Pro bono organisations

One of the aims of the NPBC is to connect and support organisations that enable or broker pro bono legal help. The pro bono organisations we work with are listed below.

This list is under constant review. If you feel your organisation should be included, please let us know.

Advocates for International Development 

A4ID is a global charity that works in partnership with the world’s leading law firms to provide free access to legal advice for NGOs.

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Access Social Care

Access Social Care provides free legal advice and information for people with social care needs, helping achieve a better quality of life.

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Action Against Medical Accidents (AVMA)

AVMA supports people affected by avoidable harm in healthcare, to help them achieve justice, and to promote better patient safety for all. Legal helpline volunteers provide information and signposting to other sources of support to clients in relation to medical negligence claims.

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Advocate

Advocate is a charity that finds free legal assistance from volunteer barristers for people in need of advice, drafting or representation who cannot afford it.

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APPEAL

APPEAL is a charity and law practice dedicated to fighting miscarriages of justice and demanding reform. It fights the cases of individual victims of unsafe convictions and unfair sentences who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer themselves.

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Asylos 

Asylos is a UK-registered charity that conducts research for asylum claims worldwide. Its aim is to ensure that every refugee has the evidence they need to claim their right to asylum and live in safety.

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Asylum Support Appeals Project

Asylum Support Appeals Project provides asylum-seekers with free legal representation and advice in their asylum support appeals.

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Bail for Immigration Detainees

Bail for Immigration Detainees provides free legal advice, information and representation to thousands of people held in detention across the UK.

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Bar Human Rights Committee

The BHRC is concerned with defending the rule of law and internationally recognised legal standards relating to human rights and the right to a fair trial. It is autonomous of the Bar Council.

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Centre for Military Justice

The Centre for Military Justice provides free, independent, expert legal services to serving or former members of the Armed Forces or their bereaved families.

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Centre for Women’s Justice

The Centre for Women’s Justice brings together specialist lawyers, academics and other experts in the field of violence against women, with those working on the frontline as activists, survivors and service providers to bring strategic law challenges and ensure access to justice for victims of male violence.

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Centrepoint

Centrepoint’s Connect Legal Advice Clinic provides remote legal advice via video link or telephone to  homeless young people across Centrepoint’s UK-wide network. It covers issues ranging from housing, employment, care leaver rights and civil liberties.

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Chancery Bar Association

The CBA runs an on-the-day duty scheme called the Chancery Bar Litigant in Person Support Scheme (CLIPS) in the RCJ Rolls Building to help litigants without representation sort through their papers and appear in court for them that day.

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Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG)

CPAG works on behalf of the more than one in four children in the UK growing up in poverty. Sometimes families experience injustice and CPAG takes pro bono test cases to challenge unjust decisions so that families can get support from the social security system.

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Citizen’s Advice

Citizen’s Advice is network of independent charities offering confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free.

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Coram Children’s Legal Centre

Coram Children’s Legal Centre provides free legal information, advice and representation to children and young people, families, carers and professionals. Family law specialists can volunteer to help on the Child Law Advice helpline.

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Dads House

Dads House runs pro bono family law clinics on Wednesdays and Fridays offering practical and free legal advice to single parents.

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Disability Law Service

The Disability Law Service provides free legal advice on community care, employment, housing and welfare benefits to disabled people and their carers to ensure that they have access to their rights and justice.

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Employment Lawyers Association

The ELA runs the Employment Tribunal Litigants in Person Support Scheme (ELIPS). ELIPS volunteers provide pro bono support in the form of one-off advice in a clinic designed to give help litigants prepare for hearings and comply with case management orders.

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Environmental Law Foundation

The ELF provides free information and guidance in-house on environmental issues for individuals and communities, through university-based law clinics, and a network of specialist environmental lawyers and technical experts.

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European Lawyers in Lesvos

ELIL provides free, independent legal assistance to refugees and asylum seekers in Greece and Poland. Volunteer lawyers assist ELIL’s staff lawyers by providing legal assistance to asylum seekers through in-depth asylum preparations.

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Evolve (FILA)

Evolve is a criminal justice development organisation led by a team of experienced criminal barristers in the UK. It aims to improve access to justice in Uganda, build capacity in the legal profession through education and training and promote fairness, justice and integrity.

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Family Rights Group

The Family Rights Group supports families to understand the law and child welfare processes when social workers or courts are making decisions about their children.

