Attorney General's Office

Attorney General: Pro Bono Reception at Coutts

I would like to start by saying a very warm thank you to Mike Anderson. He has been able to help us through sponsoring the last Pro Bono Event at Coutts. None of us are here tonight without his assistance. Whenever I have asked him to help, his first answer has been "Yes", followed only then by the question "With what?"

I have been told that there is an advert on the underground billboards at present. I won't say what it advertises but the slogan reads: "No one ever built a monument to a committee". Well, I think perhaps they should. And if they did, I would put forward both my Domestic and my International Pro Bono Coordinating Committees for consideration to be hailed in a way commensurate with their excellence.

We really are here tonight to celebrate the work of the two Pro Bono Committees. When the Committees were established, we had no idea they would be as extraordinary as they have proven to be. They have both become indispensible. And when a committee becomes indispensible, one tends to forget what the world was like before it came into existence. I believe that we are in that very happy position with our pro bono committees.

Domestic Committee

The Attorney General's Domestic Pro Bono Committee was established by Lord Goldsmith while he was Attorney General, back in 2001. It's difficult to remember what the pro bono landscape looked like at that time. I have to remind myself of what it would be like if we hadn't established the Committees. Had that been the case, many of the events we now take for granted would never have occurred. We would have no annual celebration of pro bono - National Pro Bono Week. We hadn't experienced the Pro Bono Bus - the bus that travelled all over the country in National Pro Bono Week in 2005, sending out the pro bono message. We hadn't yet drafted a Protocol for Pro Bono, a set of principles that lawyers of all different types have promised to follow, when they undertake pro bono advice and representation. Only today, I was discussing the Protocol with the Deputy Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Secretariat, when we spent an hour talking about pro bono and how to put it on the agenda for the next Commonwealth Law Ministers meeting. With items such as the Protocol, we offer a way for other Commonwealth Law Ministers to emulate our work.

Before the Committees were created, there was no Access to Justice Foundation, the charity designated to receive pro bono costs orders made in suitable cases. We hadn't even developed our concept of Pro Bono Heroes; a way of celebrating the work of the people who quietly offer up their time to help others. There was a time when people said "Are we comfortable with having Pro Bono Heroes". We said that we were and they have been incredibly successful as a way of thanking people who never ask for any reward for their work.

Nor had we developed the MP's Guide to Pro Bono, the first publication of its kind, sent in November 2009 to all the MPs in England and Wales. It tells them, in a nutshell, which organisations might be able to help their constituents, if they need legal advice but simply cannot afford to pay for it.

These developments and initiatives are now an integral part of our pro bono world. I am delighted that the list is so extensive. I have left out quite a few thing along the way. I therefore do not intend to mention all the changes made since the Pro bono Committee came into being. It is a testament to the energy and drive of the committee members that there simply isn't enough time to list all of its achievements.

I would, however, like to begin my tribute to my domestic committee, with my grateful, personal thanks to Peter Goldsmith. None of the committee's excellent achievements could have come about without the dedicated, passionate commitment that Peter has brought to that work. Peter identified the need for and value of coordinating the individual efforts of pro bono practitioners. Not only did Peter set up the committee, but he developed its membership from representatives within the legal community, all of whom are individually dedicated and passionate about pro bono.

I am also very grateful to the individual members of the domestic pro bono committee. When I became Attorney General, they welcomed me with their customary enthusiasm and vigour for pro bono and I am delighted by their achievements. Some may have wondered what the new Attorney General would be like; little did they know how important pro bono would be to me. The Committee members are, for me, a true inspiration. It has been a real privilege for me to chair the Committee with them as the members and I thank each and every one of them now. Each member has brought something very special to the Committee; I do not believe it would have achieved all it has, without their work.

The value of pro bono lies in the very real difference it can make to the person who needs legal help but cannot afford to pay for it. In an area where the essence of the work is that it is done for free, without access to funding, practitioners face very real difficulties in making that difference happen. They have the desire to help people and they have the skills to help them too. Practitioners themselves need help coordinating their activities and ensuring that their individual efforts can have the maximum impact, the maximum effect.

