Celebrating UK Pro Bono Week 2025 at Farrer & Co

At Farrer & Co, our commitment to being a Responsible Business means turning our values into practical action. Pro bono work is one of the key ways we do that – using our legal skills to expand access to justice, strengthen the rule of law and promote good corporate governance.

During UK Pro Bono Week 2025, we are celebrating the many colleagues who bring this to life every day through their volunteering and legal expertise. Almost a third of our legal staff have given their legal skills for free, to support individuals, social enterprises and charities.

Rhian Lewis, Head of Pro Bono and Counsel at Farrer & Co said: "We are grateful to our clients and our volunteers, and UK Pro Bono Week is a great time to mark that appreciation. This week, we have also been privileged to be featured by the Law Society for our collaboration with the Young People's Life Cafe, as one of four examples of pro bono impact in England and Wales. The same collaboration has just been shortlisted for the LawWorks award for Most Effective Pro Bono Partnership. Thank you to everyone involved for their hard work."

This is also the year that we unveiled our Four Themes. These are the areas where we can have most impact in our pro bono work. Below, we have outlined those themes alongside some examples of our work to profile our incredible clients.

1. Culture and heritage

As part of our commitment to cultural, sporting and heritage organisations, we are proud to have advised on Fight Forward's terms and conditions. A CIC that empowers domestic abuse survivors by training them in boxing, Fight Forward is led by Lesley Sackey, who was part of Britain's first female Olympic boxing selection team and won gold at the European Championships.

2. Advancing equity and equality

Earlier this year, we supported the law reform charity JUSTICE in preparing and filing their submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. The submission, which focused on AI and judicial systems, proposes a rights-based framework to safeguard human rights and the rule of law. This has enabled JUSTICE to advocate for the Rule of Law at an international and United Nations level, as well as within the UK.

3. Rights of children

We are working with ECPAT UK, a leading children's rights organisation working to protect children from trafficking and transnational exploitation. A team from our Family, Safeguarding and Pro Bono groups drafted and filed a submission on ECPAT UK’s behalf, to comment on draft General Comment 27 of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. The General Comment covers children’s right to access to justice and to an effective remedy, and ECPAT UK is advocating for stronger protections for child trafficking victims.

4. The environment

This year, Farrer & Co joined LawWorks: a charity committed to enabling access to justice through free legal advice. Through our membership, we are assisting Lanobi with a corporate governance review. They are a social enterprise with a mission to build partnerships that drive climate resilience, sustainable development, health innovation and environmental protection.

For more information about our Pro Bono work, please visit our website here.

© Farrer & Co LLP, October 2025