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Free Representation Unit (FRU)

FRU provides representation in social security and employment tribunals to people who are not eligible for legal aid and cannot afford lawyers. All work is done by volunteers, mostly law students and legal professionals in the early stages of their career, trained and supervised by  legal officers.

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Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit

The GMIAU offers free legal immigration advice, representation and support services to people seeking asylum, refugees, children and vulnerable adults to communities in Greater Manchester and Merseyside.

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Hope Projects

Hope Projects ensures that anyone in Birmingham, Coventry or the Black Country made homeless by the asylum system understands why they have been refused and what legal steps they can take.

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Human Dignity Trust

The Human Dignity Trust uses the law to defend the human rights of LGBT people around the world. It works globally to support strategic litigation to challenge laws that persecute people on the basis of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

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Independent Provider of Special Education Advice (IPSEA)

IPSEA offers free and independent legally-based information, advice and support to help get the right education for children and young people with all kinds of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

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Independent Workers Union of Great Britain

The IWGB Legal Department handles hundreds of cases every year to respond to issues that members are facing, from workplace bullying to illegal deduction of wages. The IWGB has also been at the forefront of strategic litigation challenging bogus self-employment, winning rights and backdated pay for gig economy workers.

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INQUEST

INQUEST runs the INQUEST Lawyers Group (ILG); a national pool of lawyers who are willing and able to provide preparation and legal representation for bereaved families. The group provides specialist legal advice to many families going through the inquest process and contributes to  work on coronial reform.

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Islamophobia Response Unit (IRU)

IRU supports people affected by Islamophobic incidents in England and Wales. It provides a platform for victims of Islamophobia to confidentially report their experiences and gives legal guidance, determining what legal recourse may be available to each victim on a case-by-case basis.

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Just for Kids Law

Just for Kids Law provides direct legal representation in relation to both criminal and community care law, to help children and young people navigate their way through challenging times.

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Justice First

The core purpose of Justice First is to respond to the needs of people in the Tees Valley who are seeking asylum in the UK but have had their initial application refused. Justice First works to encourage them to re-engage with the legal process and supports them with advice from qualified specialists in immigration law and with practical help.

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Justice For Tenants

Justice For Tenants provides free advice, support and representation for tenants with all kinds of issues including, evictions, disrepair, and rent repayment orders.

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Kanlungan Filipino Consortium

Kanlungan supports Filipino migrant workers in the UK. It provides advice on employment issues, housing, welfare benefits and immigration.

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Law Centres Network

Law Centres defend the legal rights of people who cannot afford a lawyer. They are specialists working in their local communities to uphold justice and advance equality. Based all over the UK, all Law Centres offer face-to-face legal advice to local residents, and some run a telephone advice line.

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Law for Life / Advicenow

Law for Life is dedicated to ensuring that everyone has the knowledge, confidence and skills they need to secure access to justice. It runs the Advicenow website, containing easy-to-read guidance on many areas of law, and is involved in many other projects including education, training and research.

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LawWorks

LawWorks (the Solicitors Pro Bono Group) enables access to justice through free legal advice. It connects people in need of legal advice with the skills and expertise of lawyers willing to help for free by supporting a network of local independent pro bono clinics. It supports charities and not-for-profit organisations by facilitating free legal advice and providing online information.

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Legal Response International

LRI provides free legal support to poor and particularly climate vulnerable developing countries and civil society observer organisations. It works through a network of lawyers from law firms, barristers’ chambers and universities in different jurisdictions who give hands-on assistance during meetings, draft legal opinions and build the capacity of lawyers and negotiators from developing countries.

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Lewisham Refugee & Migrant Network

LRMN helps people resolve issues around immigration, housing and welfare benefits. Its services are open to people facing destitution, homelessness and have no access to public safety nets.

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Luton Rights Centre

Luton Rights Centre provides free, confidential, impartial, independent expert advice and casework on welfare benefits and tax credits to residents of Luton and the surrounding area.

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Manuel Bravo Project

The Project provides free legal representation to asylum seekers and refugees who cannot get legal aid in the Leeds area. They also provide free immigration advice to everyone through their outreach service.

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Mary Ward Legal Centre

The Mary Ward Legal Centre provides free, independent advice to people who live and work in London to help them access their legal rights and entitlements. They provide free legal advice as part of their pro bono clinic in the areas of employment, housing, small claims, consumer, and family.

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Maternity Action

Maternity Action’s in-house employment lawyers offer completely free and confidential telephone and email advice to pregnant women and new parents on employment rights during pregnancy, maternity pay and benefits, maternity leave and flexible working requests.

