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Benefits for volunteering for the Free Representation Unit (FRU)
Benefits for volunteering for the Free Representation Unit (FRU)
David Abbott is CEO at the FRU, a small charity offering representation in employment, social security and criminal injuries compensation tribunals. FRU volunteers range from law students to experienced solicitors and barristers.
Ilast wrote for the Central London Lawyer in 2022. I’m really pleased to have the chance to talk about the value of pro bono work again. The great thing about legal pro bono work is that it brings benefits for the client and the lawyer. The following two case studies illustrate this really well.
Case study one – Charlie’s experience
Charlie Ryan is a General Counsel and Strategy Consultant at a boutique aviation and defence consultancy company. He previously worked inhouse and at three different City law firms. He is +15 years PQE.
This is Charlie’s experience: “For three months I had the privilege to volunteer at the Free Representation Unit (FRU) where I represented a claimant in relation to their unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal claim against a major UK employer. This was the first time I practised in and advised on employment law.
There were various reasons as to why I chose to apply to be a FRU volunteer. Firstly, I had always wanted to apply my legal skills in a pro-bono context where I could be strongly committed and invested in a particular cause / case / person. During my training-contract I volunteered at walk-in pro-bono clinics, and whilst I really enjoyed those experiences, for me the fact that volunteer solicitors rarely assisted a client beyond one or two interactions meant that I felt that I did not have the opportunity to truly commit to or invest in a client and their particular issue – in contrast to volunteering at the FRU. Secondly, I wanted to learn a new area of law and an area of law which is more relevant to people (vs. corporates / corporate law – being my ‘normal’ area of practice). There comes a point in many legal careers where the learning curve can (and often does) plateau, where one knows instinctively the broad answer to most legal issues which land on your desk / in your in-box. Whilst this ability, derived as a consequence of years of experience, makes one a valuable lawyer, it means that one’s exposure to learning new skills and new areas of law is diminished. Thirdly, linked to the previous point, I thought that this would be an extremely valuable legal training experience.
I was assigned my first FRU employment case, the client had a claim of unfair dismissal against a major UK employer. I was under no illusion that I was about to experience a near-vertical learning curve within a compressed timeline: the hearing at the Employment Tribunal was listed as two months away – there was no time to lose!
There were some quite exciting points during the case, at one point we amended the client’s claim to add a new claim: a wrongful dismissal claim (which was applied for quite late in the overall process). At another juncture we considered adding a discrimination claim. All of this was within a compressed timeline. A further aspect to the process which I found very interesting was the requirement to consider ‘litigation tactics’ in the context us representing a claimant who was an individual against a respondent who was a huge corporate. Eventually, with only a week to spare before the scheduled hearing date, we assisted our client to reach a settlement with the respondent. The settlement amount which our client received was significantly higher than what had been offered prior to FRU being instructed by the client, and of course this was very pleasing to the client and to all of us at the FRU.
From a legal skills development basis, the experience exceeded my expectations in terms of the number, range and depths of skills which I applied and as a consequence improved upon. Fortunately, throughout this process I had brilliant support from FRU’s legal officers who of course have a wealth of experience and were super fun to work with.
I learnt two completely new areas of employment law (from a starting point of zero previous experience): unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal. I achieved this by reading statute, case law and Halsbury’s Laws. This granular focus on black letter law is something which, as a solicitor with +15 years PQE, I had not done for many years.
As I expected, this experience also developed my client engagement abilities. This was the first time I’d had a client who was an individual (vs. a corporate client). Of course from the client’s perspective there was a very strong emotional dimension to the legal case, and this meant that I had to learn how to communicate to the (individual) client in a way which was materially different to communicating to a corporate client.
I also learnt how to navigate and communicate with the Employment Tribunal i.e. a court. This was also a totally new area to me as I had not previously practised in litigation. This required me to learn how to present written legal arguments in a ‘barrister style’ of language vs. corporate lawyer language –these language styles are quite different. Again, this experience has added to my overall skills as a lawyer.
So in conclusion, my first experience with FRU meant that I re-trained certain core legal skills, I learnt totally new areas of law, I improved my client engagement skills and I expanded my communication abilities. I emerged as a more able lawyer. Apart from anything else, this experience has been the best legal training I’ve had since law school, by some distance.
Finally, on a more personal level, a nice outcome to this all was that the client made a donation to the FRU fund-raising page and mentioned her gratitude to the FRU and to me personally. This was more satisfying to me than almost any other praise I’ve received during my legal career.
I really recommend volunteering at the FRU, and I am already looking forward to my next case and working with FRU colleagues again!”.
Case study two – Tess’s experience
Tess Turner was a trainee solicitor who qualified just as she was undertaking this pro bono case. She now works in construction law for a full service law firm.
Mr J was dismissed for redundancy, and he sought help from FRU in pursuing his unfair dismissal claim against his employer. Tess took on Mr J’s case, providing full case preparation and advocacy at the hearing.
Here is Tess’s account of the way the case went: “Through the evidence gathering process, I noticed that Mr J had a potential further claim of age discrimination. As this was already alluded to in Mr J’s claim form, the client did not need to formally amend his claim. I successfully clarified Mr J’s claim to include age discrimination at the final hearing.
Throughout the progression of the case, I contacted the respondent to provide case updates and try to achieve a settlement outside of the tribunal. The respondent made no contact throughout the entire process and did not show up at the final hearing. The Employment Tribunal had also been largely unresponsive and cancelled the preliminary hearing on the day it was scheduled to take place, stating that it had been scheduled in error.
Despite these difficulties, I continued to pursue the client’s best interests and prepare all statements of case and supporting documents by the deadlines stipulated by the tribunal. At the final hearing, and due to the preparation and advocacy provided by FRU, Mr J successfully proved that he had been unfairly dismissed by reason of redundancy and had been discriminated against because of his age. He secured almost £27,000 in compensation.
Mr J pursued the judgment sum from the respondent, but they continued to not engage. I therefore advised Mr J how to enforce the sum through the High Court enforcement process. He later received the sum in full from the respondent.
I found this experience incredibly helpful during my training contract. FRU gives volunteers the unique opportunity to run a case from start to finish and manage the process throughout, under the supervision of a legal advisor. I found that this experience hugely increased my confidence with case preparation and advocacy and reaffirmed my passion to become a lawyer”.
As the CEO of the Free Representation Unit I must admit to being biased. There are many forms of legal pro bono, but I think that working with FRU is amongst the most rewarding. Our clients can’t afford a lawyer, and the prospect of representing themselves against their former boss is pretty terrifying. The stories above illustrate just what a difference pro bono work can make to a litigant in person, and crucially just what lawyers gain from the experience.
To volunteer with the FRU please see more information at https:// www.thefru.org.uk/volunteers and email admin@thefru.org.uk.
