Chambers professional of the year 002When the Bar Pro Bono Unit was set up 25 years ago, it immediately recognised the value of celebrating its barristers and publicising pro bono by handing out an award every year. Fast forward two decades and the Bar Pro Bono Awards are a highlight of Pro Bono Week, bringing together Chambers from all over the country and showcasing achievements across eight different categories.

As well as the obvious junior, senior and QC categories, awards are given for pro bono innovation, lifetime achievement and an important and increasingly popular category: Chambers’ Professional.  

The amount that any Chambers or any individual barrister can give to pro bono is hugely dependent on the wheels that run the machine – the clerks and practice managers. Advocate has worked hard over the last few years to nurture these relationships and extoll the benefits of doing pro bono work to barristers’ careers.

The hard work has paid off with three excellent candidates in 2021: Leigh Royall from Spire Barristers in Leeds, Tiffany Daniels from 1GC and Patrick Sarson from Gatehouse Chambers, all of whom show extraordinary dedication to pro bono.

Leigh is revered in his Chambers for his dedication to persuading barristers at all levels to take on urgent Advocate cases and is a go-to person for when the caseworkers have no-where else to turn. He is also a member of the management committee for the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks and their representative on the Bar Council’s Pro Bono and Social Responsibility Committee.

He understands the importance of pro bono, especially for the more senior practitioners and says: “Increasingly, the value of having a breadth of pro bono work on your CV for silk or any judicial appointment enriches those applications for future progression.”

Tiffany feels the same way about the career benefits and when the Covid-19 pandemic hit leaving two pupils with nothing to do, she put them forward for as many pro bono cases as they could handle in order to fill their diaries and gain valuable experience in an otherwise empty landscape.

Tiffany and Patrick both also provide huge practical support to their barristers – arranging phone calls, liaising with applicants and lodging documents - essential when there are no solicitors on board to help shoulder the administrative burden.

Patrick even takes his clerking experience and uses it outside Chambers, saying: “On a wider level, we as chambers professionals can use our experience in the community where our knowledge of the legal process and litigation can be of great assistance in supporting different projects. For example, I have been volunteering at Waterloo Legal Advice Service for some time which I find immensely rewarding.”

It’s wonderful to feel the growing enthusiasm for this category, and for the first time ever, Advocate held an event for clerks and practice managers jointly with both the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks and the Bar Council during Pro Bono Week. We hope that this will encourage even more barristers to take their first steps towards doing pro bono and for the profession to see the immense value it offers to so many.

The Chambers’ Professional award is sponsored by the Legal Practice Managers Association.