23 Apr 07

Oxford Pro Bono Publico (OPBP), a group of law post-graduate and Law Faculty members dedicated to the practice of public interest law on a pro bono basis, has won the Attorney General's Pro Bono Award 2007. The award celebrates 'the best pro bono legal activities undertaken by students and law schools, and the positive impact that the activities have had on those helped'.

Oxford Pro Bono Publico is a Law Faculty initiative, which has worked over a number of years on a range of high profile human rights and public interest cases internationally. These include investigation into the legal status of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, research on the treatment of homosexuals in the US military for litigation in the US Federal Court, and the compliance of Zimbabwe's eviction campaign with International Criminal Law.

At the awards ceremony at the House of Lords, the Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith thanked DLA Piper UK LLP for having generously sponsored both the 2006 research study that had identified the nominees and eventual winners, and the awards themselves. He thanked LawWorks, the charity that helps solicitors and law students give their time free of charge in pro bono legal advice, for judging the awards. Lord Goldsmith said it was wonderful to see so many lawyers and law students getting involved in pro bono work, and he hoped that the overall scale of involvement of law students and law schools would increase in this area of work.

Dr Liora Lazarus, a Lecturer in Human Rights Law at the University who is also an adviser to the OPBP, said: 'The award is a testimony to the hard work of the students over the years, as well as that of the academics in the Law Faculty who have given up their time to support the work of the OPBP group as well as to supervise its projects.'