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16 Charity & CSR Law Firm takes on Charity Challenges Kuits organise quest fundraiser for charity Commercial law firm Kuits has raised money for its nominated charity, Wood Street Mission, by completing an interactive quest around Manchester city centre. Altrincham-based Jefferies Solicitors has once again raised a significant amount of money for charity – this time by conquering the Three Peaks challenge and Race for Life’s Pretty Muddy. In what has turned out to be a bumper month for charity donations, Jefferies Solicitors raised nearly £1,500 in June for the Children’s Adventure Farm Trust (CAFT) and Cancer Research. Solicitor Michael Mawdsley took part in the National Three Peak challenge, scaling the UK’s highest mountains, Ben Nevis (1,344m), Snowdon (1,085m) and Scafell Pike (978m) in under 24 hours. To round off the charitable success, an eight-strong team, led by director Nina Ramsden, tackled Race for Life’s Pretty Muddy at Tatton Park in Knutsford. Joining thousands of women dressed in pink from across the North West, the group ran the 5km obstacle race for Cancer Research. Nina Ramsden comments: “At 10,000ft altogether, taking part in the Three Peak challenge is no mean feat. Michael did a great job completing this in 22 hours 50 minutes and raising £1,000 for CAFT – our chosen charity at Jefferies Solicitors. “Following on from our running success last year, we once again took part in Pretty Muddy to show our commitment to Cancer Research. We’re proud to get involved in such a worthwhile charity – it’s one that remains close to our hearts.” CAFT was established in 1985 by Founding Patron Tim Grundy. It is based in the grounds of a beautiful 17th Century Farmhouse in Millington, Cheshire and offers free adventure breaks and activities to children who are disadvantaged by illness, disability and poverty. For more information on CAFT, visit www.caft.co.uk SJB Sportspersons’ Dinner for Headway St John’s Buildings are holding a charity Sportspersons’ Dinner on Friday 18 November at Hotel Football, overlooking Old Trafford and the city of Manchester. The event is being held as part of our year of fundraising for Headway, the charity that works to improve life after brain injury. The Sportspersons’ dinner will be a light-hearted evening of sports-related stories and humour. Guests will enjoy a 3-course meal, an auction of sports memorabilia and will hear from our special guest speaker, John Hartson, formerly of Arsenal, West Ham, Celtic and Wales, who will share some stories from his playing days and his insight into the modern game. The evening will also include a stand-up comedy act by Debra-Jane Appleby. The Sportspersons' dinner is open to all, so please join us to support this excellent cause. Tickets cost £80 each. Please visit http://stjohnsbuildings.com/news/sjb-football-law-conference-sportspersons-dinner to find out more and book your place. The fundraiser saw over forty team members brave the Manchester rain to complete a series of tasks that included taking the biggest group selfie and solving riddles dotted in several locations around the city. The eight teams were also tasked with spelling out ‘Kuits’ in the most imaginative way possible using Manchester scenery. While on their search, staff were encouraged to send photos of completed missions back to event coordinators at the firm’s offices at Blackfriars House. Samantha Lawson, a secretary for the Kuits’ licensing team and member of the firm’s Community Involvement Team (CIT), commented: “A couple of CIT members compiled a slideshow of all of the images as they came in, which was very entertaining – one team even bumped into Girona FC and managed to take a group selfie with the squad! “We judged each task on entertainment value and the levels of creativity that went into the photos, before giving points to the best ones in each category.” Laughs for cash: JMW Solicitors gears up for 2nd fundraising comedy dinner Last year, I was delighted to have been involved with a fundraising dinner JMW Solicitors put on, to raise funds for the Child Brain Injury Trust. The dinner, a black tie comedy night, saw just under 200 from Manchester’s legal and professional services sector enjoy some fantastic comic turns and sparkling company, raising a staggering £20,617.05 for the Child Brain Injury Trust. I’m delighted to say that we’re holding the second annual comedy dinner this year, returning to the Victoria and Albert Manchester Marriott. The dinner is set to take place on 29th September and once again, it will be a black tie affair, with the goal of raising as much money as possible for this very worthy cause. We’re also pleased to say Sarah Evans, marketing manager and fellow CIT member, added: “My favourite task given to the teams was to perform a random act of kindness. Staff bought food for the homeless, coffees for construction workers and donated their umbrellas to passers-by, which just added to the charitable nature of the event.” Teams were given an hour to complete the tasks before heading back to the office for a prize-giving ceremony. The firm raised a total of £210 for Wood Street Mission, which provides help to children and families living in Manchester and Salford that Kings Chambers continues to support the event as a headline sponsor, providing welcome drinks and wine on the table. The Child Brain Injury Trust is a vital service and a wonderful cause, which is why we’re proud to support them through this event and others. Every penny raised at this event will go directly to supporting their work in our region. At current, that involves working with 180 families who are all in need of care, love and hope in their darkest hours. Not only are we supporting this wonderful charity in September, we’re also organising a black tie dinner with a dancing theme to raise funds for Headway Preston and Chorley. Another great cause, and I look forward to sharing more