Cuts have left publicly funded legal sector in dire straits
While the pro bono efforts of the legal profession are impressive, there is “an increasingly uneasy relationship between the volunteer activities of the legal profession and access to justice,” columnist Jon Robins writes in this week’s NLJ. Cuts in public funding, legal aid cuts and the closure of three law centres—Birmingham, Streetwise and Leeds—has left the publicly funded sector in dire straits so it should be remembered that pro bono is not a replacement for public funds and can never fill the gap.
