We are proud to share that Greater Manchester Law Centre’s Solicitor Josie Hicklin has been shortlisted for a Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year (LALY) Award.
Josie first started at the Law Centre as a volunteer in around 2019. Though we are a small organisation, the Law Centre is dedicated to developing its volunteers in their careers, and so we work with funders to offer training contracts in social welfare law wherever we can. After funding herself through her Legal Practice Course, Josie became a Justice First Fellow with us. She then qualified in February 2022 as a solicitor, focusing on homelessness and public law cases relating to asylum rights.
In addition to this, Josie represents clients at risk of losing their homes at the court duty scheme at Manchester County Court. She also leads the work on the Law Centre’s Pathway project, which provides support for homeless people admitted to Manchester Royal Infirmary.
Josie’s work fighting for the most marginalised and vulnerable groups in society culminated at the end of 2022 in the successful case of R (on the application of CB) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWHC 3329 (Admin), in which she obtained an increase in government support for more than 50,000 asylum seeking adults and children who couldn’t afford to meet their essential living needs.
Josie always shows compassion and commitment to her clients, listening to them without judgement and working tirelessly to support them to find security and safety. In Josie’s words: “I was just always taught you should leave the world in a better state than you found it and that is what I am trying to do.”
We are pleased Josie has secured a place on the shortlist for the ‘Legal Aid Newcomer’ award so soon into her career as a solicitor. We will be cheering her on at the LALYs on 12 July.
A full list of shortlisted nominees is available here.
