If you are organising an event whether online or in person, please visit the event planning page or let Mary Dobson Smith know at mary@probonoweek.org.uk
Check out our event ideas and tips page for suggestions of what to do and to see the full list of all events that took place in previous years.
- This event has passed.
Plugged in Pro Bono: innovation, law tech & Pro Bono in Wales – Legal News Wales, Swansea Law Clinic & Legal Innovation Lab Wales
November 3, 2021 @ 3:30 pm - 4:50 pm
An online event celebrating Pro Bono Week 2021, to highlight an exciting innovation & LawTech project in Wales that aims to connect local communities with accessible legal advice.
Join Legal News Wales, Swansea Law Clinic, (based in the Hilary Rodham School of Law at Swansea University), the Legal Innovation Lab Wales (LILW) and other speakers to see how the work of a free legal advice clinic in Wales is being used as the basis to measure the use of LawTech and innovation in the legal sector, to enhance and enable access to justice.
In September 2021, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) announced it had appointed Swansea Law Clinic and the LILW as the Welsh partners for research after the regulator was awarded funding through the UK government’s Regulators Pioneer Fund (RPF).
The award of £167,856 from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will be used to create a new network where regulators, expert research institutions and local government can work together to improve legal access within local communities. They aim to do this by supporting, testing and promoting new and emerging legal technology.
Through this project, the researchers aim to better understand how technology can address the challenges encountered by under-represented and vulnerable communities in accessing legal advice – specifically in the Swansea Bay area, a region supported by Swansea Law Clinic.
We’ll be joined by the project leads in Wales, and other speakers (TBA) at this free, online event to provide:
- Insight on the six-month project: why Pro Bono has taken centre stage in the research
- The scope of the research: the communities involved, the free legal advice they might receive and the current challenges
- Current observations & reflections of the project to date
- Hope for the impact of the project on how LawTech could further support the provision of Pro Bono and accessible legal services in Wales and in England
Speakers
- Stefano Barazza, Academic Lead at the Legal Innovation Lab Wales
- Professor Richard Owen, Hilary Rodham School of Law, Swansea University
- Liz Withers, Head of Welsh Affairs, the Solicitors Regulation Authority
Chaired by: Emma Waddingham, Editor, Legal News Wales & member of the Reaching Justice Wales committee.