hursthouse is Corporate Responsibility Manager at Slaughter and May and looks after the firm’s pro bono and community programme. In an exclusive interview with AllAboutLaw.co.uk, Kate reveals that the firm takes part in weekly advice clinics in Islington, as well as being a founding member of PRIME, an organisation that seeks to ensure students from less privileged backgrounds receive quality work experience.

After government cuts to legal aid, does Slaughter and May have any initiatives in place which provide free expert advice to the vulnerable?

Pro bono work gives our lawyers the opportunity to use their professional skills in a different context and the satisfaction of helping those who urgently need, but cannot afford, legal advice. Last year, our lawyers directly assisted 400 individuals at legal advice clinics. One of our longest running pro bono projects involves volunteers advising local residents on a Tuesday evening advice clinic at Islington Law Centre, which we have worked with since 2000.

Does Slaughter and May work with any non-governmental organisations or human rights groups? If so, what do you feel the firm gets from working with these types of organisations?

We seek to use the breadth of our legal expertise to help NGOs and charities working in the developing world. For example we have advised international development charities such as Self Help Africa, Save the Children and Sense International, the deafblind charity.

We support the Capital Cases Charitable Trust, which provides pro bono representation to prisoners in the Caribbean sentenced to capital and non-capital terms in their appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. This work is undertaken by our Dispute Resolution group. We are also a partner of Advocates for International Development (A4ID), which links development organisations with law firms around the world.

The firm has always had an ethos of responsibility and this is manifested in our long history of providing free legal advice to charities and individuals. We have the intellect and financial resources to make a difference and this work gives us greater texture and range as people and professionals. It gives us better understanding, better peripheral vision and that makes us better advisers.

Does Slaughter and May work to provide better access to education? For instance, are there opportunities for students from less privileged backgrounds to gain experience in the legal sector?

We are proud to be a founding member of PRIME, a profession-wide undertaking to give fair access to quality work experience for young people from less privileged backgrounds. We fulfil our commitment to PRIME through initiatives with Central Foundation Boys' School including the Key Project and our annual work experience programme.

The Key Project is an award-winning social mobility project that aims to help disadvantaged students into top universities. Our support includes volunteers tutoring students to improve their academic performance.

We also help to drive the Legal Social Mobility Partnership, which is made up of a group of law firms, in-house legal teams and others with the aim of providing students, who might not otherwise pursue legal careers, access to quality work experience at top law firms and their high profile clients.

Do you partner with other organisations or provide sponsorship for any external bodies?

Over many years, we have developed partnerships with schools, charities and community organisations and reach around 400 beneficiaries each year. We have been a long-time funder of a number of organisations, such as the National Literacy Trust, and offer additional support in the form of legal and strategic expertise, volunteer participation and in-kind assistance such as hosting meetings and events.

We partner with clients to run innovative community investment initiatives and work with the BIG Alliance (Businesses for Islington Giving), which matches the skills of our volunteers to help local charities become more sustainable. Other examples of partnerships include our work with St Luke’s Community Centre, which has a long history of supporting the vulnerable and isolated.

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