In touch community report 2006

Spring 2007

In public view

Anyone joining us is encouraged to take part in our pro bono schemes, where we undertake legal work without charge for people who cannot afford to pay and for causes that we support. We approach our pro bono work with the same integrity with which we approach our client work and we aim to give the same quality of service.

The London office has a long tradition of pro bono work, and other offices, such as Paris, where a pro bono team has just been set up, are keen to progress their fledgling pro bono programmes.

For over 20 years, Norton Rose volunteers in London have advised at evening drop-in legal advice surgeries at the Tower Hamlets Law Centre in Whitechapel. More recently we have established a partnership with Wandsworth and Merton Law Centre, enabling the Centre to provide an additional weekly evening surgery at its Tooting office. These surgeries concentrate on advice in employment, consumer, private tenancy and small claim matters.

Some people also work regularly for the Free Representation Unit: this provides representation before tribunals where legal aid is not available.

Other organisations we work with include the Citizens’ Advice Bureau in the Royal Courts of Justice, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, the Capital Cases Panel, HM Prison Service, Oxfam and the Environmental Law Foundation.

Empowering others

My normal work is for international corporates, so I like the fact that, through pro bono, I can work locally. Tower Hamlets Law Centre is near where I live and in a community I care about. Many of the people who attend have English as their second language and are worried by issues they need help to understand. Our role is often to explain the issues properly and, through constructive legal advice, empower them to resolve the issue. Sometimes it is hard to get away from the office, but I just have to manage my time so that I can attend.

Alexander Cosgrove
Norton Rose

Winning the case

My first involvement with FRU was taking a case before the Employment Tribunal. My colleague Esha and I acted for a cleaner who had lost his job and was owed wages and holiday pay. He could not afford legal representation and his English was not very good, so we also arranged for an interpreter to be at the tribunal. We won the case. Most rewarding of all was the fact that, although not a big case in financial terms compared to the usual claims we deal with at Norton Rose, it was of great importance to our client, who had lost his livelihood and felt he had been treated unfairly. He was delighted with the result.

Adrian Hoggarth
Norton Rose

Pro bono: Peter Knight delivers regular pro bono sessions at this law centre in London.