Arthur Cox Pro Bono Update
Providing high-quality legal services to those without the means to pay has long been a part of the culture at Arthur Cox and part of our commitment to give back to the communities where we live and work. Our pro bono practice reflects the firm’s values and deeply held belief that as legal professionals we have a duty to give back and help those most in need access justice. We partner with NGOs, charities and independent law centres who deliver frontline legal services to the most vulnerable people in the community. A sample of our pro bono initiatives include:
Immigration Law
Arthur Cox is proud to partner with the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) on a number of pro bono projects. Over the last nine years we have worked together to provide legal assistance to people from migrant backgrounds, helping to improve and protect their rights. Together we collaborate with international NGO Kids in Need of Defence to represent unaccompanied refugee minors in their applications for family reunification.
A young refugee who Arthur Cox assisted with a family reunification application shared the following statement:
“I will forever be grateful for the assistance I received from the Arthur Cox lawyers in relation to my family reunification application…I am so glad to be living with my parents again. I’m 21 years old so this is perhaps an unusual reaction but, it has been seven years since I last had the chance!”
Our collaboration with the ICI expanded significantly over the last year to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. We represent Afghan families in their applications for discretionary visas, family reunification and visa applications through the Afghanistan Assistance Programme.
Arthur Cox Legal Education Project
The Arthur Cox Legal Education Project provides young people attending DEIS schools with an interactive five week legal project. The aim of this project is to help students gain access to legal information and build their confidence in dealing with everyday matters.
This training is delivered over five weeks through five one-hour modules and is conducted in person and via live webinar. This project helps young people recognise when they may need legal support and advice and increases their understanding of the legal resources available to them. Legal education plays a key role in helping students to better understand everyday life issues, making better decisions and anticipating and avoiding problems.
Paul Ryder, Principal of Ringsend Community College commented:
“The impact of the project on our students was immensely positive and has helped us in the implementation of our school’s vision to create and develop opportunities for our students that influence their belief in themselves and their career and educational progressions.”
Amicus
Through our partnership with Amicus, Arthur Cox is part of a global team that provides legal support to ongoing death penalty projects in the United States. Arthur Cox lawyers support projects that can help to provide better access to justice and raise awareness of potential abuses of the rights of defendants who are currently on death row. To date over 150 Arthur Cox lawyers have completed over 4000 hours reviewing thousands of legal documents to help death-sentenced people access justice. At the core of the Arthur Cox pro bono culture is a commitment to ensuring access to justice for all and our partnership with Amicus has been a powerful means of delivering on this objective.
Arthur Cox is committed to further developing our pro bono practice. We collaborate with law firms, in-house counsel, our colleagues at the Bar and NGOs to achieve the greatest impact in our pro bono work. Arthur Cox is a sustaining partner of the Public Interest law Alliance and a founding signatory of the Pro Bono Pledge Ireland. These essential initiatives provide opportunities to harness our collective efforts to strengthen access to justice in Ireland.