Community links
Leigh Day & Co does not have a ‘corporate social responsibility’ programme, we believe that everything that the firm does is about achieving social justice. At the core of the firm is a shared belief in a fair society where everyone has access to justice. As part of this commitment the firm has strong links with many community organisations. We do not operate in a legal vacuum but use the law to try and achieve social justice for all members of the community.
The firm decided to review its charity policy in 2000 after using a rather ad-hoc approach to individual requests for funds. The firm's strong links with the continent suggested that a focused priority on education in Africa would be both rewarding and highly effective, as the amount of money dontated would go much further than in the UK. All the partners felt passionately that education was the key to improving the lives of African students.
The first project that the firm established in 2000 was to set up the Leigh Day scholarship in conjunction with the Canon Collins Trust and the University of Western Cape. The scholarships are for black students to study law in South Africa and covers their university fees for the duration of their studies. The scholarship has been a huge success for the students, many of them are the first in their families to go to university and all of them have achieved well, one visually impaired student passed all of his exams in 2002 with a distinction aggregate. Three of our students have featured on the Dean's Merit List.
In 2006 the firm decided that it would like to extend its charitable work to other parts of Africa and started to work with Peter Kilesi, a community worker to identify a suitable project. Dol Dol primary school is in the Laikipia District, about 200 km north of Nairobi in Kenya. The school has over 600 pupils, with boarding places for 120. Since 2003 primary education has been free to all in Kenya, but in practice many children are still denied a place at school because of the cost of uniforms, books, stationery and food. The position of the many children orphaned by HIV/AIDS is even more precarious as, although they often have extended families to act as guardians, they are usually last in line for any spending on education that is available. In the Masai community these children often end up herding grazing livestock. We subsequently were delighted to bring in the Africa Educational Trust to assist with the administration of the project.
Free work
Leigh Day & Co does not have a pro bono policy. Every day lawyers in the firm are doing work for clients for which they are not paid. This is not a conscience-salving measure but part of the ethos of the firm. Many individual lawyers volunteer regularly at law centres such as the Islington Legal Advice Centre. We have also offered free confidential advice to members of RoadPeace in the aftermath of road traffic crashes.
We have links with many charities and non-Governmental organisations (NGOs) and have worked with and represented these bodies to challenge the behaviour of governments and public authorities. We also work with a wide range of local and single issue groups.
The list of these is extensive and includes: Action Aid, Action for the Blind, Action against Medical Accidents, Amnesty International, Aspire, Barnardos, Brake, British Institute for Brain Injured Children, British Lung Foundation, Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Campaign for Better Transport, Campaign for Freedom of Information, Child Brain Injury Trust, Child Poverty Action Group, Corner House, Council for National Parks, Disabilities Rights Commission, Douglas Bader Foundation, Environmental Law Foundation, Family Planning Association, Fathers Direct, Greenpeace, Headway, Human Rights Watch, Liberty, Limbless Association, MENCAP, MIND, the National Heart Forum, Parkinson’s Disease Society of the UK, Prisoners’ Advice Service, Public Law Project, Radar, Reprieve, Roadpeace, the Royal British Legion, Royal College of Nursing, RSPCA, SAVE Britain’s Heritage, Secular Society, SCOPE, Spinal Injuries Association, the Terence Higgins Trust, the UK Limb Loss Information Centre, WWF, War on Want, the Woodland Trust and the Zito Trust.
Fund raising
Individuals in the firm raise large sums of sponsor money for charities with whom we have links. These include The Spinal Injuries Association, the Child Brain Injury Trust, The Limbless Association, the Douglas Bader Foundation and the Alliance Jeunesse Solidarité in Ivory Coast. The firm has also organised fund-raisers such as a dragon boat race that raised several thousand pounds for the British Institute for Brain Injured Children.
