At Pro Bono Connect's 10th anniversary celebration yesterday, we were very proud to have won the 'most cases taken on by a chambers' award.
The celebration held at the Supreme Court highlighted:
- how the Pro Bono Connect scheme has developed over the past decade, and
- the work done by participating barristers and solicitors during that time.
Over those 10 years, more than 25% of our barristers have taken on a Pro Bono Connect case across a range of practice areas.
They include: John Critchley, Nikolas Clarke, Lauren Suding, Max Lansman, Rebecca Davies, Ryan Anderson, Joanna Thom, Aristide Hoang-Brown, Madeleine Southey, Harrison Engler and Savannah Laurent.
Accepting the award, John Critchley who was head of chambers for most of the past decade said:
This is a collective award, but in fairness the single individual who deserves the award is our deputy senior clerk, Mark Townsend. He has administered and driven our participation in the scheme. Buy-in and good quality support from him and his colleagues have been critically important to our barristers' engagement in Pro Bono Connect cases.
Examples of our Pro Bono Connect cases
- Rebecca Davies represented parents who were resisting an application by the maternal grandparents to spend time with their children (the mother had suffered trauma in her childhood).
- Max Lansman acted for the successful claimant in her application for the employment tribunal to reconsider a decision on an employer’s identity after her dismissal.
- Madeleine Southey represented the applicant in a transfer of tenancy where the joint tenant/ex-husband had disappeared.
About the Pro Bono Connect scheme
Pro Bono Connect was set up to establish a network of barristers and solicitors willing to work together on pro bono cases for individuals, charities and community groups unable to pay for legal advice/representation and for whom alternative means of funding are not available.
The scheme enables any solicitor from a participating firm doing a pro bono case to request assistance from a participating barrister via the clerks (and vice versa).
Pro Bono Connect now has around 90 participating firms and 70 chambers.