UK Pro Bono and Community Work

Pro bono work at Mayer Brown is overseen by a global committee whilst day-to-day responsibility rests with the US Pro Bono Directors, the UK Pro Bono Partner and local committees. There is a dedicated European pro bono committee and a London CSR committee (whose remit covers community, charitable, environmental and diversity initiatives as well as pro bono work).

In the US, the firm's lawyers participate in numerous pro bono projects in all areas of law, including assisting Iraqi refugees through The List Project (for which the firm was co-recipient of the 2008 National Law Journal Pro Bono Award), working on Guantánamo detainee litigation (for which the firm and counsel Gary Isaac were presented with The Center for Constitutional Rights 2006 Law Firm Award for Pro Bono Service and President's Award, and was co-recipient of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association's 2007 Beacon of Justice Award), handling death row appeals, discrimination and other civil liberty cases, and advising non-profit groups on various non-contentious issues. Further information about our US and other international pro bono work can be found on the firm’s pro bono web site, www.mayerbrown.com/probono.

UK pro bono schemes

Many of the firm’s domestic UK schemes are summarised below, and include joint initiatives with LawWorks, the UK solicitors’ pro bono organisation, of which the firm has been a committed member since the late 1990s.  In 2006, Mayer Brown was a joint recipient of the LawWorks Award for Best Contribution by a Law Firm, primarily for "outstanding regular commitment" to LawWorks initiatives, including taking cases via its Community Groups scheme and advising at clinics such as the one at Islington Law Centre.

The RCJ Advice Bureau

This was one of our first pro bono schemes, and partners and solicitors have advised regularly at the Bureau (situated at the Royal Courts of Justice) since 1998.

Advice clinics

Mayer Brown lawyers help at other London law clinics, most notably Islington Law Centre. In December 2007, Mayer Brown, LawWorks, and the RCJ Advice Bureau together set up a new fortnightly mediation advice clinic staffed by Mayer Brown lawyers (now assisted by Kaplan Law School students) at the Bureau’s premises in High Holborn. The mediation process is explained to members of the public with disputes who then have the chance to be referred to LawWorks’ free mediation scheme.  The clinic has recently been commended in the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers FT Law 50 List.

Case referrals

Contentious and transactional cases are referred by various sources, such as LawWorks and UK charity Reprieve (which provides representation to people denied a fair trial), with cases being undertaken for individuals and a wide variety of charitable organisations.

Other LawWorks schemes

As well as taking cases referred by LawWorks, many Mayer Brown lawyers are signed up to LawWorks’ web-based schemes whereby they can advise either in depth or on discreet questions referred by organisations such as the National Council of Voluntary Organisations. In addition, experienced solicitors and partners act as reviewers of cases for LawWorks.

Liberty

We have a long-standing relationship with the UK civil rights organisation Liberty, having been on their pro bono panel since 1999, and over the years have provided answers to frequently asked questions referred by Liberty, assisted with updating their YourRights website, and provided advisers for Liberty’s telephone help line.

Justice

For many years we have been members of Justice, another well-known human rights organisation in the UK, and recently acted for them when they intervened in the House of Lords case of R (Corner House) v. Serious Fraud Office and BAE Systems plc.

International pro bono work

Advocates for International Development:  Together with other City firms, Mayer Brown was a founder member of Advocates for International Development (“A4ID”).  This charity sprang out of the Oxfam ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign, and it matches legal assistance to requests from charities helping Third World countries on issues such as fair trade and debt.  We have taken a number of cases from A4ID and written guides for them on topics such as the International Monetary Fund. (See http://www.a4id.org/ for further details.)

Liberian Project:  Mayer Brown lawyers recently took part in an initiative organised by Minnesota-based Advocates for Human Rights which involved taking statements from Liberian nationals living in the UK for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia concerning the conflict from 1979 to 2003.

Amicus: Mayer Brown is launching a new scheme with UK charity Amicus, which provides support to US lawyers defending prisoners on death row, and Kaplan Law School. Kaplan students will be undertaking research for Amicus, supervised by Mayer Brown lawyers, some of whom are existing Amicus volunteers.

Other international projects by Mayer Brown’s London office in recent years have included advising the Reuters Foundation (the charitable arm of Reuters Group plc) on international and Iraqi law in relation to the establishment of an independent news agency in Iraq, and acting for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (the international refugee agency set up by the General Assembly in 1950) as intervener in an appeal to the House of Lords of a judicial review challenging the UK Government's policy of pre-screening Roma asylum seekers at Prague airport.

Joint projects with other Mayer Brown offices around the world have included providing pro bono advice and representation for athletes and sports federations before the Court of Arbitration for Sport at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, and advising the Asian University for Women Support Foundation, which is establishing a university in Bangladesh for young Asian women.

Community work

Primary school reading, numeracy and French partnering scheme: Some 30 volunteers from all parts of the firm’s London office are involved in a partnering scheme with Malmesbury Primary School in the Tower Hamlets district of East London. The scheme has proved popular with both the children and the volunteers, who go to the school on three days a week to hear children read, play numeracy games, or help the children learn French. In Autumn 2004, the scheme won a Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership Award, mention being made not only of the time and effort which volunteers put into the scheme, but also the firm's donations to the school (including computers and the sponsorship of a poet, John Mole, to run poetry workshops at the school), and the children's visits to the office for Christmas and summer parties.

Secondary school ‘legal literacy’ scheme: Mayer Brown lawyers and BPP and Kaplan Law  School students lead discussion groups on legal topics with Year 11 pupils at Morpeth Secondary School, also in Tower Hamlets, as part of the school's citizenship programme, using quizzes and role play as well as discussion to help the young people understand their rights. Year 10 pupils visit the firm’s London office each summer for talks about becoming a lawyer, a tour, and lunch; and pupils are also offered work placements. Feedback from both years’ pupils and the volunteers has been very positive.

Other community work has included members of the firm’s Human Resources Department helping secondary school pupils with practice interviews and a senior partner mentoring a headteacher.