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26 September 2025
Issue: 8132 / Categories: Legal News , Pro Bono , Profession , Training & education , Career focus , Charities
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NLJ this week: Pro bono power without the red tape

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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

WSP Solicitors—David Ashcroft & Jessica O’Shea

WSP Solicitors—David Ashcroft & Jessica O’Shea

Commercial property and child law teams expand with senior hires

Duxton Hill Chambers—Lucas Bastin KC & Joshua Hiew

Duxton Hill Chambers—Lucas Bastin KC & Joshua Hiew

Set expands London and Singapore offering with senior international disputes hires

Gilson Gray—Gregor Duthie & Stephen Forsyth

Gilson Gray—Gregor Duthie & Stephen Forsyth

Firm strengthens real estate and litigation teams with partner promotions

NEWS
Behind the profession’s polished exterior, lawyers are ‘internally drained rather than physically tired’, according to a stark assessment of burnout in legal practice
Five years after the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 came into force, concerns remain that the family courts continue to minimise allegations of abuse in child contact disputes
Uber has built a formidable strategy for insulating itself from liability for drivers’ conduct, but the legal terrain differs sharply between the US and England and Wales
The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026 marks a constitutional watershed by severing the centuries-old link between hereditary titles and automatic membership of the upper chamber
The Civil Justice Council’s review of Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974 could mark the end of what one commentator calls an ‘outdated’ and overly technical regime governing solicitor-client fee disputes
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