information about this event with you in the coming months. Group selfie with Girona FC with everyday items most people take for granted. Steve Eccleston, Managing Partner for Kuits, said: “Getting together outside of the office environment is an important aspect of our culture and something that we like to organise frequently to promote team-building. We also encourage our people to play an active role in helping the Manchester community, so the two often go hand-in-hand. “The feedback we’ve had from everyone that took part has been positive, so I’m sure it will become a regular fixture on our charity events list.” If you’re interested in learning more about either event and buying a table, you can get in touch with my colleague Danielle on danielle.gibson@jmw.co.uk who is handling bookings and will be happy to provide you with details of our gold and standard packages. We look forward to seeing you there! Gordon Cartwright JMW Solicitors
Charity & CSR 17 BPP Pro Bono Centre – Calais Migrant Camp If you google “Calais migrants” you don’t discover much about the men and women in the Calais camps. You learn that the Calais mayor wants the camps moved to the UK in the light of Brexit. You learn too that French riot police released tear gas into the camps recently, after violence broke out. As lawyers engaged in pro bono projects we look behind headlines and are keen to find ways for our pro bono projects to help the most vulnerable. We were therefore particularly struck by the following headline: “Right now, around 5000 refugees from war-torn and politically unstable countries remain 20 miles from the coast of Dover.” Care4Calais 5000 refugees. All living in terrible conditions with little access to water, food or sanitation. We wanted to know more about the personal stories of the refugees. What makes a 19 year old boy leave his family in the Sudan to make a perilous trip across the continent and through Europe to the Northern borders of France? What makes an 11 year old boy feel safer in a camp on the outskirts of Calais than in the embrace of his family in his home country, Afghanistan? What do they know of the laws that might allow them, or in fact block them, from building a new life on our continent? The Pro Bono Centre team The BPP Pro Bono Centre is part of BPP University Law School. As a team, we run around 30 projects nationwide aimed at improving access to justice in the community by engaging law students to deliver free legal advice and education under supervision. In Manchester and Liverpool the team is headed up by me, Lucy Wildig, Pro Bono Manager, and Rachael Kirkup, Pro Bono Coordinator, both formally of Brabners LLP. The wider team won the 2016 BPP Staff Corporate Social Responsibility Award for their Soup Kitchen project (through which students and staff volunteer at a homeless shelter in London) receiving a financial award of £2,000 to spend on a team treat. Fundraising Once committed to visiting Calais, we started to raise funds for items identified by the charities working there as being much needed. In total we raised over £1150 prior to our visit. We took items such as shoes with us and much needed trousers for 12-14 year olds. Our first stop of the day was to deliver the items to a warehouse of the French charity, the Auberge des Migrants. This charity aims to offer basic food, essential clothing and assistance with other basic needs such as shelter. They have a huge warehouse near the camp and long-term and short-term volunteers were all around the warehouse on our arrival. One of the volunteers was almost in tears on receiving our donated size 42 shoes as there was a long list of camp inhabitants in need of them and Tuesday (the day of our visit) was “shoes day!” Volunteering with Care4Calais Following our trip to Auberge, we then moved on to assist a charity called Care4Calais. This was founded by a group of UK volunteers and aims to help any refugees fleeing war, poverty or natural disaster with basic needs and some quality of life. Care4Calais is self-funded and is currently seeking charitable status in the UK. The pro bono team signed up for moving tents to clear space for the “delivery from Glastonbury” and for loading the mini bus full of cleaning items for the camp to be transferred to the Auberge des Migrants for distribution (it was refreshing to see such collaboration of efforts between these independent organisations). We then took part in warehouse tidy up, emptying donation bags and sorting as best we could. Our entire team embraced the task at hand with some really honing their warehouse credentials by operating the warehouse pallet jack! After lunch the team volunteered for a variety of tasks with roughly half aiding with the distribution of food parcels and of clothing items and half teaching English to the camp inhabitants. Inside the Camp The first thing you feel when driving in – a different world but just a few hours from home. It is immediately striking that you 15can’t see the end of the rows of tents and that there are very few women or very young children around. The pictures you don’t see much of in our media are of the inhabitants trying to create a sense of place, home and community. There are little cafes and kitchens set up in makeshift huts, places that we are told are often full outside of Ramadan. It is however evident that this is no luxury campsite. There is little provision for basic needs and shelter varies from tents to small shacks constructed from whatever materials were to hand. Some were sturdier than others with tarpaulins and roofing structures, whereas others used blankets to keep out the sun and rain. There were also some porta cabins. These house 12 people. To access these, they must comply with some rules including scanning your hand. Many of the refugees are nervous about this because of the Eurodac system and therefore don’t enter. We are told that roughly 20% of the inhabitants want to reach the UK and so don’t risk