London Legal Support Trust Walk

The walk raised a record £310,000.  Bob Nightingale who organised the walk said:

“It was brilliant, we raised £100,000 more than the year before. Having doubled the number of walkers every year for four years, I think it’s becoming something of an institution. People know that the voluntary legal sector is dying and the commercial legal profession is turning to help.”

Thirteen London Law Centres joined the walk alongside workers from the Law Centres Federation. South West London Law Centre alone raised £10,000.

Following the walk, a ceremony at The Law Society saw the Trust present cheques to the Mary Ward Legal Centre (£27,000), which provides free advice on debt law, and the Islington Law Centre (£25,000), which provides advice on housing, education employment and consumer law, to combat the “immediate danger” of closure that both centres face.

The Trust was also given a boost by the announcement that Weil Gotshal & Manches will be joining a scheme that raises money from the interest accrued by pooling the firms’ client accounts.

Previously Allen & Overy was the only firm to take part in the idea, raising £75,000 a year through the scheme.

“The need is immense – the gap between what legal aid achieves and what is needed is huge, so regular money is important. But the walk was a brilliant demonstration of support by the commercial sector,” Nightingale said.

Elsewhere, the legal teams at Vodafone and the Surrey Law Society held their own walks, turning the sponsored walk into a national event.

The Trust will allocate the remaining funds raises in coming months.

London_Legal_Support_Trust_May_Walk_2008.doc