Its revival owes much to the establishment of the new APPG on Public Legal Education (PLE) as some of the MPs involved in this group also wanted to be involved in promoting the pro bono sector but felt it was better to have a separate group for this so as not to confuse the issues.
A launch event last May sponsored by the Law Society heard from Jonathan Smithers (outgoing Law Society President), Solicitor General Robert Buckland MP and from Natalia Rymaszewska the Chief Executive of the London Legal Support Trust who was hot off the trail from organising the previous day's London Legal Walk. Both the Chair and Robert Buckland stressed the importance of the voluntary sector in providing "the infrastructure" for the delivery of Pro Bono, and were at pains to emphasise that pro bono should be seen as an "adjunct to" and in no way a replacement of a publicly funded legal aid system and how pro bono could not be expected to bridge the gap on unmet needs. Needless to say this was a welcome change of rhetoric from the previous Parliament when legal aid cuts were passed into law and Government politicians were signalling that an increase in pro bono activity from the professions could ‘pick up the slack’.
The group then held an AGM and now counts Sir Kier Starmer, Lord Hunt, Bob Neil, Alberto Costa, Nick Thomas-Symonds, Tom Tugendhat and Joanna Cherry QC amongst its officers. Its first major project is working with Hogan Lovells to undertake a survey of MPs casework in London with Hogan Lovell's trainees sitting in on MPs surgeries and conducting interviews – the group will publish this as a report in the next couple of months. The APPG is also organising further events to promote pro bono, engage with law firms and organisations delivering pro bono, and to encourage MPs to promote and facilitate pro bono work locally in their constituencies. During last year’s National Pro Bono week the APPG ran a panel event with the Law Society and pro bono charities focused on a presentation of pro bono services and a Q&A session for MPs, caseworkers and researchers. The group intends to run further events in Parliament to support case workers, researchers and interested MPs in understanding how they can access pro bono services in their communities.
The APPG has the support of the Government Law Officers, and given that the Attorney General’s advisory group on pro bono appears has fallen into abeyance since Michael Napier stood down as the Government’s pro bono envoy, it is expected that the APPG will now fill this policy gap in driving forwards a policy and regulatory environment that encourages pro bono. The secretariat of the group is run by James Sandbach, the LawWorks new Director of Policy and External Affairs and has been generously funded by the Legal Education Foundation.
For more information contact James james.sandbach@lawworks.org.uk or see http://appglegal.weebly.com/appg-on-pro-bono.html