creating obstacles by complying with the porta cabin requirements. This leaves them susceptible to the terrible conditions on camp. Cold, wet, damp conditions day in, day out. The men varied in age and all had made perilous journeys to reach Calais. One 19 year old told us that in Sudan he was not safe. His father, aged 52, felt this young boy had no choice but to leave the family to seek shelter with an uncle in the UK. He is trying to reach him. Care4Calais have clearly developed great relationships with people in the camp and those who chanced their luck by pushing in tended to be well known to them from previous distributions. How do you deal with a situation like this? Pretty much the same way as such incidents are handled anywhere. The others tut and everyone ignores the person pushing in until they realise it is faster to join the back. Those of us actually inside the container were organising the ‘stock’ or offering our comments on the jumpers. The queue was well over a hundred people and it was surprising how similar the operation ran to a normal shop; some were dissatisfied with the colour or fit of the jumpers and some changed their mind afterwards and wanted to have a replacement! After the clothes, we returned to the van and began food distribution. We were initially in contact with a guide from the camp and the plan was to work in pairs and deliver packages to specific people known to be in need. The immediate problem we faced was that, in reality, every person in the camp is in need. Everybody there is hungry and everybody needed the packages. As word spread that we were delivering food, it became progressively harder to return to the van to collect more, and impossible to explain that “no, you cannot have this food”. Instead we had to arrange another queue and handed out food to as many people as would could before it ran out. Regardless of the views you might hold on where people in the camps should be, it is impossible not to be charmed and stunned in equal measure as the told their stories. One young man had fractured his leg and skull after jumping from a lorry having realised it was heading in the wrong direction. Apparently, this was nothing compared to his friend who, thinking he had made it to England, found that he was in fact in a lorry and surrounded by Belgian police, and was duly deported to Italy. It became clear that they don’t find the camp to be as horrifying as the places from which they have fled. Some of the residents we met matter of factly told us of their days spent queuing (without knowing what aid, if anything, would be delivered to their area that day) and sleeping, before re-attempting to board lorries to the UK for 5 – 6 hours each night (despite some having been recently tear-gassed and others still carrying the physical scars from previous failed attempts). What impossible situations had they fled from – leaving jobs, homes and family precious to them behind – to push them to this unforgiving daily routine? One of the long term aid workers I spoke to was delighted that a young male had selected a bright yellow hoody during our distribution rather than a black hoody that would provide the ‘cloak of darkness’. I asked why. “It means that – at least for tonight – he won’t be risking his life to climb aboard a vehicle heading for the UK”. Legal projects going forward We were fortunate enough to meet with a volunteer in the Legal Centre on camp. Through a very productive meeting we identified three areas where BPP students and fellow pro bono providers can assist 1. Information There are 8000 inhabitants and very minimal volunteer resources to provide simple, useful information on the legal and other options available to the camp inhabitants. Our students will work on preparing posters in the languages of the inhabitants setting out some clear information. The most common languages are Arabic, Pashto, Farsi, Dari and Tigrinya. 2. Training There are a number of incredible volunteers based in Calais helping long-term to assist with the distribution of goods, basic English lessons and more. Few know anything at all about immigration law and asylum law. We’ve agreed to prepare online training for all charities based in Calais to provide access for their volunteers so that they understand the basics. We will also provide ad hoc training in person in the UK where required. 3. Volunteer recruitment We will prepare a job description for legal student volunteers to help in the Legal Shelter in Calais. This will include details on the requirements for the post, information about the Legal Shelter and rules for volunteering. We will also provide training on the relevant laws to the students at BPP. We are also able to seek further pro bono assistance for example with gaining charitable status, governance and more either alone or with our pro bono partners. Manchester and Liverpool’s Pro Bono Centre are always looking to forge new partnerships with Law Firms across the North West, for a variety of different projects and initiatives. If you would like to get involved, or simply have a chat to discover how you could, as a firm, work with us, please don’t hesitate to contact me at LucyWildig@bpp.com
Page 1 and 2: September 2016 October 09 1 North W
Page 3 and 4: Contents 3 North West Law September
Page 5 and 6: 5 President’s Column 5 From the P
Page 7 and 8: Regulatory Affairs Committee Update
Page 9 and 10: OUR NEW 4 th Edition PACK Market le
Page 11 and 12: Kuits welcomes local students to it
Page 15: Talking Heads 15 Talking Heads This
Page 19 and 20: Local News MTSG News Thank You As t
Page 21 and 22: Christmas Party Feature 21 Christma
Page 23 and 24: Christmas Party Feature 23 DON’T
Page 25 and 26: Managed IT Services Managed IT Serv
Page 27 and 28: We have added a number of new benet
Page 29 and 30: October 09 The W rld according to F
Page 31 and 32: ‘We promote a friendly and profes

MM September 2016

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