A l ife experience Clyde & Community Our Clyde & Community programme uses the unique set of skills of our lawyers and business support staff to tackle social issues local to each of our offices and to help disadvantaged communities – through the provision of practical help, financial support and strategic leadership. Most of our trainees, as well as the future trainees currently at law school, participate in pro bono of some kind and find that very often it gives them a highly rewarding and different perspective on how the law can make a positive impact on people’s lives. They also find that they gain a valuable insight in terms of developing their confidence and ability to relate to people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, which are vital skills for any well-rounded lawyer. The firm has a global policy that up to 50 hours of firm-approved pro bono activities will be credited towards fee earners’ billable targets and, as such, these hours are treated as chargeable work. Clyde & Community is centred on two major themes: Access to Justice, through the provision of free legal assistance and Inspiring Young Lives, supporting education, employment, future talent and entrepreneurship. Access to Justice As a major international firm, we have a role to play in enabling communities around the world to secure fair access to legal advice and justice. Community legal clinics are a vital part of the framework by which individuals are able to access legal advice where they would otherwise not be able to afford representation. Clyde & Co lawyers provide advice in person, via Skype or telephone, as well as full casework assistance and governance advice to community legal clinics from our offices around the world. Some examples include: Our Employment and Immigration teams in London and Manchester run an award winning Skype Legal clinic at Brent Citizens Advice Bureau. The weekly clinic deals with the increasing number of employment and immigration law queries, following the cuts to civil legal aid.
Our Dubai office was a founding firm of the first pro bono court in the UAE and was the recipient of the first Access to Justice Award in recognition of our support and involvement. Our New York and Sydney Offices have working together support the setup of The Ernie Deomampo Charitiable Trust in Australia along with its non-profit entity, Relief Brigade in the US. Inspiring Young Lives Not everyone has the same opportunities or equal access to education and employment. We work to encourage young people from less privileged backgrounds to aim higher in their education and careers. We partner with schools, colleges, community groups and universities to create more opportunities for young people from less privileged backgrounds and to also encourage those young people to aim higher in education and in their careers. Staff in our local offices around the world volunteer in: business-mentoring, literacy, numeracy and chess programmes with their local schools. For example in Manchester we have a reading partnership with Holy Trinity Primary School and in London we provide business mentors to Year 12 students from Stepney Green Sixth Form College. Charity Partners Our global charitable theme is ‘Inspiring Young Lives’. Clyde & Co offices around the world are encouraged to work with, and to support, local charities whose activities fall within this theme. We also make donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee when appeals are made for assistance, this past year we assisted with the Yemen Crisis Appeal. Some of the charities recently supported worldwide include: Inspiring Sports - Hong Kong, Bear Cottage – Sydney, Orbis - Qatar, Legal Services for Children – San Francisco, Le Phare – Montreal Lawyers Feed the Hungry – Toronto and Malamulele Onward – Johannesburg. On 15th September 2017, we hosted our first global charity challenge day – Follow the Sun. We had over 20 offices participating in a succession of physical activities, such as cycling, treks and ping pong tournaments from Sydney to San Francisco.
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