Young lawyers line-up for pro bono awards

The Young Solicitors Group (YSG) last night honoured lawyers who give up time to help their communities.

Coinciding Monday’s (7 June) launch of National Pro Bono Week, the YSG 2004 Pro Bono Awards, presented by the Master of the Rolls Lord Philips of Worth Maltravers, saw 11 individuals and four teams in the finals.

Clare Norriss, a lawyer with Beachcroft Wansbroughs won the Large Firm Award, as well as the City of London and the City of Westminster and Holborn Law Societies’ ‘Wig & Pen Prize’.

Norriss is a member of the Wandsworth & Merton Law Centre’s Management Committee, in addition to providing legal help to deaf people and studying sign language in her spare time.

Lorna Rimell, a housing lawyer at Belshaw Curtin, won the Small Firm Award, whilst Travers Smith Braithwaite’s Martin Hyde, a litigation lawyer, took the prize for a medium-sized firm.

Linklaters’ Hackney Legal Connections Team scooped the team trophy for their extensive work in the borough providing advice and legal seminars.

Regional awards were also presented. The winners, from London, the East, the North and the South-West respectively, were Norton Rose’s Gemma Garner, Sara Stabler from Taylor Vinters, Helen Chung of Irwin Mitchell and Thring Townsend’s Graeme Chisholm.