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Addressing the challenges of pro bono work
As pro bono work becomes more prominent within large law firms, a BigLaw special counsel detailed the challenges these firms must overcome to provide access to justice for vulnerable individuals effectively.
Grace Robbie
Speaking on a recent episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, Shabnum Cassim, special counsel in sustainability and social impact at Gadens, discussed the challenges large law firms encounter in delivering pro bono services. She also highlighted key strategies firms can implement to enhance the effectiveness of their pro bono efforts.
In the same episode, she addressed the significant evolution of pro bono work within the legal profession and how large law firms are placing greater importance on this type of work than ever before.
Cassim shared that one of the most significant challenges law firms must address is ensuring that the “[legal] assistance that we are providing is actually fit for purpose” and effectively meets the community’s needs.
She observed that Gadens, along with other large law firms, often receive referrals from community legal sectors, but ensuring that these needs are met is not always straightforward and presents significant challenges.
“Many of our referrals come from the community legal sector. So ensuring that we are able to meet their needs, as well as ensuring that we have the expertise to do work, and pairing that up can be challenging,” she said.
To effectively address this challenge, Cassim highlighted the need for law firms to implement comprehensive training programs for new graduates designed to develop their skills in interacting with individuals facing significant hardships – a program that Gadens has successfully introduced.
“One of the things that we do at Gadens is we run training for all grads that come to Gadens in relation to how to deal with vulnerable people and running appointments in pro bono clinics to ensure that they are properly trained to work in this space,” she said.
Cassim pointed out that a critical aspect of this training is the recognition that law degrees often don’t prepare young lawyers for the human side of legal work, which is an essential component of the legal profession.
“The reality is that law school doesn’t teach you how to talk to a person who may have PTSD or going through an incredible difficulty, a difficult period of their life, and everything from how you communicate with them, eye contact to where you sit is really important,” she said.
“Many of the clients that we see don’t have a safe place to sleep and don’t have any money to eat. So when they come into a big firm where we’ve got most of them floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and it’s a fancy area, it is confronting.
“So ensuring that the client feels safe and knows that the service is free and the lawyers understand that the way they communicate with someone is. It may be different from the way you would communicate with the corporate client, but it is really important.”
Cassim highlighted that another significant challenge large law firms face in providing pro bono services is ensuring their partnerships with community legal centres do not inadvertently impose additional burdens on these already overburdened organisations.
“Another challenge is ensuring that we’re not adding extra work for community legal centres again because we get a lot of referrals from them, and many of our clinics work in collaboration with the community legal centres.
“We are actually adding on more responsibility because they have to review more of our work and train our lawyers doing a different area of law. So you need to be really careful in the way in which you establish those relationships and ensure that you’re not actually making it harder,” she said.