Collaboration may be seen as anathema to a legal profession that is innately adversarial, and focused on jealously guarding cases, clients and even new ideas. Well, I am pleased to say that members of the Domestic Committee have done the exact opposite. They have embraced collaboration. They have generously shared their ideas, their experiences (including the most painful lessons learned) and their projects. Committee members have solved problems for one another in a way that is quite breathtaking to experience.

And I would say that the Committee has blossomed by reason of this. It is a real pleasure to chair committee meetings where I am told that individual members and organisations have been working together in between committee meetings, scheming, plotting, planning to help improve pro bono, or that they have joint proposals. In fact, I don't need to be told that committee members are working with one another, I see the evidence of it at every meeting; members are normally sitting there exchanging ideas - I cannot get them out of the room sometimes!

I have said already that there are too many achievements of the Domestic Committee for me to name every one. That is true but I have two initiatives that I am very pleased to speak about at tonight's Reception.

The first is the revised Pro Bono Protocol. Many of you here tonight will know it very well. If I may provide some background, however, the Protocol sets a standard for those who undertake pro bono work. The standard is: "as if the work were paid work". It is important for lawyers to remember this when undertaking pro bono work and the Protocol helps them as well; it offers guidance and a sense of reassurance that this is the right standard to follow.

The Protocol was drafted by LawWorks and the Bar Pro Bono Unit on behalf of the domestic Committee and was agreed in 2005. It has been signed by major law firms, barristers' chambers, postgraduate colleges, to name a few and I believe there are presently 113 signatories to it. I should confirm that the Attorney General is one of them. This support for the Protocol lends it additional strength; practitioners can be fortified by knowing that all these organisations consider it to be the correct standard for pro bono work, whenever it is carried out.

The Domestic Committee has agreed a number of changes to the Protocol, each of which are important. Each of them were argued about extremely carefully and detailed debate, sharing of views and reconsideration of the wording. I am celebrating the fact that we now have a Protocol that every member of the Committee agrees. I was incredibly pleased we were able to come to a concluded agreement. Although this process took some time, it is a triumph of the Committee that I can say this was a thoughtful process, undertaken knowing the importance of what was being considered and agrees following a debate that took place in a very respectful way. There is real quality in these changes.

One important change was to introduce a reminder to practitioners that in appropriate cases the court can, and should, make pro bono costs orders under section 194 of the Legal Services Act 2007. A section 194 Order means that if a funded party loses to a party represented pro bono, we get costs; the losing party will pay a sum of money representing the value of the services received, pro bono. This money goes to the Access to Justice Foundation, a registered charity that uses the funds to help support and promote pro bono work generally. It is particularly fitting that we are here tonight at Coutts and Co., which very generously hosted the launch of the Access to Justice Foundation on 7th October 2008. Since that launch the Foundation, led by Peter Goldsmith, has gone from strength to strength. It has benefitted from several pro bono costs orders, two of which were sizeable (£20,000 and a sum just under £6,000).

It is gratifying because these sums have helped the Foundation be able to make, last year,24 grants, to organisations all over the country, supporting their pro bono work. The Foundation has also played a really important role in the establishment of the Regional Legal Support Trusts, which are supporting and coordinating pro bono across the country. The Foundation is developing steadily and I, along with other members of the Committee, am very proud of it. The revised Protocol now refers to pro bono costs orders and reminds practitioners that they should ask for an order that their pro bono costs are paid to the Foundation in appropriate cases.

Another important change to the Protocol was to introduce examples of other ways in which lawyers could use their skills, beyond core pro bono work. This work can make a real difference. It includes Public Legal Education, or, as it is often known, Preventative Legal Medicine.