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Not Beyond Redemption

Not Beyond Redemption operates by connecting lawyers undertaking pro bono work, with mothers in prison in need of family law advice and representation to re-build and maintain their contact with their children.

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Prisoners’ Advice Service

Prisoners’ Advice Service offers free legal advice and support to adult prisoners throughout England and Wales regarding their human and legal rights, conditions of imprisonment and the application of Prison Law and the Prison Rules.

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Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC)

PRCBC assists a limited number of young persons, who are destitute or are from low income households, with their complex citizenship matters on a pro bono basis through volunteer lawyers.

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Protect

Protect is a legal advice service offering free expert and confidential advice on how best to raise whistleblowing concerns, and the protections available to a whistleblowing employee.

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Qualia Law CIC

Qualia Law is a not-for-profit organisation providing expert safeguarding and financial management support to people who are vulnerable or have lost mental capacity. It provides free, impartial advice and support to families, carers, social care professionals and other third sector organisation

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RCJ Advice

RCJ Advice delivers free legal advice to people with a court case in the civil and family courts in England and Wales. It also provides free legal advice for women survivors of domestic abuse.

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Refugee Action

Refugee Action provides free information and advice on a range of issues including the asylum process, claiming asylum, getting  support during a claim, and homelessness.

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Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex & London (RAMFEL)

RAMFEL provides specialist free immigration advice (OISC level 3) to vulnerable migrants and generalist advice in a range of areas including homelessness, housing, and integration.

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Refugee Support (Devon) Ltd

Refugee Support (Devon) Ltd’s immigration advice is offered free to asylum seekers and refugees living in Devon and, outside of Plymouth.

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Release

Release provides legal advice in on-site in drug treatment centres, homeless projects, and sex work services in 12 London boroughs and five virtual locations in Hull, Stockton, Lincoln, Rotherham, Maidenhead and Wokingham. Advice covers welfare benefits, debt and housing.

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Rights of Women

Rights of Women provides free confidential legal advice over the telephone and information through written guides to women on the law in England and Wales with a specific focus on violence against women and girls.

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Safe Passage

Safe Passage champions the rights of refugees and displaced people as they flee persecution, using the law to help them access a safe route to safety. Legal teams in France, Greece and the UK work to help child refugees reunite with their families through a safe route to a place where they can rebuild their lives.

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Tamil Welfare Association (Newham) UK (TWAN)

TWAN provides legal advice and representation for the Tamil speaking community in the UK free of charge covering issues such as immigration, welfare benefits, housing and accommodation, consumer and debt advice, education, and employment.

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The Chancery Lane Project

The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP) is the largest global network of lawyers and business leaders using the power of climate contracting to deliver fast and fair decarbonisation.

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The Advice on Individual Rights in Europe Centre (AIRE Centre)

The AIRE Centre provides free legal advice and representation particularly to EEA nationals and their family members on free movement rights. Representing them in front of domestic immigration and social security tribunals on issues around their right to reside, access to benefits, healthcare and housing.

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Toynbee Hall

The Free Legal Advice Centre at Toynbee Hall provides people with free legal assistance on a range of issues within UK law. It’s volunteer-run advice service delivers quality assured legal advice to people across London. Volunteers are a mix of barristers, solicitors, trainee solicitors and law students.

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TrustLaw

TrustLaw is the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s global pro bono legal service. It connects high-impact NGOs and social enterprises working to create social and environmental change with the best law firms and corporate legal teams, to provide them with free legal assistance.

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United Legal Access

United Legal Access provides free initial legal advice and affordable legal assistance in a range of areas, including consumer rights, contractual disputes, housing law, employment law, race equality, and immigration.

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Wanstead and Woodford Migrant Support

Wanstead and Woodford Migrant Support assists vulnerable migrants in the locality through the provision of advocacy, advice and support services.

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Work Rights Centre

Work Rights Centre helps migrants and disadvantaged Britons access employment justice and improve their social mobility. Caseworkers in London and Manchester help people fight unscrupulous employers, apply for jobs, access benefits and secure their immigration status.

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Working Families

Working Families provide free legal advice to parents and carers on their rights at work over the telephone and through online enquiries. Common areas include pregnancy and maternity rights, discrimination as a parent/carer, adoption, paternity and shared parental leave, flexible working, and in-work benefits and tax credits.

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YESS Law

Yess Law works closely with other organisations to promote early resolution (and avoidance) of employment disputes.  The fees generated from the private employment law services helps to fund project work and enable it to support clients suffering financial hardship free of charge.

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