Law Society advises budding lawyers to take pro-bono work
Jan 27 2009 by Tom Scotney, Birmingham Post
Law students and trainee solicitors should be getting work experience through pro-bono work to enhance their CVs in a competitive jobs market, according to the Law Society.
A recruitment freeze by many law firms has meant a decline in job opportunities for trainee solicitors and others trying to gain a footing on the legal sector’s career ladder. However, the Law Society says a valued asset on any candidate’s CV is experience of pro-bono work.
But Kat Gibson, chairwoman of the Law Society’s junior lawyers, said: “There are thousands of people hoping to become a solicitor and not enough jobs to go round. That has been exacerbated by the downturn. It has never been more important to gain experience and pro-bono work provides an excellent example to potential employers.
“This not only provides its recipients – individuals, organisations and businesses – with access to justice, it also allows the lawyers of tomorrow to engage in the legal system early on.”
Corporate social responsibility remains high on the agenda of many law firms and other businesses, making a job applicant’s pro-bono experience particularly attractive to a potential employer.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive of the LawWorks charity, which aims to encourage pro-bono work among lawyers, said: “All this work will potentially expose solicitors to slightly new problems and challenges which will benefit their professional experience as well as providing much needed assistance. LawWorks is constantly seeking innovative projects to widen the scope of pro-bono delivery by its members.”
While pro-bono legal work has traditionally been synonymous with fulfilling social welfare needs, global businesses can also benefit from this sort of legal expertise.
The Law Society is supporting the World Bank by inviting its members to contribute to the bank’s “Doing Business” project. This gives solicitors the opportunity to participate in a high-profile pro-bono project, which involves objectively benchmarking business laws and regulations in a host of countries in order to identify the type of business regulations most favourable to economic growth.
The results help to advise policy-makers in developing countries while the project itself offers contributors the opportunity to liaise with colleagues across international offices and enhance their legal knowledge of the regulatory environment for business, as well as establishing contacts with the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