I am delighted to say that the wording of the revised Protocol was agreed by members of the Committee on 25th January 2010. It is my pleasure and privilege to launch the revised Protocol at tonight's event. Copies of it are available in this room and I commend it to you.

I am also delighted to use tonight to formally launch another excellent pro bono initiative. It is the Joint ILEX Pro Bono Forum and Bar Pro Bono Unit Scheme or "JIB" as it is known. It came about because the ILEX and Bar Pro Bono Unit, both members of the Domestic Committee, realised that whilst they gave excellent pro bono assistance separately, inevitably there are gaps in what could be done. For example, barristers cannot take witness statements, and legal executives might not wish to undertake substantial advocacy in a case (although some do and they do it extremely well). The Eureka moment, if I may call it that, was realising that if they worked jointly, the Bar Pro Bono Unit and ILEX could provide a seamless service of legal executives and barristers to cover all aspects of a case pro bono. This is a classic example of committee members working together effectively. Furthermore, when the question arose of finding professional indemnity insurance for voluntary work outside the sphere of employment, a third member of the Domestic Committee, AdviceUK, understood the issue straightaway and was able to arrange a bespoke policy. This was fascinating; until AdviceUK spoke up, no-one knew it had such policies available to it.

This demonstrates the clear benefit of Committee members working together. Clients, who need, but cannot pay for, legal assistance, will benefit from this scheme. It demonstrates the legal profession at its finest. It is again, my privilege to use tonight to launch this exciting new development in pro bono services.

International Pro Bono Committee
But the Domestic Committee is not the only committee whose work I am celebrating tonight. It isn't the only committee for which I'm asking someone to make a statue. Lord Goldsmith established the International Pro Bono Coordinating Committee in 2007. Based on the same principles as the Domestic Coordinating Committee, the International Committee looks at how we might best coordinate UK legal expertise and collaborate when it is deployed in other countries. Just as pro bono represents one of the finest legal traditions, the way in which UK legal expertise is welcomed abroad demonstrates how much our wonderful legal profession is valued by other jurisdictions.

Membership of the committee is widely drawn; it includes the 3 professional bodies, the International Bar Association, the Advocacy Training Council, lead pro bono organisations, together with representatives of the judiciary, the academic sector and the public sector and a number of members are here tonight.

Each member carries out highly distinguished work individually on international pro bono. Collectively, their involvement in, and support for, pro bono work is invaluable. Again, I thank each and every member of this Committee for their passion and their vision of international pro bono work, and how we can make it even more effective.

And I am delighted, in celebrating the work of the International Committee, to talk of two specific examples of its work. It's somewhat younger than the Domestic Committee, but just as enthusiastic and has been extremely productive.

Firstly, I would like to mention the Committee's work on a database of international pro bono projects. The database is filled with projects undertaken by members of the committee. They share some details of where they have worked and what they learned from the experience. It will be incredibly useful for practitioners who are thinking of working in the same countries or on similar types of projects. I was pleased to launch Phase 1 of the Database, at the Law Society in November 2008.

Originally hosted at Clifford Chance, the database is being moved over to a public forum, the pro bono website www.probonouk.net.

The International Pro Bono Coordinating Committee met two weeks ago and decided that once appropriate checks are made (which will take no more than a couple of weeks), the database will be ready to be viewed by members of the public as well. At that point, you will be able to visit the website and view the database.

I would like to thank Mark Giles of Clifford Chance, who has worked tirelessly on the database from the very beginning. Without his work, we wouldn't have this well of information from which practitioners will be able to drink in the future.

When the International Committee met, it also agreed that further work should be undertaken on a draft pro bono toolkit, to be shared with the Commonwealth Secretariat. In July 2008, I attended a meeting of Commonwealth Law Ministers and I was very pleased to be able to encourage all the Ministers present to agree (which they did) the importance of pro bono and that they should promote it in their own countries. The Communiqué produced after that meeting reflects this commitment and also a commitment to using models and drafts to help implement pro bono work. I saw the opportunity to produce a first working draft of a toolkit, to help deliver the commitment we had made in the Communiqué. They produced a simple CD Rom of papers setting out different considerations people might find helpful if setting up a pro bono system, maintaining it or developing it. It is very low tech designed particularly to be used all over the world, without needing expensive computers or operating systems.

