National Pro Bono Week
Pro Bono Week offers an opportunity to recognise and supports the voluntary contribution made by lawyers across the UK in giving free legal help to those in need.
Over the years our pro bono work has been directed towards three main areas: giving charities specialist legal advice; supporting community organisations that address access to justice and assist individuals in need; and delivering legal education projects. Using our legal skills in this way makes a tangible contribution to the UN Global Goals and we are grateful for everyone’s efforts and contributions.
Our core capability as a law firm is our legal knowledge. Pro bono is an integral part of our culture and enhances our other responsible business areas. Our pro bono work demonstrates a strong commitment to social mobility and citizenship through our relationship with our immediate communities, but it also spans the globe as we put our legal skills on the front line for our wider ecological environment and other charities making a tangible difference in the world around us. Using our legal skills to drive forward the UN’s Global Goals is one of the most valuable ways we can contribute.
More information about how the firm is working to integrate the SDGs into business as usual in this year’s Responsible Business Report.
Associate
Teigan Betteridge
Pro bono to me means giving my time to support issues that are fundamental to environmental change and social justice.
Associate
Conor Gallagher-Chu
Pro bono to me means getting involved in work that gives you the opportunity to spearhead new thinking in law to bring about positive change.
Associate
Mark Gulliford
Pro bono to me means supporting non-profits in a practical way enabling them to achieve their valuable, social goals.
Trainee
Eleanor Higginson
Pro bono to me means getting to know the clients as individuals and empowering them to understand their legal rights.
Partner
Gayathri Kamalanathan
Pro bono to me means going back to the core of why I wanted to become a lawyer – to help people navigate the legal system and get the advice they are entitled to.
Professional Support Lawyer
Graham Rounce
Pro bono to me means feeling a great sense of achievement when I get to practice a different side of law from my day job and knowing this really can help someone.
Associate
David Shone
Pro bono to me means applying my skills in a way that hopefully has a real impact and enables people to realise their right to justice.
Trainee
Maddy Tomlin
Pro bono to me means seeing the impact my skills can have on organisations that might otherwise not have the resources to access legal advice.
Partner
David Watkins
We celebrate National Pro Bono Week at Slaughter and May. We absolutely love working with the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. It is such a great honour being able to play a small part in supporting their excellent work, and the RMCC team is just fantastic – full of energy; great ideas; slick and professional.
Partner
Robert Byk
As one of the partners overseeing pro bono work I am committed to further aligning our pro bono work with the Sustainable Development Goals and empowering our lawyers to share their skills with non-profit organisations. I am thrilled to work with numerous pro bono clients including the Green Finance Institute and British Red Cross.
Partner
Claire Cooke
I am delighted by our continuing work with The Chancery Lane Project, which allows us to use our professional skills in the fight against climate change.
Senior Counsel
Simon Bartle
It is great to have the opportunity to use our legal training to provide support to charities who need legal advice. It has been rewarding to support Crisis UK on a number of transactions relating to their property portfolio, ranging from their first freehold acquisition to a lease of warehouse space to support the Crisis at Christmas operation.
Associate
Gabriel Lim
I’d say I’ve enjoyed being involved in pro bono generally; access to justice, information, skills and whatever else we as lawyers happen to be able to aid others with is oftentimes woefully inadequate and so I try to do what little I can to tip the balance the other way, even if only slightly! I very much appreciate the opportunities the firm has offered for us to get involved in programmes ranging from mentoring students, to advising at legal clinics, to acting as a ‘critical friend’ to non-profit organisations, and would wholeheartedly recommend anyone else to take advantage of the wide range of offers as well.
Associate
Tim Morrison
In addition to the work that the firm has been doing in relation to the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines on behalf of the African Union, it has been great to support the UK’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic by providing pro-bono advice to the Healthcare Workers' Foundation (HWF) - a charity set up in March 2020 to support frontline healthcare workers and the NHS. During lockdown, I advised HWF on contract negotiations with partner organisations to provide free childcare to NHS workers, and also on the terms and conditions of HWF’s Memorial Fund, a project aimed at providing students who have lost a parent to COVID-19, and who are enrolled in a higher education course, with a £5000 grant (per year) to support their costs of living whilst at university.
Trainee
Elizabeth Cooper
I feel honoured to have assisted with the firm’s pro bono work for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity; my father was a patient at a Royal Marsden hospital, so I know first-hand the incredible treatment and care they provide.
