At Mallesons Stephen Jaques, serving the community is a central part of the practice of law. Currently, the firm assists a wide range of not-for-profit and charitable community organisations, as well as individuals in need, including the Aboriginal Legal Service, the Downing Centre Duty Solicitor Scheme, Opportunity International Australia, the 6th International Congress on HIV/AIDS in Asia & the Pacific, the Abused Child Trust, the Australian Council for Overseas Aid and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

This month, the chief executive partner at Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Mr Tony D’Aloisio, has officially unveilled the firm’s new Mallesons Stephen Jaques in the Community program - a four-pronged, multi-level strategy which aims to target two specific areas of need: people living in poverty, and children and youth. Pro bono legal work is one of these strategies.

“Performing free legal work for the needy and disadvantaged in our community is an essential component of fulfilling our professional responsibility,” he says.

Mallesons Stephen Jaques’ pro bono activities occur within a strong internal firm structure which ensures that the firm’s pro bono work is an essential component of it fulfilling its professional duty. The key features of this structure include:

• operating Pro Bono Committees in all Mallesons Stephen Jaques centres across Australia;
• applying national guidelines for initiating and approving pro bono matters;
• maintaining registers of legal staff in each centre who wish to be involved in pro bono work;
• ensuring that in performance and salary reviews, salaries who work on approved pro bono matters are credited at full billable time for their work;
• recognising the firm’s pro bono work through a monthly publication, Pro Bono Story; and
• coordinating the firm’s pro bono program at a national level.

The two “target areas of need” chosen by the firm were arrived at after lengthy consultation and surveying of the firm’s staff across all of its centres Australia-wide. On average, the incomes of poor Australians are 43 percent below the poverty line: 40 percent of all Australians live on household incomes of less than $21,000 a year. Poverty is particularly acute among children and youth. An estimated 732,000 (or 14.9 percent) of dependent Australian children live in poverty.

While pro bono legal work is a key part of Mallesons’ community program, it is supplemented by three other important strategies. These include the firm’s Volunteering program, which provides all legal, shared services and support staff the opportunity to give hands-on help to community not-for-profit organisations by taking paid volunteer leave. The program also enables Mallesons Stephen Jaques to provide charities and other pro bono clients with non-legal assistance, such as secretarial and technology services, free of charge. This is one way in which Mallesons Stephen Jaques can provide multi-level support (ie support consisting of both legal and non-legal assistance) to the needy in the community.

Another key platform of the firm’s community program is its Workplace Giving strategy. Over the past year, Mallesons Stephen Jaques has raised money in order to financially assist a wide range of community organisations, including the AIDS Trust of Australia, the Sydney Royal Children’s Hospital, the National Breast Cancer Foundation and the World Society for the Protection of Animals. The firm has matched, dollar for dollar up to a capped amount, employees’ donations, while its National and Local Charities Committees are working hard to develop a range of other charitable programs and initiatives for implementation over the upcoming months.

The final component of Mallesons Stephen Jaques’ community program is its Community Partnerships - key relationships it is forming with charities working with people living in poverty and children and youth. The Community Partnerships allow for supportive relationships to be fostered between the firm and its Community Partners, allowing Mallesons Stephen Jaques to provide multi-level assistance in the form of pro bono legal work, volunteering and financial support. Mr D’Aloisio was pleased to announce National Community Partnerships with Australian Red Cross and The Smith Family.

“Through our National Community Partnerships program we are working with organisations to help alleviate poverty, improve community welfare, and help children and young people at risk,” explains Mr Rowan Russell, partner and head of Mallesons Stephen Jaques’ National Pro Bono Committee. “In an institutional way we are providing community support and expanding the opportunities of our people to give, which encompasses shared services and support staff.

“We are proud of the ongoing contribution we make to the community. Our contribution is a natural and central part of our professional responsibilities. The vision for our involvement in the community is to continue the firm’s support for needy members of our community and for the various organisations that assist them,” Mr D’Aloisio concluded.