With National Pro Bono Week nearing a conclusion, lawyers at Hammonds in Birmingham along with their UK colleagues reckon to have clocked up over 1,000 hours of volunteering and free legal advice within the last 12 months.
The week aims to raise awareness of pro bono work which is a service aimed at assisting those falling outside the legal aid system and without the funds to pay for legal help.
Hammonds' Birmingham office has provided extensive support to the Helen Harris Memorial Trust (Ovarian Cancer Action) over the last year.
Volunteers advised on the charity's contract with Imperial College Hospital in London to set up a unit at its Hammersmith campus to carry out research into ovarian cancer.
Employees at Hammonds have also donated their time through Business in the Community initiatives. Every week in term time volunteers attend Chad Vale School in Harborne, Birmingham, to take part in the Right to Read initiative. The scheme has proved a great success with pupil's reading and social skills vastly improving.
Relationships with Chad Vale School were further strengthened through a clean up project of the school's entrance, garden and play areas.
Other regeneration projects include the renovation of Martineau Gardens organic therapeutic garden in Edgbaston where volunteers spent the day upgrading the volunteers' pavilion.
And property partner Anne O'Meara continues fundraising for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra enabling them to continue working with schoolchildren in the city.
Head of the Birmingham office, Ian Forrest said: "We believe it is important to give something back to disadvantaged communities."
* Birmingham-based Wragge & Co won the Team Award at the Young Solicitors Group Pro Bono Awards Winners - volunteers from the firm are involved with the Birmingham Employment Rights Advice Line.