Importantly, it was produced, collaboratively, by members of the International Pro Bono Committee. They prepared individual papers on a number of different topics (for example, students, legal professions, resources, government, coordination and even Law Officers). To use a cooking analogy, it contains "recipes" from the committee members, both for the cakes that rose beautifully and are light and fluffy, and also the cakes that were a bit stodgier and perhaps we wouldn't want to make again.

The first draft was prepared in February 2009 and I shared it immediately with the Attorneys General of Australia and New Zealand. Since then, the toolkit has travelled extensively, as copies have been distributed through members of my committee. Many of them have travelled all over the world. There are copies of it here tonight.

On each occasion we have asked for comments, feedback and suggestions. We welcome the inclusion of other countries' experiences and their best practice or lessons learned. The toolkit will be at its most valuable if it has the benefit of different views, perspectives and suggestions.

The feedback from those who have received the toolkit has been invariably positive. It has been extremely successful; people have welcomed the suggestions made in the toolkit and the idea of producing it. We ourselves also benefited, however, because in sharing the toolkit, we have prompted very interesting and thought-provoking discussions about pro bono.

I myself have met with the Attorneys General of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America, to discuss important issues that affect us all. All five Attorneys General were delighted to agree a Joint Statement on Pro Bono, which we agreed on 10th November 2009. Not only have we discussed pro bono ideas but I am pleased to relate that some ideas have already led to action; the Attorney General of Australia, Robert McLelland, has established an International Pro Bono Advisory Group, which shares many features with our International Pro Bono Committee. The Australian Group based its strategy paper (which sets out its principles and aims) on our International Committee's Statement of Principles for International Pro Bono Work. Rob McLelland has also told me he is keen to recognise the work of Pro Bono Heroes in Australia this year, because our celebration of Pro Bono Heroes in this country has been so successful. We have already exchanged ideas and we are learning from one another. It is a really exciting time.

The toolkit is shaping up to be precisely what we have aspired for it to be - Pro Bono in a Box, a silver disk of possibilities, advice and support for lawyers. It is proving to be worth its weight in gold.

Finally, I would like to thank a number of people. I have already thanked Mike for his generosity tonight.

Secondly, I would like to thank Michael Napier, who has been the Attorney General's Pro Bono Envoy, both to Lord Goldsmith and to myself. Mike has travelled to represent us on pro bono matters when we could not travel ourselves. He's a little like Heineken - he's gone to pro bono places others have never been. He has travelled the length and breadth of the world, expressing views and sharing knowledge on pro bono and he has chaired meetings, attended seminars, delivered speeches. Most importantly, he has brought a tremendous wisdom and a very large heart.

I know that Vera, who couldn't be here tonight, joins with me in celebrating all that the Committee members do. We know that it is the start and not the end for the Committees. There is a huge opportunity to share our passion for pro bono with others and to encourage a huge commitment to pro bono.

Can I say a very heartfelt thank you to each of you. The reason you were invited tonight is because each of you has given a very special contribution to pro bono and to me. You have helped me remain enthusiastic about my work and each time I have felt like not continuing, I have only thought of you to be re-inspired. I want to give heartfelt thanks, not only from me, but every individual who has benefited from your pro bono work. Each of us has been involved in pro bono because we want to see justice done, not just for us, but for everyone. It keeps the fire lit in our bellies. All of us want justice done for people and we must therefore make sure that no-one is left out. There is a circle of justice to police in all countries, including our own. I therefore end as I started, with my thanks for your personal commitment. There are days when all of us think about giving up what we do, when we think that we must be nuts. If you think that, I can tell you that you are, but that you are in awfully good company. So thank you, to each and every one of you.