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NLJ this week: Pro bono power without the red tape

26 September 2025
Issue: 8132 / Categories: Legal News , Pro Bono , Profession , Training & education , Career focus , Charities
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Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ

Projects like University House’s Housing Disrepair scheme show how City lawyers, guided by training and supervision, can help tenants stuck in dangerous homes. From drafting letters to managing client relationships, commercial lawyers are proving that the basics of lawyering can secure repairs, improve housing and rebuild lives.

Volunteers report unexpected lessons in client care, particularly when working across language and cultural barriers. Rossetto stresses that the impact is immediate for clients, but also transformative for practitioners, boosting perspective and purpose.

With more than 32 firms already engaged, the model demonstrates how pro bono work extends capacity, strengthens communities and gives lawyers a chance to use their skills where they matter most.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

NLJ Career Profile: Kadie Bennett, Anthony Collins

NLJ Career Profile: Kadie Bennett, Anthony Collins

Kadie Bennett, senior associate at Anthony Collins and chair of the Resolution West Midlands Group, discusses her long-standing passion for family law and calls for unity in the profession

Osborne Clarke—Lara Burch

Osborne Clarke—Lara Burch

Firm appoints new UK senior partner for 2026

Keoghs—Louise Jackson & Katie Everson

Keoghs—Louise Jackson & Katie Everson

Healthcare and sports legal team expands in the north west

NEWS
Lawyers and users of the business and property courts are invited to share their views on disclosure, in particular the operation of PD 57AD and the use of Technology Assisted Review (TAR) and artificial intelligence (AI)
Social media giants should face tortious liability for the psychological harms their platforms inflict, argues Harry Lambert of Outer Temple Chambers in this week’s NLJ
Ian Gascoigne of LexisNexis dissects the uneasy balance between open justice and confidentiality in England’s civil courts, in this week's NLJ. From public hearings to super-injunctions, he identifies five tiers of privacy—from fully open proceedings to entirely secret ones—showing how a patchwork of exceptions has evolved without clear design
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024—once heralded as a breakthrough—has instead plunged leaseholders into confusion, warns Shabnam Ali-Khan of Russell-Cooke in this week’s NLJ
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has now confirmed that offering a disabled employee a trial period in an alternative role can itself be a 'reasonable adjustment' under the Equality Act 2010: in this week's NLJ, Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve analyses the evolving case law
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