Everyone loves a freebie… but just how important is free legal work?

Rachel Donovan writes the next blog in our summer series where recent graduates share how their understanding of the value of pro bono legal work has developed in light of their participation in the Open Justice activities of the past year. 

“For the greater good” It’s a bold statement to make, but by who’s standards is it measured? This is a question I asked myself before embarking on my own pro bono journey this year. 6 months later and experience working on three pro bono cases later has me confident I now understand the full importance of the term and the work it entails.

The “pro’s” in pro bono work …

The importance of Pro bono has become abundantly clear to me this year, the appeals I have worked on have show cased the vital need of access to justice in a way that I could not have been prepared for. Funding cuts to legal aid were introduced in 2013 by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) which means that fewer people now have access to free legal advice, in short, pro bono work from legal professionals is more important now than ever before.

This crucial work undertaken by professionals supplies representation to those whom without it, would not be at liberty to gain fair access to justice which should absolutely be regarded as a basic human right. There is a considerable catalogue of cases in which justice has not prevailed, it is not hidden, it is really quite blatant a lot of the time and without solicitors willing to work these cases free of charge, this essential justice will never be available to these people through appeal or any other source.

Who or why? Which question is priority?

In a blog written January 2021, I stated –

“I wasn’t aware that it was so easy to convict a person based on cleverly worded and pointed questions, I am rather taken aback at just how easy it is to convict a person of a crime with such weak evidence”

Human nature consists of snap judgements and it is easy to be blinded by prejudice. I have seen this first hand during my work on pro bono activities, convictions made regardless of evidence to the contrary being readily available. Prosecution will often focus on motive (the why) instead of the defendant (the who). Jury will frequently be led to believe that motive makes the villain, however, many people commit murder with no motive other than thrill and others have reason to perhaps wish harm upon another but without ever conducting in the actual harm itself and this is one of the many reasons for the high percentage of injustice we see in courts across the UK. People suffering from injustices like these where motive or circumstance are the only reason for the conviction, rely upon pro bono work to right the wrong.

Overcoming scruples, how easy is it to defend the defenceless?

So, what happens when faced with a case in which your gut screams guilty? Moral obligations often conflict with work obligations within the legal sector, my views on legal representatives before were bleak.

I viewed solicitors as devious proverbial vultures, Ethics? Legal values?  I thought these words to be a foreign concept to those paid to protect the justice of the people whether the justice was deserved or otherwise. I have since gained understanding into just how torn you can become in these situations.

In a blog written in February 2021, I wrote –

“how can I look my children in the eye and tell them I love them and vow to keep them safe whilst attempting to help guilty people out of prison and back on the streets free to re-offend”

I have felt conflicted on more occasions than one, yet I have continued to carry out the work. I now understand that personal battles of ethics are not something that legal representatives do no suffer from, and instead now realise that separating personal opinion from procuring justice are an absolute must in order to succeed and unfortunately that will sometimes project an unethical shadow which is unavoidable and simply just a hazard of the job.

Selfish v Selfless [2021] …

This age-old battle has been an ongoing argument over time, and you see it more now during the age of social media than ever before. A good act can be done, and there will always be people who will comment that the good deed has been done for selfish recognition and ignore the detail that it was morally right altogether, no matter the motive.

In a blog written six months ago I stated the following -  “There is no such thing as a selfless good deed”

Do I still believe this to be true, absolutely! Do I think that it matters whether it is selfless or otherwise, absolutely not! and this opinion has remained consistent throughout.

I have long questioned the ethics and general values of the professionals behind the law and I continue to question it. I have stated in previous essays on the subject that in general, lawyers are not strictly synonymous with what a reasonable person would deem ethical behaviour. I am confident that my view here does not stand alone, many jokes and jibes are made about lawyers and the lack of ethical behaviour they display, these are spoken in public and also written quite openly in media. Majority of legal professionals have on various platforms, stated that the motive behind pro bono is a sense of self-worth and desire to give back to the community. It cannot be assumed whether this is a reply carefully chosen to project out into the world or if it is indeed the genuine reason behind the motivation for the work, personally, as long as the community gains the representation, I feel the ethics and intention is irrelevant, I consider the importance of the pro bono work itself, to greatly outweigh the motive significantly.