LawWorks Pro Bono Awards: The Results

Last night saw the the return of the legal world Oscars (ok perhaps the Pride of Britain Awards would be a better comparison) as the annual LawWorks pro bono awards took centre stage to dish out the accolades. Leading the pack of the winners, like the Helen Mirren of the legal world, was Linklaters who scooped the award for the best contribution by a law firm. Simmons and Simmons was also highly commended in the same category.

The best contribution by a regional firm award went to Shoosmiths for their sterling contribution to pro bono, pioneering new pro bono advice clinics and spearheading the Business in the Community pro bono help scheme in Birmingham.

The legal team at Virgin Money won the best in-house contribution for their extensive pro-bono work and helping to set up Northern Money, which works to ensure the financially excluded have safe access to affordable borrowing.

Sheena Tali won the individual contribution award for her work on the North Kensington’s Law Centre’s anti-trafficking project. She has devoted more than 700 hours of her time to pro bono work. Highly commended was Andrew Lewis, an associate at Nabarro.

Alex Passmore, who works at the University of Plymouth, was given The Law Society’s Junior Law Division Pro Bono Award for his work overseeing students’ pro bono work. Before you ask, there were no Kate Winslet-esque tear sodden acceptance speeches and no, Kanye West didn’t try and storm the stage.