Whether it is advising clients or helping out at our campaigning and fundraising events, the dedication and enthusiasm of our fantastic volunteers is essential to everything we do. As a charity we are always looking for more volunteers to join our fight for free access to justice. On this page you can find the latest news on what our volunteers have been up to, and updates on ways in which you can get involved.
Young Legal Aid Lawyers and the All Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid’s joint campaign #TakeYourMPToWork has seen MP’s across the country get up close and personal with the reality of legal aid provision. Last week Kate Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston spent the day with GMLC learning about the effect of legal aid cuts in…
By Liz Davis Liz is a campaign volunteer with GMLC and hopes to assist the law centre with their continuing fight for free access to justice. She is a future trainee solicitor with Irwin Mitchell Solicitors. At GMLC we fight for everyone’s right to a secure home and we fight for a supportive social…
The Justice First Fellowship Scheme was established by the Legal Education Foundation to support the next generation of students committed to public interest and social justice issues who want to pursue a career in social welfare law. We are thrilled to announce that the Greater Manchester Law Centre are able to offer a training contract…
By Brocho Nemetsky Brocho is a volunteer at the GMLC. She is interested in learning about our rights, and helping others to do the same. She works as a paralegal at Brian Barr Solicitors, and hopes to work as a Barrister. On 5 November 2018, Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty…
In April 2019, we released our manifesto, declaring that we will not allow legal aid cuts to be the death of the social welfare lawyer. We said: “We strive to be a home for passionate law students, advisers, activists and social welfare lawyers committed to using the law to fight for social justice.” Legal education…
By GMLC volunteer Josie Hicklin. Having recently finished the LPC Josie is a volunteer in the law centre’s housing department. She is also a yoga teacher exploring how to make yoga accessible to vulnerable and marginalised groups. Housing rights campaigners have been celebrating the long-awaited ban on lettings agents charging sky-high fees to…
GMLC volunteer Alex Feery puts legal aid cuts in context, by challenging the presumptions and attitudes framing debates on access to justice. The Government’s operating assumption behind legal aid policy has been for some time that the public is too eager to resort to the courts. It has denounced ‘unnecessary adversarial litigation’.[1] Individuals with…
On Thursday, 11th April, we launched our manifesto at a public event. The event was packed. 150 people were in attendance: students, advisers, lawyers and community groups, old and new friends. The full manifesto can now be downloaded here. Norma Turner, one of GMLC’s founders, chaired the event and speakers included GMLC Patron and human rights lawyer Robert…
by GMLC volunteer Alex McColl R (Johnson & Ors) v SSWP [2019] EWHC 23 (Admin) In January this year, four single mothers won a case in the High Court against the DWP in a judicial review of the way in which universal credit is calculated. Universal credit was introduced in 2013. It merged six other…
Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) were introduced by the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 as part of a toolkit given to Local Authorities to help them tackle anti-social behaviour[1]. They were introduced against an interesting political backdrop: increasing public concern about anti-social behaviour frustrated the Government, who were in fact seeing overall…