The Brunel Legal Advice Centre provides a pro bono service to the community helping you improve your access to justice relating mainly to social welfare law.
The Brunel Legal Advice Centre (the Centre) has been established to enable our students studying at Brunel Law School (the University) to obtain practical, legal experience whilst providing a service to the community.
Here's a general step-by-step guide on the service we offer our clients:
- Initially, you'll be interviewed by a maximum of three students with a supervisor in attendance. The students won't be able to give you any advice during this interview.
- After your interview, the students will discuss your case with the supervisor, who'll decide if we can help you.
- The students may need to carry out research before help can be given.
- You'll receive your advice letter within 3-4 weeks of your initial interview*.
*We can only advise and represent in exceptional circumstances in Tribunal. We cannot represent you in a court.
Areas of law we cover
Employment law
A senior qualified employment lawyer supervises a maximum of three students, who'll advise you on your employment matter.
Welfare benefits
We have a specialist service, and partner with various local advice agencies in Hillingdon to accept referrals. They refer welfare benefit clients to us and a senior qualified specialist lawyer, alongside a maximum of three students, help advise you. We also accept referrals directly through our website.
Domestic abuse clinic
Brunel Legal Advice Centre, in collaboration with National Legal Services, are now providing advice to victims of domestic abuse. Family law students interview clients in person, on-campus, with an experienced solicitor / paralegal from National Legal Services in attendance via a remote link. The students and solicitor also carry out a legal aid assessment before the client receives an advice letter following up from the initial interview. If it's determined that the client needs a protection order, National Legal Service can provide representation in court.
Personal injury clinic
Students will work with a partner at the renowned firm of Hodge, Jones & Allen to provide an online advice service to clients. The client will receive an advice letter following up from the initial interview.
Intellectual property (IP)
Brunel Legal Advice Centre collaborated with IP specialists for our IP pro bono service. It serves local start-ups, social enterprises and community organisations with respect to their intellectual property rights.
Please note, we expect people accessing our services to be courteous and engage with us in a way that does not hamper our ability to carry out our work effectively and efficiently for the benefit of all. We reserve the right to refuse our services to people that behave in an unacceptable way.
Unacceptable behaviour means acting in a way that is unreasonable, regardless of the level of someone’s stress, frustration or anger. It may involve acts, words or physical gestures that could cause another person distress or discomfort. This includes threatening emails, telephone calls, meetings, and comments on social media or elsewhere that could cause our staff to feel afraid, threatened or abused.