2026 Wig & Pen Prize for pro bono legal work awarded to Anastasia Rasch-Murphy
Anastasia Rasch-Murphy, formerly of Sidley Austin LLP, has been awarded the 2026 Wig & Pen Prize in recognition of her exceptional commitment to pro bono legal work and her contribution to improving access to justice for members of the British Armed Forces and veterans.
At Sidley Austin LLP, Anastasia helped spearhead a pro bono initiative with the Royal British Legion (RBL) supporting applicants to the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS), which compensates UK service personnel and veterans for injuries, illnesses or deaths caused by service. She and her colleagues identified a gap in the process: claims can fail on a technicality or an incorrectly completed form rather than genuine ineligibility. Working with the RBL, they built a service that genuinely supports applicants from the outset.
Anastasia wrote the handbook now used by Sidley lawyers on the project, having read every relevant statute and tribunal decision. The first of ten RBL referrals arrived in July 2025, and 27 lawyers in the London office have since been involved. Her nomination highlighted a complex claim in which she reviewed 150 medical records and comparable tribunal cases to argue that a veteran with almost 30 years’ service could claim for arthritis triggered by an injury sustained outside the AFCS limitation period.
Between June 2025 and May 2026 she completed 371 pro bono hours, 115 of them on the RBL project, and also acted as a pro bono advocate in the family court through Sidley’s Free Family Representation and Advocacy Project.
The work is personal to Anastasia. She believes that her father, a war veteran who passed away during her traineeship, would have loved the project’s focus on aiding past and present members of the British Armed Forces with applying for the help and compensation they need, where they may have lacked the support to do so before.
Commenting on the award, Anastasia Rasch-Murphy said, “It has been a great privilege for me to assist soldiers and veterans through Sidley’s partnership with the Royal British Legion. Service personnel carry the burden of their duty during and after their time in service, and the process of making a claim under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme can be complex and daunting to face without proper support. I am deeply grateful to receive the Wig & Pen prize. It reflects the dedication of everyone involved in the partnership between Sidley and the Royal British Legion, and I want to thank both my colleagues and the Royal British Legion team for their close support.”
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NOTES TO EDITORS
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