Plews: We want to help other like-minded businesses
A well-known London law firm has launched a fund to receive 10% of the firm’s fees from non-contentious commercial work and then hand over the money to two legal charities.
The initiative by Bindmans will also help the clients enhance their own ESG [environmental, social and governance] scores at the same time.
Partner Gabrielle Plews said it would be “great” if the Social Justice Fund (SJF) became “a model for a lot more law firms in the future”.
Bindmans is primarily known for its public law practice. The SJF forms “a key pillar” of its new corporate and commercial team, led by Ms Plews after she joined earlier this year, having spent 15 years working as a temporary in-house lawyer through Lawyers On Demand.
“When I envisaged this concept, it was with Bindmans in mind. Only a law firm with their vision and ethos could deliver this kind of change to the business world and legal services market,” she said.
The SJF, an “industry first”, would allow business clients to “increase access to social justice while simultaneously achieving their ESG goals”.
It was “virtually impossible” for people to get legal aid, which now covered only 8% of the people needing legal advice. “The landscape has changed so much.”
Meanwhile, this year would be a “real turning point” for businesses, which would need, within the next 12 months, to report on the ESG aspects of their supply chains, which include legal services.
B Corporations, companies that have to meet certain social and environmental performance standards, also have to implement new standards this year. Bindmans is not a B Corp itself.
Ms Plews said Bindmans was “not a profit-hungry legal services firm” trying to attract companies who wanted to ‘outsource their ESG’, which they could not do anyway under the ‘greenwashing’ rules.
Instead, the SJF was about transferring some of the value from the commercial marketplace “to plug the gap where legal aid is failing during a cost-of-living crisis”.
She said any business “run for purpose, not for profit” would be a natural firm for Bindmans to work with.
“We want to help other like-minded businesses, become their adviser and help to raise their ESG scores. Anyone who has a true ESG purpose we would be happy to advise.”
In its first year, the SLF will give half the money to the Access to Justice Foundation and the other half to Just4Kids Law, which provides legal advice and representation to children in the criminal justice system.
The charities will change after a year, but Ms Plews said there was no reason why a charity could not be a beneficiary again in a future year.
She said she did not know how much money would be in the SJF at the end of the year.
Clare Carter, chief executive of the Access to Justice Foundation, said the partnership with Bindmans was a “perfect fit”, with “shared track records” on access to justice.
“We will work together to ensure that disadvantaged individuals have access to the life-changing legal advice they need.”
Aika Stephenson, legal director, founder and co-lead at Just For Kids Law, said: “This collaboration will assist us to continue delivering trauma-informed and anti-racist direct legal representation for children and young people, alongside fighting for wider change.”
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