"When you are facilitating discussions and arguments between adolescents about consent, a topic they are starting to encounter for themselves at this point in their lives, it feels as if views and stereotypes can be debated without fear. It’s a really fulfilling and challenging opportunity. I really encourage others to get involved."
Rachel Crasnow KC, a barrister at Cloisters Chambers and volunteer with the Schools Consent Project, speaks to us about using her knowledge of the law to facilitate important conversations among young people and the importance of barristers volunteering their skills in the wider community.
What kind of volunteering opportunities have you undertaken, and why did you decide to do this type of volunteering work in particular?
I’ve always done a wide range of voluntary work, including things which have nothing to do with the law, but more recently my legal voluntary work has been working with adults in a committee-format. Whilst this is important work, I really wanted to get involved in something more ‘hands-on’, focusing on issues of consent with young people. The work of the charity the Schools Consent Project trains lawyers to deliver workshops about sexual consent to secondary school pupils. These are interactive sessions where you as the lawyer teach students the legal definition of consent so as to safeguard young people and drive down sexual offending rates. Interacting with teenagers is a brilliant way to ensure you are explaining yourself with complete clarity and brings you back to the coalface with what’s going on with consent related issues and ethics. When you are cross-examining a witness about a event where at least one person says consent was not given, it is hard to think you are going to change behaviour and thus reduce future harassment or assault. When you are facilitating discussions and arguments between adolescents about consent, a topic they are starting to encounter for themselves at this point in their lives, it feels as if views and stereotypes can be debated without fear. It’s a really fulfilling and challenging opportunity. I really encourage others to get involved.
At what stage in your career did you first start taking on volunteering opportunities?
I trained with FRU when still at Bar School and carried on during pupillage and into tenancy. It was a fantastic chance to pick up cases far beyond those the clerks would give me in early days and to get exposure to a fascinating range of cases.
How has your volunteering work positively impacted on your career?
Volunteering allows you to broaden your professional skills and enhance your communication and leadership skills. You meet a wide range of people from all different walks of life.
What was the most memorable volunteering opportunity you worked on, and why?
In an early FRU case I took on, I worked with an elderly woman with little English who lived in Ealing and who had never been into Central London before, until she came to the FRU office in Holborn to meet me! It really humbled me that she was so incensed about the way she had been treated by her employer, that she dared to get on the tube on her own and come to zone 1… something she had successfully avoided up to that point.
Do your Chambers support barristers and professionals who want to do volunteering work?
Yes we individually undertake a really wide range of voluntary work and have a policy about how much voluntary work members must undertake a year. It’s a very small number of days and I would guess most tenants do far more than that.
Why do you think people at the Bar should take on volunteering work outside of traditional pro bono work like advice and representation?
From a personal perspective it widens your breadth of legal life and gives you new perspectives on how solutions can be reached. I also think it’s good for the Bar to broaden its reputation and show the wider community that we are not just detached dusty figures in flapping robes.
What advice would you give to anyone at the Bar who is unsure about whether to start doing volunteering work?
Don’t commit to too much. it’s fine to say you want to try out something before promising your time away. It’s far better to give an hour a month reliably, than always be cancelling a weekly commitment. I now don’t take on new volunteering commitments without stepping back from existing ones. I’ve just taken on co-chairing the Bar Council’s Equality, Diversity and Social Mobility (EDSM) Committee – a position I turned down a decade ago due to lack of time. It’s great to be leading on such an important area which affects all aspects of barrister life.
What is the most rewarding thing about volunteering work?
If you choose carefully what you want to get involved in, you will never be bored. Last week at a school careers fair, a 14 year old gave me a lecture on vegan barristers’ wigs. Who knew…
Interested in volunteering? Find out more about volunteering as a Volunteer Workshop Facilitator with the Schools Consent Project here, check out our full range of live volunteering opportunities here and sign up to receive personalised fortnightly updates on volunteering opportunities here.