Bird & Bird set up a rota with the SWLAC whereby solicitors and trainees could volunteer at the Centre one evening each week. The Centre is located near Victoria Station and provides free legal advice on a drop in basis in areas such as housing, employment, consumer rights, etc to those who cannot otherwise afford legal services.
A Bird & Bird colleague volunteered on the panel of the Prince's Youth Business Trust (PYBT). This is a subsection of The Prince's Trust that give loans and grants to young people with a talent and good business idea etc who would like to start their own business but do not have the cash or resources to get started due to misfortune, disability, disadvantaged background, past offender/ex drug addict etc or in other circumstances where other funding or personal finances are not a possibility. The PYBT panel volunteers review their business cases, conduct interviews with the candidates, make recommendations and award the grants/loans etc and in our colleague’s case, gave free legal advice as well where required. They also acted as a mentor to certain businesses on an ongoing basis.
Oxfam International is a confederation of 12 organisations working together in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty suffering and injustice. Bird & Bird has worked with their in-house legal team, providing advice on a wide range of IP issues.
OwnIt was set up as part of the University of the Arts to help graduates in the creative arts avoid being taken advantage of as they venture into exploiting their IP for commercial purposes. Members of the Bird & Bird IP department attended clinics every six weeks to advise on issues facing individuals, and occasionally gave presentations at their seminars.
