The awards, sponsored by LexisNexis, were held last week at the Law Society’s Chancery Lane headquarters and presented by Law Society vice president Mark Evans.
Ropes & Gray scooped best contribution for a small or medium firm for its projects including collaboration with United Legal Access to help people apply for Windrush compensation, including some individuals who initially received a ‘nil award’. The firm also helped green tech start-ups, assisted undocumented minors in the UK and worked with the charity APPEAL on the Andrew Malkinson miscarriage of justice—Malkinson spent 17 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
Abigail Curry, trainee, Baker McKenzie, who has clocked up more than 760 hours pro bono since joining the firm, won best contribution by a junior lawyer. As well as her work for the British Red Cross and assisting death row inmates, she helped deliver research to identify the capacity of legal aid providers to taken on new immigration cases, which was subsequently submitted as evidence in the Civil Legal Aid Review.
Thomas Jennings, senior associate, Herbert Smith Freehills won best contribution by an individual for his work leading the firm’s team in seeking to address the criminalisation of same-sex intimacy in 68 commonwealth jurisdictions. Working with the Human Dignity Trust (HDT), he played a pivotal role in the successful constitutional challenge in Mauritius, which resulted in the Supreme Court declaring the criminalisation of same-sex intimacy void. Thomas conducted and supervised the analysis of various legal arguments, advised HDT on their merits, and engaged with local NGOs, civil society and local counsel regarding the litigation.
The 13 awards winners also included Dechert (best contribution by a large firm) and Omar Madhloom, University of Southampton (best contribution by an in-house team or solicitor).
Rebecca Wilkinson, chief executive of LawWorks, said: ‘Hearing the impact pro bono work makes on people’s lives continues to reaffirm our commitment to developing and supporting solicitors pro bono work within the access to justice ecosystem.
‘We are so proud of the work of our member organisations, and the individual solicitors within them, who give up their time to help others.’
