I welcome the comments of Graeme Hydari in his letter last week (The Lawyer, 12 August 1997). The formation of the Solicitors Pro Bono Group at the end of last year and the progress made since in turning it into a reality from next month are good news for all of us.
I have been delighted by the response of the large firms to whom we turned for initial core funding and I am grateful to them for their help without which the group would still be an unrealised idea. For the first time, solicitors will have a properly funded, full-time body dedicated to pro-bono work across all kinds of practice in England and Wales.
One of the tasks of our new director, Peta Sweet, when she takes up her post next month, is to find out more about the work carried out by practitioners such as Graeme Hydari and many others. In this way, we hope to learn lessons which could be used elsewhere, especially in working with local law authorities.
The whole profession should be proud of those endeavours.
Tony Willis,
Chairman,
Solicitors Pro Bono Group
