Good and better

1. The idea

LawWorks Scotland has been established to co-ordinate, develop and encourage the provision of pro bono legal services in Scotland. Initially these services will be restricted to provision of advice and will not include representation.

LawWorks Scotland (LWS) will operate as an independent Scottish-based charity, but is acting with the support of LawWorks, the well established London-based organisation (www.lawworks.org.uk). Almost every major law firm in England is a member of LawWorks and it is our intention to achieve an equivalent position in Scotland.

The LawWorks model is to act as a clearing house for lawyers wishing to provide pro bono legal services. They will register with us and we will then facilitate their attendance at advice clinics run by frontline advice agencies such as Citizens Advice Scotland. All subsidiary aspects such as compliance with “know your client” laws, training, engagement terms and insurance are taken care of.

To operate we need two things: lawyers providing their time at no charge and funding. This paper is intended for law firms and other organisations that are in a position to provide either or both.

My own involvement in this area dates back to university when, for a period, I worked as a Citizens Advice Bureau adviser. There is no doubt I gained a great deal of experience in handling clients in an advisory context and found that experience invaluable. I would like to think that others can see the benefit in getting involved in this way and ensuring that those in our community who are most in need of legal advice, but who are unable to pay for it, are able to receive that advice.

2. Our activities

I am delighted to say that reaction so far has been tremendously supportive. I have seen great enthusiasm, particularly but not solely from younger lawyers who came into the law wanting to do some good but who may have found the reality of working in private practice or in-house not quite living up to their idealistic vision.

What has also been very encouraging is to hear that there is so much pro bono work already going on and at LWS we readily acknowledge that. The idea of our organisation is not to seek to replace or hinder that but, rather, to act as a co-ordinating body to ensure that those who wish to provide pro bono legal advice can be channelled in the right direction towards those most needing that advice.

The initial activities will be:

• establishing a register of lawyers prepared to provide pro bono services
• matching lawyers prepared to provide pro bono services with established advice centres such as those run by Citizens Advice Scotland, law centres and university advice clinics
• providing training to ensure that lawyers without relevant expertise can provide the required services
• helping to establish pro bono clinics in areas where none already exist and, where necessary, improving and expanding existing services.

We plan to develop our operations in these ways:

• encouraging all law schools to establish law clinics and assisting them in doing so
• organising regular conferences and symposia to discuss issues relating to the provision of pro bono services
• fostering the spirit of pro bono by having award ceremonies to reward pro bono activities
• providing brokerage services to community groups and small charities in need of legal assistance
• matching lawyers and others prepared to provide free mediation services
• developing detailed online resources to support pro bono services in Scotland. We have secured the following domain names: www.lawworksscotland.org.uk, www.lawworksscotland.org and www.lawworksscotland.co.uk
• negotiating CPD hours for free legal advice and certifying such for solicitors’ CPD records.

3. How we will work

At LWS we are very conscious that pro bono, which is very active in many similar jurisdictions, cannot be a substitute for civil legal aid. We see it as being complimentary to an effective civil legal aid system.

LWS aims to provide advice only for those who are unable to pay for legal advice, rather than those who choose not to.

In this way, I would not be surprised if many people who see a LWS adviser are then advised to make contact with a solicitor providing civil legal aid. It is important to note that LWS advisers will only be providing advice at clinics, and not representation which, again, underlines the importance of civil legal aid.

In order to ensure that pro bono advice and assistance meets normal professional standards, we require:

• Training for advisers. All volunteers should be able to provide adequate advice in the likely areas of housing, welfare, employment, etc. Here Citizens Advice, Glasgow Housing Association in-house lawyers and the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic, among others, may be able to assist.
• Insurance cover. All advice given at clinics will be provided under the terms of the organising “frontline agency” (FLA): Citizens Advice, university law clinic etc. However, it may be necessary to arrange residual insurance to cover unexpected gaps. This may be done through Advice UK, which insures advice agencies. Marsh, the professional indemnity insurance broker, is also willing to assist, for a fee.
• Standard setting. Standards for the provision of service will be put in place for all LWS clinics.
• Protocol. A protocol will be drawn up for those FLAs who would like to use LWS, stating the type of services to be offered and to whom they are offered. It is likely that this will be based on the existing LawWorks protocol.
• Terms of engagement between adviser and client will require to be drawn up.
• Money laundering requirements will be dealt with by the FLAs.

4. Why get involved?

Corporate social responsibility

Participation in LWS will be a major boost to your existing CSR programme. If you do not already have an effective CSR programme, provision of lawyer hours to LWS can meet that need.

Almost all law firms accept the value of operating effective CSR programmes. Of course, CSR is our opportunity to put something back into the community and there are many indirect employee benefits to be enjoyed through doing so. Of increasing importance is the need to be able to demonstrate CSR activity when tendering for legal services contracts.

We have discussed with the Lord Advocate and Scottish Government lawyers the inclusion of a question relating to the provision of pro bono legal services in Government tenders. The Lord Advocate is a great proponent of pro bono services and she has been a supporter of LWS.

Training and experience

Acting as a LWS adviser offers lawyers the opportunity to develop their people skills with hands-on experience. While we will provide formal subject-specific training in specialist areas, working as a LWS adviser will offer hands-on, one-to-one adviser experience that some junior lawyers do not otherwise gain.

This training and personal development can be gained without reputational risk to your organisation and with no expenditure of management time.

Working as an LWS adviser also offers opportunities that lawyers may not have in their work. For example, a lawyer in a significant corporate practice may get little opportunity to advise clients directly, and working with us offers that opportunity.

At this stage, we do not intend to impose a minimum commitment of lawyer hours for participation.

Recruitment

We are confident that offering participation in LWS will be a draw for prospective law student graduates, many of whom are already working in the growing number of university law clinics (Strathclyde, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and West of Scotland).

LWS will work closely with these clinics and may provide advisers through their existing structures. In this way a closer connection with the universities and law students can be achieved.

What we need to achieve is the position that has been gained by LawWorks in England, which is that it becomes the norm to be signed up to LWS, and if a firm or organisation is not a member, that the question might be asked, why not?

LWS has been lobbying to introduce questions relating to the provision of pro bono legal advice as part of public sector tenders. I personally consider that if that could be achieved, that single step would turbocharge the launch of LWS.

LawWorks Scotland: our organisation

LWS is a registered charity (no SC041601). It will operate independently of LawWorks, but with their full support and permission.

It will be under the control of a board of trustees, made up of representatives of the various sectors of the legal profession, the universities, the Law Society of Scotland and advice agencies. The board will also be responsible for promoting its activities to the profession and universities more broadly in order to sign up members and to bring in funds.

The board’s current membership is Ian Moffett, consultant, Anderson Strathern (chair); Professor Donald Nicolson, University of Strathclyde; Hugh Donald, ex-Shepherd and Wedderburn; Jane McLeod, Scottish Government; Paul White, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations; Emma Anstead, Proactive Employment Lawyers; and Colin Hulme, Burness LLP.

Day-to-day running of LawWorks Scotland will operate from administrative premises provided free of charge by the Law Society of Scotland. Initially, it is employing one part-time administrator, responsible for co-ordinating activities, advertising LWS services, maintaining a database, a website and other online resources, liaising with FLAs and universities, pursuing funding applications, and organising training, insurance, standard setting, letters of engagement etc.

The cost of annual membership will be based on the number of Scottish-based fee earners working in a firm. The fees approximately equate to £15 per fee earner.

The bands of fees are as follows: