Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has teamed up with homelessness charity Shelter to provide pro bono support to children across the UK.
The magic circle firm last week kicked off a three-year sponsorship of Shelter’s new Children’s Legal Service, which forms part of the charity’s initiative to end child homelessness.
The service will see Freshfields’ litigation department providing pro bono work to help struggling children and families fight legal battles and understand their rights. The firm has recently taken on its first case for the charity.
Freshfields has also committed to contributing £232,000 over the next three years to fund the service. The funding has allowed the charity to take on two solicitors to run the project, with Marie Burton joining full-time from the voluntary sector and Rachel Walker joining from private practice.
Dispute resolution partner Patrick Swain and head of pro bono Clarissa O’Callaghan are co-ordinating the scheme at Freshfields.
O’Callaghan commented: “Shelter approached us on this initiative and it is a perfect fit for us in terms of where we wanted to dedicate our pro bono work. It is great to be helping with access to justice as well as being involved in a key local and national issue.”
The new scheme follows the launch of Freshfields’ new corporate social responsibility report last month, which covered the firm’s entire network of offices. In the report, the firm sets out a goal of increasing pro bono work by 30% by 2009.
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