One afternoon, we realised we had a problem. Amidst the usual housing, immigration and benefits cases that MPs’ offices deal with, there was a small but growing number of people who needed help that we could not provide. What they needed was legal advice, and they couldn’t afford to pay for it.
Like so many places around the country, our local law centre in Barnet had closed in the early 2010s when legal aid and funding for early legal support had been cut drastically. A patchwork of local charities had tried to fill the void, providing practical advice and signposting. But when people needed to speak to a solicitor, there was still a major gap.
From here rose our idea – if there’s no local services that can help, why don’t we set up our own law clinic? This is how the Finchley Free Legal Advice Centre was born.
Now that our pop-up centre has welcomed its first clients, this is a guide for what I learnt in the process of setting it up and how you can do the same:
Find your volunteers first
This is the most important thing to get right. The success of your clinic will rely on a core of dedicated and reliable lawyers who are willing to give up their time to work pro-bono.
We started by hosting an event in Parliament, themed around the future of justice, and invited every local law firm and lawyer in our network. At the end of the event, my MP set out our vision for the law centre. Immediately afterwards, we emailed all our attendees to gauge their interest in volunteering and asked that they share it with friends and colleagues.
This was key to generating enthusiasm and word began to spread. But remember that you don’t only need lawyers to volunteer – finding volunteers to act as legal volunteers and take notes is key too. LawWorks helped us with this, advertising the opportunity to law students who were keen to help.
Your volunteers are the backbone of the centre, so make sure you recognise their brilliant work, thank them properly and make them feel a part of the team.
Be realistic
When starting a legal advice clinic from scratch, it is easy to get overwhelmed. At first, keep it small and manageable. You can start, as we did, with a handful of lawyers and a few client meetings once a month and grow from there. Once you have proof of concept, you can begin to scale up.
MPs offices are already vastly overstretched, so you will need to be realistic about the capacity of your team to deliver this project well. We integrated the legal advice sign-ups into our existing casework systems, allowing our caseworkers to identify priority cases without creating too much of an additional burden. If you have local volunteers who want to help, you could ask them to make a volunteer rota and help with logistics.
Build local partnerships
Your constituency may already have brilliant charities working to support local residents. A free legal advice centre can be of enormous help to them as well as to you. Engaging them in the project from the start is worthwhile and can prevent them from feeling that you are standing on their toes.
Is there a local foodbank or refugee drop-in who would allow you to set up a pop-up stall? If lawyers and clients prefer weekend sessions, you could host a pop-up at an existing event like a local councillor’s surgery, meaning only one staff member has to work out of hours.
That way, you can reach new parts of the community and pool your resources to help more people.
Get all the help you can
At the beginning of our journey, I had no idea where to start. This is where LawWorks came in – and they are extraordinary! The team were invaluable in setting up meetings to talk me through the process, share best practice from other clinics, and point out things I hadn’t considered.
Thanks to LawWorks, we managed to secure a legal indemnity insurance policy for free, meaning that our lawyers are protected in the event of a dispute with a client. They also introduced us to Yao’s invaluable case management software and so much more. They are always at the end of the phone, and I simply could not have done it without their help.
Just Do It!
For me, the biggest risk was getting so overwhelmed by the minutiae that I lost sight of the overall mission. The best advice I received from LawWorks was not to worry about getting everything perfect the first time.
Once you’ve run your first session, you can continue to change and adapt. There’s no one-size-fits-all model, so find what works for your team and your area and build it up from there.
Setting up a free legal advice centre was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. As an MP’s office, you have the power to change the lives of your constituents. If you can help someone challenge an eviction notice or support a victim of domestic abuse, you can make all the difference.