Advantages of Pro-bono and the Changing Legal Landscape
There is no doubt that pro-bono initiatives are flourishing in the UK legal market and enjoy the benefits of the corporate responsibility initiatives of many law firms. Surprisingly for a service operating in the legal industry, there seems to be no controversy regarding its advantages. And for a reason. This wide engagement in pro-bono initiatives is there precisely because it is a win-win situation.
In this first part of the article, we aim to briefly present the benefits pro-bono entails for both sides involved, drawing on interviews with the parties themselves. Having been actively involved in various qLegal activities, we have acquired quite different experiences. What we do share though is the very same excitement of contributing to a good cause. Throughout our time at qLegal, we received real life professional exposure and developed transferable skills that will help us boost our future careers.
Vanessa’s experience: As a member of the Legal Projects Programme, I am currently seconded to partner organization Cosmonauts Ltd where my role involves researching the legal tech industry and communicating with senior stakeholders about innovation-focused webinars and panel discussions. This experience has boosted my confidence as a young professional and has given me ample exposure to different areas of law and practice. In addition, the practical training sessions organized by qLegal gave me valuable insight into client care and relationship management along with a deeper understanding of professional conduct and ethics in the context of legal practice. It has been a positive new experience for me, and it has instilled me with the desire to engage more in pro-bono activities in the future.
Vipul’s experience: qLegal is a great platform that has provided me with the opportunity to gain experience and knowledge through working with a client. I am a member of the Legal Projects Programme. I worked with Enterprise Nation — a business that provides a platform for new startups to support and grow their business. As a member of the qLegal team, our goal was to improve the profile and outreach of Enterprise Nation.
Working with qLegal has helped me gain new skills and broaden my horizon in terms of thinking and creativity. Throughout the project, we received professional guidance helping us to improve and learn new things. It has been a marvellous experience for me and has helped me attain skills that will help me throughout my career. Further, I hope to work on more pro-bono cases in the future.
Taiwo’s experience: Through qLegal, I have had the privilege of giving legal presentations to women interested in starting a business in the UK. I felt empowered throughout the process of researching, planning, rehearsing and presenting because it was uplifting to see women of all ages at the starting point of creating their businesses. I gained confidence and experience as it was difficult to drop the legalese and focus on the basic knowledge needed by the clients, but I was guided well, enabling me to deliver a fantastic presentation. I collaborated with a team of other graduates and experienced supervisors who shared insightful presentation ideas and tips. It was a rewarding experience that I will never forget, especially in terms of public speaking.
This article would be incomplete without the valuable insights of the other side of the pro-bono service. Therefore, we conducted a short interview with Nickolai Tonna, Head of Operations of Cosmonauts Ltd. Cosmonauts is a business development and marketing support start-up that has a well-established externship partnership with qLegal.
Why choose qLegal? Do you think this service has been particularly helpful in making your start-up run more efficiently?
We continue to choose qLegal as our extern partner due to the consistently excellent externship candidates who have been provided to us. Their work is detailed, accurate and generally of as high a standard as we would expect from our staff members. This allows our team members to focus elsewhere and streamline their workflows, increasing efficiency and productivity.
What do qLegal interns do for your business? What do you consider to be the main benefits of qLegal’s pro-bono services to your business?
The students’ input revolves around researching, creating reports and helping us reach out to individuals within the legal field to take part in our various legal tech events. The students also become involved in some of our consultancy work with legal technology providers where appropriate.
The main benefits of the students’ involvement in these kinds of tasks are that they provide fresh ideas and spot details relating to the project they are working on that may be missed by our internal staff members, who can sometimes fall into a formulaic approach to their work based on previous experiences.
Has the pro-bono scheme with qLegal encouraged diversity of experience within the company? How has qLegal’s expertise contributed to the company’s success?
Yes, the expertise and knowledge bases of all 4 cohorts we have taken part in, have been varied and have brought new perspectives to the organization when we have applied them to our legal events. Suggestions brought forward by the qLegal student externs have generally been successful and as such have definitely contributed to the company’s success.
Has qLegal’s pro-bono programme with Cosmonauts resulted in new hires?
Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we have not been able to recruit from the last two cohorts of qLegal students that have worked for Cosmonauts, despite how much we have wanted to. We hope as the world returns to normal, we can return to giving aspiring legal professionals an opportunity to work behind the scenes of the legal profession exploring the business, marketing and technology sides of the law.
Regarding the idea of pro-bono and the potential benefits from it, how would you consider giving back to the community as your company grows?
We have always been supporters of the concept of pro-bono work within the legal field, from both an access to justice perspective and a new business compliance and education perspective. We have in the past run a Criminal Justice Conference which we hope will return one day where[1] [2] access to justice will always be a key topic.
On the other hand, when it comes to educating startups on best practices and the legal side of their business, we are not the qualified experts they should really be speaking to. However, we have in the past engaged with the resident companies of Barclays Eagle Labs for Lawtech, offering no cost advisory sessions using our knowledge of the market. We are looking to resume these sessions later on in the year in some capacity.
Would you recommend start-ups make use of qLegal pro-bono initiatives to boost their activities? If so, why?
I would highly recommend any startups make use of the services available through the qLegal externship. Each person we have worked with has been a consummate professional, and their drive and knowledge will be of benefit to anyone taking their first steps into running their business.
Turning to the opportunities for change in the UK legal landscape, the global pandemic has propelled the legal industry into a new virtual reality. This is an unprecedented situation that is already triggering change in the legal profession. For example, litigation experience is changing as virtual court hearings are here to stay. Moreover, international arbitration is taking advantage of the technologies available and is adopting a fresh approach to dispute resolution. In the medium term, every law firm will have to adjust to this new model and come up with novel ways of establishing trust and confidentiality with clients. In this new virtual world, the challenge for global leaders is to guide the way through a combination of adaptability and imagination.
In addition, as the reality of Brexit settles in, the law itself will undergo changes. This is an additional challenge for UK commercial solicitors working in areas linked with EU law such as Competition Law. The complications will be many, and it is up to legal practitioners to pave the way through this transition and support the world’s economies.
In light of these fundamental changes, creativity, motivation and professionalism will be key elements in tackling the obstacles that will keep arising. Luckily, all these elements are very present in pro-bono participants, eager to adapt to changes, reshape the industry and give back to society. Let’s keep pro-bono legal work flourishing!
This article was written by Vanessa Stefou, Taiwo Mobolaji Muhibat Fakorede and Vipul Chauhan, who are participating in qLegal as part of their Law Masters studies at Queen Mary, University of London.
qLegal provides pro bono legal advice to start-ups and entrepreneurs on intellectual property, data protection, corporate and commercial law. See the qLegal website for more details and to book your appointment now. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for regular updates on issues relevant to your business.