Trainee
Phoebe Robinson
It has been a pleasure to be involved in a broad range of initiatives to support our pro bono partners. Working with a charity which helps children with special educational needs has been exceptionally rewarding; the cause is very close to my heart. Having the opportunity to participate in The Chancery Lane Project and use legal drafting to promote net zero was also both fascinating and topical.
Associate
Matthew Hearn
I have enjoyed working on a project for The British Red Cross this year, which has been a thoroughly rewarding experience. I am proud to be part of a firm which takes its pro bono responsibilities seriously.
Associate
Ashwini Ponnampalam
I enjoy being able to contribute to the firm’s pro bono initiatives for a variety of worthwhile causes, both by using legal skills applied in my day-to-day fee-earning work to assist charities such as Voyage Youth (a social justice charity that works with young people from BAME backgrounds) and in a completely different space, such as being joint-coordinator of the firm’s efforts to assist Amicus and the Florida Centre for Capital Representation by reviewing and maintaining information on death penalty cases in Florida, the United States.
Associate
Michael Craig
We celebrate national Pro Bono Week at Slaughter and May. As lawyers, we are committed to sharing our professional skills with non-profit organisations. It is a pleasure to volunteer for the Citizens Advice Bureau at the Royal Courts of Justice, helping individuals pursue their cases and to work for pro-bono clients Joe’s Buddy Line and Mind With Heart, enabling them to achieve their mission to teach mental well-being and resilience in schools.
Associate
Hazel Doran
I have really enjoyed doing pro bono corporate work for the IIC because our contacts at the charity are very friendly and always grateful for the work we do. As a trainee you can get quite a lot of responsibility to communicate with the client directly and work closely with a small team at the firm which is a great learning experience!
Associate
Lorna Nsoatabe
I have supported both ROTA and The ME Trust recently and find the work we are doing to be both greatly appreciated and intellectually challenging. Aside from the real positive impact on the charities being supported, it has been really fun working with people in a completely new sector and with a refreshingly different way of thinking. I have hopefully been useful and learnt new skills!
Associate
Nicole Hunter-Edgar
It is extremely rewarding to use my legal skills to assist non-profit organisations working with vulnerable individuals, such as Young Women’s Hub, who provide a safe and supportive education for girls and young women. It has been a pleasure to help Young Women’s Hub with various matters over the past couple of years.
Associate
olivia hosker
On the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works: “Helping the IIC with their corporate matters has been a fantastic opportunity – both in terms of professional experience and on a personal level to feel like we are making a difference. We’ve developed a close relationship and it’s great to see how they are achieving the institute is achieving its goals with our assistance."
Associate
ELEANOR HEALY-BIRT
I am grateful for the many opportunities to share my legal skills with others, from helping individual clients at the Islington Law Centre to contributing to the state-wide analysis of Florida death penalty cases with Amicus.
Senior and In-house Counsel
Lizzie Twigger
I have been involved with the Legal Advice Centre at Bethnal Green throughout my career at the firm, initially as a volunteer, and for the last 15 years or so as a trustee and now Chair of the Trustees. When I first started volunteering, being aware of the employment issues faced by the clients of the Centre kept my feet firmly on the ground and made me a more rounded employment lawyer. It has been a privilege to be able to play a key supporting role as a trustee of the charity, which does such important work in an area of huge social deprivation and inequality, and I have learned a huge amount from my involvement both personally and professionally.
Partner
Sally Wokes
To celebrate national Pro Bono Week, I am delighted to be able to use my legal skills to assist non-profit organisations working with vulnerable individuals, such as the Young Women’s Hub, that provides safe and supportive education for girls and young women.
Associate
Valerie Kemp
We celebrate National Pro Bono Week at Slaughter and May. As lawyers, we are committed to sharing our professional skills with non-profit organisations. We are proud to be part of a collaborative multi-law firm effort to assist Heroes, a charity founded by NHS workers for NHS workers, to support welfare and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Associate
Jack Wharton
We celebrate national Pro Bono Week at Slaughter and May. As lawyers, we are pleased to be able to host our pro bono legal webinar series to a wide charity audience on key legal topics.
Head of Environmental Law
Sam Brady
As lawyers, we are committed to sharing our professional skills with non-profit organisations. We are delighted to be working with The Chancery Lane Project to develop new laws and contracts to fight climate change.