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CharityCase's Blog
Charity wants to gets its mitts on client cash
13 July 2011
The Access to Justice Foundation's
Peanuts campaign, supported by the Attorney General, is still after the spare cash of law firms' clients.
Unlike most of us, most law firms have a fair amount of money stashed sway in unclaimed client balances, which normally just sits there, equivalent to a load of loose change down the back of the sofa. Access to Justice is asking all these firms to have a good scrabble around and donate this money (up to £50 from each account) where they cannot locate the client anymore. All these funds will then go to support vital free legal advice.
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A firm cracking open another dormant client account yesterday
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More information and packs for law firms can be found on the
Access to Justice Foundation's website. Check it out, it's a great scheme which could make a real difference to this this country's beleaguered free legal advice centres.
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See you down the trail
07 June 2011
Greeting from RollOnFriday to Simon Gomersall and his team of intrepid lawyers from Radcliffe Le Brasseur who are raising money for for two worthy causes, Oxfam and the Ghurka Welfare Trust.
And how are they doing this? Sitting in a bath of beans? Shaving their heads?
No. they're going to spend 30 hours of a July weekend together. Straight. With no sleep. Together. That in itself must be enough to secure generous sponsorship.
Like this, but not
But they won't just be sitting in the office (it's not like every other weekend). Instead, they've have entered Trailwalker, joining a host of other teams (including some of the afoermentioned Ghurkas) on a 100 km non-stop trek along the South Downs from Chichester to Brighton on the weekend of 16/17 July 2011. Not exactly the
Marathon Des Sables, but if you have some spare cash you can sponsor Simon's team
here.
You can find out more about the event (and the charitable causes) here
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/trailwalker
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Lands End to London
01 June 2011
News arrives from BBC in-house commercial lawyer Daniel Miller, who's looking for the generous support of the RollOnFriday readership. In June, he's going to be doing a 350-mile
charity bike ride from Land's End to London with two lawyer friends
to raise money for Nicki's Smile, a branch
of Pancreatic Cancer UK.
Good luck Daniel
Pancreatic cancer is the form of cancer with the
worst survival rate and - following the
death of a friend's wife (with a two year old child) from pancreatic cancer in
her early thirties - the charity is aiming to raise as much money as possible
for research into early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer as that is really
your only chance of survival.
To help Daniel out with his fine cause, pedal over to
www.justgiving.com/DanielMiller1 and give all you can.
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London Legal Walk: Grab your boots
05 May 2011
On Monday 16 May, over 4,000 members of the legal profession will swap their shiny, black shoes for walking boots for a 10k hike around the City.
Teams will be meeting at The Royal Courts of Justice between 4:30 pm and
6 pm from where the walk starts. The 10k route - which takes in
many of the City's sights along the way - will finish at the Law Society.
So far over £90k has already been raised, all of which will go to legal advice centres which desperately need funds to continue advising the most vulnerable clients. And there's still space for more walkers. If you fancy joining in - and it is for a very worthy cause - click
here to register.
RoF Towers has so far failed to make any contribution to the impressive sponsorship total. So if you feel inclined, we'd be ever so grateful if you'd chuck us a tuppence or two. Click
here for our sponsorship page.
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Crisis Square Mile Run
23 March 2011
We all know the London Marathon is coming up and brave souls will shortly be enduring blistered feet and chaffed thighs all for charity.
But if 26 miles isn't really your thing, and who can blame you, there's a
less harrowing option.
Homelessness charity Crisis is organising the 19th
Annual Crisis Square Mile Run, a 6k route which starts at St Paul's. The
race will kick off on Thursday 9 June 2011 or - for those of a more
competitive bent - the Square Mile Relay will take place on Wednesday 8
June 2011.
Last year over 2,500 runners took part, from those
jogging along dressed as Darth Vader to serious runner types with
stopwatches and lycra.
Running in the Square Mile yesterday
It's a manageable
challenge and a great cause, so you should probably sign up now. Registration has already opened - click
here for more info and to add your name to the list.
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Bevan Brittan lawyers get lycra-d up
17 March 2011
This week we are all being besieged by an array of celebrity Comic Relief efforts, whether it's selling snogs on eBay á la Caitlin Moran, buying Malcolm "The Thick of It" Tucker's sweary fridge magnets or watching Angela Rippon in the slums.
But it's not just slebs who are doing their bit, its lawyers too. The good people of Bevan Brittan have decided to do their bit with a 24-hour "Gymathon" to raise pennies for Comic Relief. Starting at 5pm on Thursday 17 March, 35 members of staff will be taking it in turns to run, cycle, row and cross-train in the firm's King's Orchard gym.
All funds raised are heading straight to the Comic Relief coffers, so why not dust off your wallets and give them a few of your fine English pounds.
Click
here to donate.
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London to Mongolia Ambulance Rally
09 March 2011
Now that winter is throwing off its grey misery and the sun has finally remembered to shine - maybe it's time to start planning a summer adventure.
