What other charities do you work with?
Well, the other two that I've founded. The first one I co-founded, which is, the legal action group in 1970. That charity was founded by four of us, all solicitors, who felt that the legal aid scheme was undernourished and in danger of being further cut. So, we formed this charity to provide a powerhouse to champion legal aid, and to provide legal aid lawyers with the tools for their job. And that really was very successful. And then the other one that I formed was about seven or eight years ago, with a young woman solicitor. This was called the Solicitor's Pro Bono Group, and it tried to really revive in the legal profession, the old tradition of doing pro bono work; work for free. I mean, when I was in Sudbury, my father and the other managing clarks, as they used to be called then, the other solicitor in the firm, they would spend huge amounts of their time acting for nothing. Just helping people who couldn't afford to pay for their services, but you know, you just didn't turn people away from the door at the office. Well, in today's highly commercial world, where the bottom line is the new God, I'm afraid an awful lot of solicitors were just shunning anything but top paying work. And, to be fair to my profession, they're essentially a decent lot, and even though they may be doing nothing but commercial work, most of them do understand the law is about justice, and that we're the gatekeepers of justice, and in a world where religion has fallen back, and legislation has lept forward, if you can't get access to legal advice, or you need it, you're at a permanent disadvantage. So we've worked at it, and we're now making real headway, particularly with the big firms, as we've got about fifteen of them with full time pro bono coordinators now, within their firms to organize, you know. So it's going on alright.
