Excellence in Community Investment 2012

Winner

Unity Law Ltd
Unity Law show true commitment to community investment in their work on disability issues. The firm provided pro bono support for Disability Alliance to oppose proposed cuts to the Disability Living Allowance. Other campaign work includes the A2B for All benefits access campaign, spearheaded by Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson. The firm also developed a revolutionary free smartphone app, Baywatch, that locates disabled parking bays throughout the UK.

Highly commended

Stephensons Solicitors LLP & Barnardo's
North West law firm Stephensons Solicitors and children's charity Barnardo's have created a unique voluntary partnership, aimed at sharing best practice between both organisations, and working to benefit society's vulnerable people.

Gordons LLP
Gordons are proud to house the legal sector's first apprenticeship scheme. The scheme directly addresses social mobility issues in the sector, offering access to a legal career for school leavers from underprivileged backgrounds. The firm also invests in their local area, mentoring local businesses, and has raised over £32,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care in the past 12 months.

Shortlisted

CMS Cameron McKenna LLP
CMS Cameron McKenna encourages teams to get involved with community investment through their 50 Hours campaign. This campaign aims to entrench a commitment to community work in the firm's culture, asking all employees to devote 50 hours to pro bono, social mobility and charitable-giving projects.

DLA Piper
DLA Piper's 15 year partnership with The Prince's Trust saw the 2010 launch of The Prince's Trust legal helpline. The helpline gives free legal advice to young people who have started a business through The Prince's Trust Enterprise Programme. The helpline supports these young entrepreneurs to develop their businesses while providing DLA Piper's lawyers with a valuable chance to develop their knowledge.

Duty Advice Scheme: Willesden County Court
Willesden County Court set up a sustainable recruitment process for volunteer duty advisors, targeting law graduates and students. This mutually beneficial system provides the court with quality duty advisors, while giving the volunteers invaluable training and legal experience. They also work closely with City Law School's pro bono unit to encourage participation from students studying landlord and tenant law.

Morgan Cole LLP
Morgan Cole's Growing Ambitions project aims to inspire students from disadvantaged backgrounds through a career preparation and development programme. Run from the firm's social housing practice by its trainee solicitors, it has produced significant and lasting results for the firm and its Housing Association clients.

Renaissance Legal
Renaissance Legal launched two years ago, with a commitment to creating a law firm with a community conscience. It has been nominated for its caring, dedicated approach to helping the disabled, elderly and vulnerable, and its extensive pro bono and partnership work with charities.

Slaughter and May
In 2012 Slaughter and May launched the Key Project at an inner city boys school in Islington, in partnership with education charity The Access Project. This mentoring project helps disadvantaged students to win places at top universities, matching them with a volunteer from the firm for weekly tutorial sessions. The project also runs weekly workshops on confidence and articulacy, covering debating, medicine and maths, and provides career and university placement advice. The project is a long term commitment, supporting students from the year before their GCSEs until the end of A-level exams.