If you're in the mood for doing something a bit different, the Mongolia Charity Rally might be right up your street. Go Help - a charity which puts on innovative events to raise money for health and education projects in the developing world - has teamed up with the London Ambulance Service to drive six ambulances in the Mongolian Charity Rally, a roadtrip from London to Ulaanbaatar. Click
here for more information.
And they're looking for some intrepid souls to get involved in the epic journey, which kicks off on 10 July 2011. Teams will need to raise a minimum of £3,000, with a fund raising target of £5,000. And all pennies raised will go to MERU, a charity designing and manufacturing life changing equipment for children with disabilities, and to Go Help's flagship ambulance service and projects in Mongolia.
Registration closes on 13 March, so if you're up for the challenge of a 10,000 mile road trip, email info@gohelp.org.uk for further information.
The final destination. Maybe.
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London Legal Walk
14 January 2011
If you're looking for a way to work off some of that post-Christmas paunch, you may need to look no further. Bob Nightingale, Chief Executive of the London Legal Trust, is looking for intrepid volunteers to take part in a 40 mile sponsored walk in London, raising much needed funds for invaluable advice centres.
A word from Bob on this and other scheduled walks throughout 2011:
"The "legal walk" season starts on February 19th & 20th with Walk the Thames , a 40 mile , 2 day trek along the Thames from the Thames Barrier to Richmond including a circuit of Richmond Park. Already 200 lawyers, including large and growing teams from SNR Denton, Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Hodge Jones & Allen have signed up for the walk which is led by the President of the Supreme Court, Lord Phillips. Last year Walk the Thames raised £50,000 and organisers predict a sharp increase this year.
The London Legal sponsored walk is the best known of the walks and last year 4,500 walkers raised over £400,000. In addition to increased support from City firms, this year's walk on May 16th will be boosted by 650 magistrates walking as part of the 650th anniversary celebrations of their association.
Walk leaders in London in May will include the presidents of the Law Society and ILEX, as well as the Chair of the Bar Council, leading their elements of the profession. Other walk leaders include the Lord Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls and organisers hope to raise £1/2 million this year.
Walks around the country already organised to coincide with London on May 16th include Birmingham, Nottingham, Guildford, Newbury and several in the North East of England.
Further walks including a large walk in Manchester will be held in September."
So grab your hiking boots, some kind of professional looking walking stick and please take part - it's for a great cause.
For further information on the 2011 legal walks contact Bob Nightingale at chair@londonlegalsupporttrust.org.uk
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Pro Bono Internship opportunities in Sierra Leone
13 January 2011
If you've got time off post-qualification or you fancy taking a sabbatical or even a career break - there are far worse things you could do to occupy your time than volunteer on an overseas pro bono project. A Slaughter and May associate recently completed a three month placement in Sierra Leone through Advocates for International Development (A4ID) and wants to recommend it to all those with wanderlust and a dose of social conscience.
In his words:
If you are looking for something a little bit different as a career break, I can thoroughly recommend a pro bono internship at Society for Democratic Initiatives (www.sfdi-sl.org), a local human rights NGO in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
SDI is looking for interns for placements of anywhere from two months to a year and welcomes applications from law graduates up to senior associates. I have just returned to the UK having completed a three month internship after deciding on a short career break following two and a half years post qualification experience. No preference is given to your background in law; personally I have worked in an M&A group since qualification and had no prior experience in human rights law.
SDI runs various programmes including legal aid in the local high court in Freetown, impact litigation at the ECOWAS Court, defending other members of civil society and campaigning for transparency and accountability in Government. I was actively involved in all of its workstreams and a typical day could range from assisting one of SDI's barristers in court to preparing a submission for the African Commission to interviewing Government Ministers to holding workshops for other NGOs. The work is varied, interesting and a world away from corporate law in the UK! You also get to live and work in a beautiful country with amazing people and Freetown is often quoted as the safest capital city in Africa.
SDI is currently looking to recruit interns for 2011 to work alongside its permanent members and two international interns. If anyone needs any more information, please feel free to email me on phillipburton_1@hotmail.com or you can apply directly to the Executive Director, Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai, by sending a covering letter and CV to emmanuela@sfdi-sl.org.
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Three Peaks Challenge
09 December 2010
A team of intrepid souls from Boyes Turner are currently hard in training for next year's 3 Peaks Challenge. The four of them will be scrambling up a daunting three UK mountains over a 24 hour period. And they're looking for teams to join them.
A mountain yesterday. Luckily for Boyes Turner - not in the UK
In total the challenge involves over 11,000 feet of climbing and over 20 miles of walking, covering Ben Nevis, Scafell Park and Snowdon - so there should be some pretty impressive scenery to take in on the way. And for all those thinking that it's too parky to even consider a slow amble in the park at the moment, don't worry, it's not until 15/16 June 2011 when the weather should be much more clement.
All money raised will go to
Debbie Fund, a charity to find a cure for cervical
cancer. So if you can rustle up a team of four, fancy working off some of those extra Christmas pounds and can commit to raising a minimum of £5,000 - why not sign up? Hurry though, the deadline for places is 31 December 2010.
Contact Rachel Duncan at Boyes Turner (
rduncan@boyesturner.com) to find out more.
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