As legal aid comes under the strain of budget cuts, pro bono work by commercial law firms is helping paper over some of the cracks, playing a critical role in helping to close the justice gap
It’s a scene far removed from Canary Wharf. In the offices of a small legal aid firm in Acton, two young children are playing at a desk with some dog-eared magazines while their dad talks to a lawyer. Their mother died last year and their Ghanaian father is living illegally in the UK. They’re homeless and living out of a suitcase in a B&B.After 40 minutes, several phone calls and lots of questions, the young lawyer talks the man through the options: either his children get taken into care or the family gets sent back to Ghana. ‘I’m afraid there is nothing more we can do. I’m really sorry,’ she says.
