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About the Award Winning Centre
The BPP Pro Bono Centre opened in February 2004 in the Law School’s Holborn building and now operates in all BPP law school sites. The Centre serves as the headquarters for a wide variety of projects in which BBP law students volunteer their time and legal skills and knowledge to help those who may not otherwise have access to such services. Its growing library of books, newsletters and materials relating to pro bono, public interest law and non-profit organisations also provides academic and practical resources for law students and staff interested in pro bono.
Our philosophy
We
recognise the inequality and injustice inherent in our society’s unmet
legal needs and strive to enhance access to justice by promoting and facilitating
the provision of pro bono legal services by law students and lawyers.
Our goals
- To provide an opportunity for every BPP law student, whether GDL, BVC, LPC, full-time, part-time or on the Distance Learning Course, to do pro bono work that matches each student’s interest and level of commitment.
- To help the local and broader community by offering the services of our students and staff.
- To express the commitment of BPP law students and staff to the pro bono ethic.
- To contribute to the legal profession in the UK and abroad by developing and publicising pro bono materials and innovations.
Our projects and activities
Speaker Series
The Centre hosts speakers from various law firms, Chambers and non-profit organisations who come to discuss their pro bono work with BPP law students. Recent speakers include representatives from the International Bar Association, Solicitors Pro Bono Group, Bar Pro Bono Unit and Institute of Trademark Attorneys.
Research Initiatives
The Centre’s Director and Student Research Assistants are engaged in researching pro bono policy and practice in London, the UK and internationally. They are working with other organisations to produce reports comparing various international jurisdictions’ promotion of pro bono and English law firms’ pro bono contributions. The aim is to promote pro bono awareness and efforts both locally and globally.
Internship Placements
A wonderful way for students to provide pro bono services while at the
same time gaining practical experience (and possibly travel) is to do internships
with non-profit organisations either locally during term-time or abroad
during the summer or gap periods. The Centre provides research resources,
advice and individual counseling to help students find such opportunities.
Current Projects
BPP Legal Advice Clinic (BLAC)
Under the direction of our Supervising Solicitor, Anna Jennings, our law students interview and advise clients on their problems in the areas of employment, housing, family and consumer law. BLAC’s aims are to offer free legal advice to the community and to provide students with the opportunity to gain practical legal experience.
Please click here for the legal advice clinic leaflet 79kb 
Citizenship Foundation Projects
The
Citizenship Foundation is a charity that aims to educate the wider community,
especially young people, about the law, democracy and society. Our law students
assist school children to prepare for the Citizenship Foundation’s
mock trial competitions and help organise the mock trials.
Environmental Law Pro Bono Group
The Group's goals are to promote interested students' understanding of the legal aspects of environmental issues and to assist environmental non-profit organisations with their legal work. The Group invites speakers on a range of environmental issues and volunteers its members to conduct pro bono legal research in this area. For example, following a talk by the Chief Executive of the Environmental Law Foundation, some of the Group's members have taken on legal research to support their work in the area of access to environmental justice.
Human Rights Unit
The Human Rights Unit is an umbrella group for several student human rights initiatives, including chapters of Amnesty International and Liberty as well as the Ad Hoc Human Rights Research Team, through which our students provide supporting legal research to organisations such as Reprieve, Liberty and the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute. The Unit’s purposes are to increase awareness of human rights issues and to promote and facilitate students’ involvement in human rights projects.
Intellectual Property Pro Bono Group
The Group’s aims are to promote interested students’ understanding of the field of intellectual property law, while facilitating IP lawyers’ provision of pro bono services to the community. The Group invites speakers to discuss their IP careers and pro bono work and then volunteers its members to assist practising IP lawyers on various pro bono projects. For example, several of the Group’s members have conducted research with Faegre Benson Hobson Audley LLP on a pro bono project for the International Chamber of Commerce.
