Pro bono
Global pro bono 2020-21
47% of the firm's fee earners (up from 45%)
83,976 hours (36% increase)
429 mandates for 231 clients
>1,200 lawyers across 27 offices
In our 2020-21 financial year we contributed over 80,000 hours of pro bono – an all-time record – on over 400 mandates. Here are some illustrative examples from the different areas of our practice.
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Advice to NGOs
CHILDREN
As global counsel to Save the Children International, 19 of our offices worked on 48 matters, including on the establishment of a 1,500-bed emergency covid clinic in Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh.
IMPACT INVESTMENT
Advised on 21 social impact bonds (SIBs), unlocking >£100m funding for social purposes, including the delivery of 120,000 HIV tests by the Elton John AIDS Foundation SIB.
Strategic litigation
REFUGEES
Brought a class action benefitting >7,600 Iraqi and Afghan refugees who after assisting the US military waited over 1.5 years for visas in a process supposed to take 9 months.
TRAFFICKING
Worked on 26 interventions and amicus briefs including acting for the AIRE Centre in a UK Supreme Court case which meant tribunals are not bound by >1,000 negative trafficking decisions per year.
LGBT
Acted for ILGA Europe on a case concerning the recognition of same-sex marriage. The case will be binding across the EU, including in the 12 EU member states which do not allow or recognise same-sex marriage.
Research
LGBT
Our global research to support Stonewall’s workplace briefings has been downloaded over 20,000 times.
WOMEN
Over 30 of our lawyers across 10 countries contributed to the World Bank’s report, Women, Business and the Law 2021, which identifies the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 countries.
Individuals
TRAFFICKING
Reunited our client, a trafficking survivors, with her child after the had been seperated for 10 years.
REFUGEES
Help 10 clinics in the UK - inlcuding a duty scheme with the Asylum Support Appeals Project to represent 105 asylum seekers at the Asylum Support Tribunal.
WOMEN
Continued support of CourtNav within the Finding Legal Options for Women Survivors project, helping 1,000 women per month to apply to court for protection from domestic abuse.