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Pro bono and social impact
Caroline Loving, Head of Pro Bono and Social Impact
At the beginning of this year, we met Camilla Baldwin, a solicitor with a specialist family law practice in Mayfair, London. She told us about how taking on a case pro bono for a woman in prison had led to her setting up a charity to help other incarcerated women. That inspired us to get involved and together, we set up a pro bono clinic in the women’s prison in Manchester.
W hen Camilla took that first case and attended the prison, she quickly realised that most mothers in prison were unaware of their rights in respect of their children and, particularly since legal aid was no longer available, had no access to legal advice or representation. More than 17,000 children are separated from their mothers through incarceration every year and research shows that this separation causes the children to go on to experience difficulties in later life e.g. poor mental health, criminal behaviour and poverty. Camilla’s charity, Not Beyond Redemption [NBR], is committed to reconnecting these women with their children to help them all work towards a better future. The charity’s mission is to set up pro bono legal advice clinics in all 12 women’s prisons in England to provide free family law advice and representation to incarcerated mothers so that they can try to re-establish their relationship with their children. Together, we set up a clinic in HMP Styal in Wilmslow, Cheshire. Since June, our volunteers have been attending the prison every month to take on a variety of pro bono work ranging from helping
mothers to understand their rights, to writing legal letters, to representing them in court. None of us are family specialists, we have all been trained and are supervised by experienced NBR family lawyers. We have already had some wonderful client feedback: “I can’t begin to put into words how grateful I am for the entire team for giving me a second chance with my baby boy. If it wasn’t for you guys, I wouldn’t be seeing him again, you’ve fought my corner and supported me incredibly throughout the entire process... I will never forget what you’ve done for me. You’ve completely changed my life. NBR have given me that second chance I desperately needed, and I’ll forever be grateful for that.” We are looking to involve the women’s prisons near our Bristol and our Birmingham offices. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact
ProBonoSocialImpact@clydeco.com.
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