Is UKademy for me?

UKademy is aimed at people who are tasked with (or who volunteered to take on) the management and development of UK pro bono opportunities in a law firm.

About you: Within your firm or your UK office, you are the person with responsibility for developing pro bono activities.

  • If your firm employs you in a day-to-day pro bono role (either solely managing pro bono or managing pro bono within a wider CSR role), you are the person UKademy has been designed for.
  • We recognise that some UK firms may not employ anyone specifically to manage pro bono and this is instead a role you take on alongside your main role as a billable lawyer or support staff. If so, you are equally welcome at UKademy – we would be delighted to share knowledge that might help you expand pro bono at your firm!
  • Alternatively your firm might employ someone else overseas to manage pro bono work, but you are the person responsible for developing pro bono work in the UK alongside your main role as billable lawyer or support staff. If so you are also welcome to register your interest!

Please note that if UKademy is oversubscribed and we receive multiple applications from an individual law firm, space will first be allocated to the person employed solely in a day-to-day pro bono role.

About your firm: Your firm can be any size: a global firm with a head office in London, a local firm based elsewhere in the UK, an overseas firm seeking to expand pro bono involvement within a UK satellite office

How strict is the above? Developing individual access to justice pro bono work generates different issues in a law firm setting compared with those in-house, in chambers, in academic settings, for students and for non-profits. As such UKademy has been limited to people in law firm pro bono management.

If you are an in-house lawyer looking to set up a pro bono programme in your country, take a look at this summary note of discussions between in-house lawyers and UK members of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel (APBCO) which outlines some options. And the in-house UKademy webpage has some useful information.