Law Firm Pro Bono Shadowing Project
In this Project, the Centre teams our law students with City law firms to assist solicitors with their pro bono assignments. In one model, some of our students accompany Steptoe & Johnson solicitors to their advice sessions at St. Hilda’s Community Centre and then attend S&J’s offices to assist with the follow-up work. This Project benefits the students by giving them practical legal experience as well as contact with practising solicitors; it benefits the firms by providing assistance in conducting pro bono work and promoting their reputation in the law school; and, most importantly, it benefits the pro bono clients.
Please click here for more information
Leeds Cares
Leeds Cares is an initiative of Business in the Community. It provides opportunities for businesses to make a commitment to local community involvement, bringing vital resources to address community needs. Addleshaw Goddard, DLA, Eversheds and Hammonds Suddards Edge are all key supporters of the project. Students have opportunities throughout the year to get involved in organising and managing individual and team challenges in the community. These range from the ‘Right to Read’ and ‘Number Partners’ projects which assist children between 7-11 years with their reading or maths to assisting community groups with painting and decorating or gardening.
Legal Translation Service
This is a group of law students with native or fluent foreign language abilities who have been trained in basic interpretation technique. Our goal is to provide legal advice centres with interpreters to assist the provision of legal advice to non-English speaking clients. The group also offers translation services to non-profit organisations. For further information please click here.
Mediation Friends Project
This is a pioneering initiative in which law students trained in mediation provide free support to otherwise unrepresented parties to mediation. The Project’s goals are to provide assistance to the unrepresented parties and to promote the use of mediation as a form of alternative dispute resolution.
For further information please click here. for MF Leaflet for Organisations, and here for Mediation leaflet
Personal Support Unit Volunteering Project
A team of our BVC students work as volunteers in the Personal Support Unit at the Royal Courts of Justice and the Principal Registry of the Family Division. As PSU Volunteers, the students provide practical and moral support to litigants-in-person (LiPs). The volunteers meet LiPs to talk through their cases informally and to accompany them around the courts and in hearings.
Streetlaw
The Streetlaw project is based on the philosophies of the US-based Street Law Program and Streetlaw UK to promote education about the law, democracy and human rights to citizens who would not otherwise have access to legal knowledge or education. Our students currently provide interactive learning presentations on the law to secondary school pupils and are researching presentations for additional groups, such as prisoners, community groups and the homeless.
For Streetlaw schools brochure click here . For Streetlaw - Homeless brochure click here
Newsletters
BPP Pro
Bono Centre Newsletter: Volume 1, Issue 1 113kb
BPP
Pro Bono Centre Newsletter: Volume 2, Issue 1 158kb
BPP
Pro Bono Centre Newsletter: Volume 2, Issue 2 146kb
BPP
Pro Bono Centre Newsletter: Volume 3, Issue 1 97kb
Pro Bono links with other organisations
Amicus
Bar Council
Bar Pro Bono
Unit
Centre for Dispute
Resolution
Citizenship
Foundation
Clausen Miller LLP
Clyde & Co.
Collyer-Bristow
Coudert Brothers
Debevoise & Plimpton
LLP
Dechert LLP
Environmental Law Foundation
Eversheds
Faegre & Benson
LLP
Fordham
Law School Public Interest Resource Center (USA)
Free
Representation Unit
Hackney Law Centre (no weblink)
International
Bar Association
Irwin Mitchell
Lambeth Community Mediation Centre
Law Works
Levenes
Solicitors
Lewis
Silkin
Liberty
Marriott
Harrison Solicitors
Mayer
Brown Rowe & Maw
Norton
Rose
Personal
Support Unit
ProbonoUK.net
Reprieve
Residential
Property Tribunal Service
Russell-Cooke
Solicitors
Shearman & Sterling
LLP
Southwark
Mediation Centre
Steptoe & Johnson
Streetlaw
UK
Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership
Wallace
LLP
Weil, Gotshal & Manges
LLP
