Search Results

Our latest grants decisions were made in December 2023. 17 grants were awarded to organisations working on a range of social justice issues. We are looking forward to working with them all in the coming months.  

Introducing our autumn round 2023 grant partners

��� The Centre for Progressive Change received funding to employ a Senior Campaign Organiser for their Safe Sick Pay campaign. This is their first grant from LEF. ��� The Constitution Unit, who will promote good constitutional standards in the new parliament post-2024. ��� Child Poverty Action Group received funding for their work strengthening their base of evidence about the experiences of social security claimants, and strengthening the sector with early legal challenges. ��� Communities Empowerment Network received their first grant from LEF, funding core costs for their advocacy work upholding the rights of disadvantaged children facing school exclusion. ��� Femicide Census received funding for their work gathering and using data on women killed by men to improve prevention, investigation, prosecution and protection, particularly by identifying additional legal remedies or steps and working with law and policy makers to improve responses. ��� Inquest received funding for their expert work on state related deaths, including specialist casework advice provision, legal training and ensuring the voice and experience of those bereaved contribute to investigative, statutory and coronial policy change. ��� Just Fair received core funding for their work improving the transparency, accountability and protection of economic, social and cultural rights across the UK. ��� Living Rent are a new grant partner for LEF. They've been awarded funding for their project supporting tenants to know their rights and campaign for better ones. ��� London Legal Support Trust received continuation funding for their Billing Coordinator Project ��� funding staff roles in legal advice charities and developing an apprenticeship for Legal Aid Billing to help address recruitment issues in the sector. ��� Maternity Action have been funded for their project challenging the lack of procedural fairness in the administration of the NHS visitor and migrant cost recovery programme. ��� Participation and the Practice of Rights are another new grant partner for LEF. They received funding for their work community organising for human rights and holding public authorities to account. ��� Public Law Project are specialist lawyers, researchers, trainers, and policy experts. Their work in England and Wales improves public decision-making, empowers people to understand and apply the law, and increases access to justice. LEF made a core grant. ��� Refugees for Justice (now part of Citizens UK ) received funding to employ a solicitor to work with them on housing issues related to migrants and asylum seekers. ��� Scottish Women's Aid, for their project modelling domestic abuse legal services for rural and island communities. ��� Suffolk Law Centre were awarded core funding to continue to support them to sustain and grow their services. ��� Z2k are also receiving their first grant from LEF: core funding for their work tackling poverty through access to justice, campaigning and the influence of experts by experience.   The Legal Education Foundation is committed to IVAR���s ���Open and Trusting��� initiative, which means that along with other funders we���ve signed up to eight commitments, including being open. Being open includes being transparent about our funding decisions. You���ll find all our grants published on the 360 Giving website.

We���re excited to announce that Barbora Bukovsk�� has joined the Legal Education Foundation board as a Trustee. Barbora is a Czech human rights attorney and activist. Since 2009, she has been a Senior Director for Law and Policy at ARTICLE 19, an international free speech organisation. Previously, she worked for human rights NGOs in the Czech Republic and Slovakia on a range of human rights issues, including protection from discrimination, access to justice, deprivation of liberty, reproductive rights, access to citizenship and community development. In 2006 ��� 2008, she was the Legal Director of Validity, an international organization working on the rights of disabled people in Europe and Central Asia. Barbora says: "Throughout my legal career, I have always been in interested in using the law to empower people to stand up for their rights and create lasting change. I find this to be one of the core objectives of the LEF. At a time when the attacks on human rights and democracy increase exponentially, I am looking forward to helping the Foundation deliver its important mission. "I am very impressed by the breadth and variety of organisations and causes that the LEF supports and amplifies. From migrants��� rights, transparency and children's rights to legal aid or access to legal information, the Foundation enables organisations to respond to the needs and visions of communities to create lasting change. "The Justice First Fellowship particularly resonates with me. As someone who was a recipient of a public interest fellowship in a grassroots organisation early in my legal career, I think it is important to support lawyers who seek to build power in the communities they serve, share knowledge and experiences with them, and jointly work to address structural problems in society." LEF���s Chief Executive Matthew Smerdon says: ���We are delighted that Barbora is joining the board of the Foundation. We are looking forward to her bringing her passion for our work, and her expertise in using law to support the work of activists. Her experience in international, regional and domestic legal systems will help us greatly in our work to protect and promote human rights.���

Applications are now open for our 2024 Justice First Fellowship Host recruitment round. The closing date for applications is��Thursday 7 March 2024. Each year, we��award a grant��to��a number of social welfare legal organisations which supports them to employ a trainee solicitor (Justice First Fellow) over the two years of their training contracts. This grant also covers mandatory training and examination costs for Fellows. Successful applicants from the 2024 Host recruitment round will begin hosting Fellows in April 2025. In the past decade, Fellows have been hosted in over 70 organisations in all four nations of the UK. Hosts have included organisations like Clan Childlaw, Public Law Project, Just for Kids Law and Law Centre NI, and we want to increase the spread and diversity of our Host organisations even further. We offer sessions for Hosts where they can build relationships with each other and share training best practice with one another. To be eligible, your organisation must either:

• ��meet the requirements set out by the relevant regulatory authority to supervise a trainee solicitor (SRA | Law Society of Scotland | Law Society of Northern Ireland) or
• apply in partnership with an organisation which can provide the appropriate supervision.

Most Hosts are not-for-profit providers of legal advice, but some are private law firms committed to social justice or charities without a legal team who have partnered with another organisation. If your organisation does not have a solicitor, you could consider partnering with a firm who can support this aspect of the Fellowship. If you have not been a Host before or are considering if a partnership application is right for you, get in touch with us��here. Find out more about hosting a Justice First Fellow��here.