31 May – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Linklaters also to repeat its award-winning pro bono seminar for its community partners, on 7 June 2005
Linklaters today announces a month-long programme of volunteering opportunities taking place throughout June, to join with the year-long celebration of volunteering and call to action in the Year of the Volunteer 2005. The ambitious programme of daily events, which also coincides with the National Pro Bono Week (6-11 June) and National Volunteering Week (13-17 June), is designed to encourage as many people within the firm as possible to step forward and volunteer. Under the firm’s ‘Time to Volunteer’ scheme, launched in 2004, everyone in Linklaters is allowed an extra “day off” a year to take part in community investment activities.
Activities on offer in London include:
team challenges for community partners throughout Shoreditch, including serving breakfasts at Whitechapel Mission and painting at Spitalfields City Farm;
helping students improve their job-seeking skills at schools across Newham, in conjunction with BOSS (Building Opportunities Skills Seminars);
hosting a ‘Take your Teacher to Work’ day, where school teachers spend the day with people across the firm learning about the opportunities available in City law firms for their students;
sessions on payroll giving to promote greater staff involvement;
lunchtime presentations from Liberty, Toynbee Hall and Opportunity International about their programmes.
Activities are also taking place in our European offices. These include a ‘Seeing is Believing’ visit organised by our Prague office, to highlight how business can play a role in tackling pressing social issues in some of the most deprived inner city and rural areas, and a lunch for Community Investment practitioners to discuss ways of promoting volunteer participation hosted by our Paris office.
In addition to these activities, the firm is also hosting – for the second year running – a pro bono seminar for its community partners (such as the Mary Ward Legal Centre, Toynbee Hall and the Shoreditch Trust) and small businesses/community groups in Hackney. The award-winning seminar, which won recognition from both the Solicitors Pro Bono Group and the Young Solicitors Group when it was first launched last year, is one of the June activities and is to be held on Tuesday 7 June. It will explore a range of legal issues that affect charities and small businesses.
The seminar is designed to be practical and informative, providing all Linklaters pro bono clients with up-to-date legal advice from specialists in their field, as well showing our community partners the kind of support that Linklaters can offer them. The session will be followed with a drinks reception at which the delegates can meet each other as well as the lawyers who advise them regularly, either on a client basis or via legal advice centres.
Anthony Cann, Linklaters senior partner, stressed the firm’s commitment to community investment, saying:
“It works both ways – at Linklaters’ offices throughout the world, our pro bono and community investment programme not only supports individuals and communities, but also rewards our own people with invaluable experience and, above all, a new perspective. The programme reflects the firm’s sense of social responsibility and commitment to giving time and value whenever and wherever possible”.
For further information please contact Rupert Winlaw on +44 20 7456 3219 or rupert.winlaw@linklaters.com or Sarah Peters on +44 (0)20 7456 2153 or sarah.peters@linklaters.com
