Judges for the LawWorks Annual Pro Bono Awards have shortlisted BPP Pro Bono Centre (BPP University Law School) for two leading awards, ‘Best contribution by an in-house team’ and ‘Most effective pro bono partnership’ for BPP’s Enterprise Legal Advice Clinic.

BPP Pro Bono Centre’s 13 staff and many students dedicate thousands of hours across many pro bono initiatives every year around the regions assisting those who struggle to access justice for themselves and their families.

Last academic year, the Pro Bono Centre:

•  facilitated over 300 law students to deliver more than 200 Streetlaw interactive public legal education sessions across the UK to over 3000 members of the public in homeless shelters, schools and prisons;
• delivered advice to 500 clients through the Employment Law Telephone Advice Line, in partnership with volunteer lawyers from the legal community
• assisted 238 clients across London, Leeds and Manchester with a huge variety of legal problems including relationship breakdown, childcare, housing issues and debt in its Legal Advice Clinics.

Jessica Austen, Joint Director of Pro Bono and CSR, states “We are really proud of all our pro bono projects. We work hard to make sure the client experience is as professional as possible.  Al three clinics were awarded the Advice Quality Standard this year after a two day audit, a testament to the commitment of our team and students to our clients.” 

BPP Pro Bono Centre is also shortlisted for its partnership between the Enterprise Legal Advice Clinic and The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network (TERN). This offers free legal education and advice to refugees who are looking to own and run their own business.

The founding director of TERN, Fred Kastner, said “The partnership with BPP was the most effective referral and training partnership that TERN engaged with in 2017. Easy to set up, easy to schedule referrals in a well organised process allowed us to address the many legal queries that TERN participants came up with during our programmes. Overall BPP had a significant impact on participants’ confidence in their business propositions, in clarifying disputes and in making them overall ‘safer’ and more comfortable in approaching business in the UK…”

The Awards evening is on 5 December 2017 at the Law Society, Chancery Lane, in London.