Pro bono opportunities

Members of the Legal Intelligence Network have expressed an interest in doing pro bono work as a way of maintaining their skills while they are between roles. LexisNexis has a long standing relationship with the national charity LawWorks (formerly the Solicitors Pro Bono Group) and makes LexisNexis online content available free of charge to their law clinics.

LawWorks has set up LawWorks Choices, a new project for lawyers who are out of work. It gives them the chance to give pro bono advice to individuals and not for profit groups, to carry on practising and significantly to improve their employment prospects. Due to the clear synergies between this initiative and the Legal Intelligence Network, LexisNexis encourages any Network members with an interest in pro bono to take the opportunity to join LawWorks Choices.

LexisNexis and LawWorks will continue to collaborate to make opportunities available to talented lawyers who find themselves between jobs.

More about LawWorks Choices

Choices is the first initiative of its kind in which a sector is combating the downturn by helping ex-employees do work for the common good. If 500 of these lawyers each put in just 100 hours over the year (two hours a week) under this scheme it would generate the equivalent of some £12 million worth of free legal advice.

Some major law firms have offered guaranteed interviews to appropriately qualified candidates who spend a certain number of hours on this project. Further information about the Guaranteed Interview Scheme can be found on the LawWorks Choices website (www.lawworkschoices.org.uk)

The Law Society and the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority will provide a practising certificate limited to pro bono work, free of charge, to legally qualified participants volunteering under this project.

Participants in the Choices Project will need to be members of LawWorks. Further information about the scheme and how to join LawWorks can be found at www.lawworkschoices.org.uk. Please contact Alison Ingram (alison.ingram@lawworks.org.uk) or Lorna Heselton (lorna.heselton@lawworks.org.uk) with any queries.

 

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