The generosity of lawyers was on full display at The Lawyer Awards, in association with Travelers, earlier this week, with donations raising £48,000 for the Free Representation Unit (FRU).
Hosted by Dara Ó Briain, the awards were held as an online ceremony this year, with Keystone named Law Firm of the Year.
The FRU is The Lawyer’s charity partner this year, and one of the profession’s most worthy organisations. Run entirely by volunteers, mainly junior lawyers and law students, it provides representation in social security and employment tribunals for those people who cannot afford a lawyer but who do not qualify for legal aid.
It is reliant on donations for its survival and FRU’s CEO David Abbott said that the generous contributions from lawyers “have already kept us afloat in 2020.”
The challenges for the charity will only continue. “As we go into 2021 hundreds of thousands of people have been brought into the tribunal system as a result of Covid-19. A tsunami of work is coming our way,” Abbott said.
