Welsh Solicitor Wins Top Law Society Award
By admin
Issued on behalf of Darwin Gray Solicitors
A young Welsh solicitor has won a top UK award for her voluntary work in the community.
Fflur Jones, of Cardiff-based commercial law firm Darwin Gray Solicitors, won the Law Society’s Young Lawyer Pro Bono Award for small firms at a ceremony in London on Wednesday night.
31-year-old Fflur, originally from Llanuwchllyn, near Bala in Gwynedd, won the award for her work with the Welsh charity Asylum Justice which provides legal advice for asylum seekers based in Newport, Cardiff and Swansea as they make claims and appeals for asylum.
Fflur provides free advice in her own time – usually in the evening – while by day she works on employment issues and commercial litigation work for some of Wales’s leading businesses, major organisations and private clients.
“The current rules mean that unless a solicitor believes an asylum claim has a better than 50% chance of succeeding at Tribunal they can not access Legal Aid to take on the claim. This often leaves the asylum seeker with no access to the justice system,” said Fflur.
“I hope this award goes some way to highlighting the problem asylum seekers face.
“Darwin Gray is always very supportive of any pro bono work done outside of the commercial business and several solicitors in the practice give a substantial amount of their own time to help a variety of community needs.”
Darwin Gray founding partner Bethan Darwin said, “I’m delighted that Fflur’s won such a major accolade for the work she’s put in.
“Darwin Gray is a very busy and successful commercial law firm and while we try to provide our clients with a service that is second to none, we realise we are in a position to do more. The pro bono work undertaken by some of legal team here is an effective way of giving something of value back to the communities we are all part of.”
As well as her work with Asylum Justice, Fflur also does voluntary work at Cardiff Law Centre’s employment clinic, along with Bethan Darwin and employment lawyer Eleanor Williams.
Eleanor, a specialist in discrimination law, also provides pro bono work for the Royal Association of Disability and Rehabilitation, Cardiff Equalities Group and Wales Disability Reference Group, as well as working with the children’s charity Barnardo’s.
And Darwin Gray’s other founding partner Donald Gray, a specialist in commercial property, construction and environmental law, also provides commercial property advice for South Wales charity Valleys Kids.
