Pro Bono & Social Impact
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Thank you to Clyde & Co for supporting UNICEFs emergency response to the Turkiye-Syria earthquakes. Through the generosity of corporates like Clyde & Co, UNICEF teams on the ground can distribute essential supplies, including health supplies, blankets, clothing, and safe drinking water. We are so grateful for your support at this critical time.
Equality before the law
As a law firm and as lawyers we have a professional responsibility to act in a way that upholds the constitutional principle of the rule of law and the proper administration of justice and to encourage equality, diversity and inclusion. Over the past year increased regulation, reduced funding for legal advice and rising costs of living have made it increasingly difficult to access justice worldwide. We have developed projects and provided Pro Bono support to assist some of those whose legal needs would otherwise be left unmet. For example, in the UK there is an urgent need to train more junior social welfare solicitors to provide sector succession. We contribute annually to the City of London Law Society’s Social Welfare Solicitor Qualification Fund (“SWSQF”), an initiative to provide greater access to justice for those in need by supporting those currently working in social welfare law to qualify as solicitors. So far, in its second year, 54 social welfare workers have been funded to sit the Solicitors Qualifying Exams.
A large proportion of our access to justice work aims to provide support to those seeking safety. For one of our projects in North America, attorneys volunteer on Rainbow Railroad’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program to prepare settlement applications, increasing the charity’s capacity to assist members of the LGBTQI+ community in other ways. We have also created similar projects to respond to emergencies. This year our people fundraised for UNICEF to support its emergency work for children and families affected by devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, historic floods in Pakistan and the ongoing war in Ukraine. As the situation unfolded in Ukraine we collaborated with a number of other charities and law firms to set up award-winning Pro Bono projects, building on our experience of advising Afghan refugees and focussing on how colleagues could use their legal skills to help. One of our projects saw volunteers being upskilled by Safe Passage International before travelling to Poland to staff an advice clinic for those who had been displaced by the war. By the end of our financial year, the clinic had already helped over 250 displaced people and more than 170 of their dependents.
UNICEF
Rainbow Railroad deeply values the support of Clyde & Co in the completion of applications for Private Sponsorship of Refugees. Providing volunteers to help with the detail of these applications on a Pro Bono basis allows Rainbow Railroad to keep its focus on supporting LGBTQI+ individuals at risk.
Rainbow Railroad
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