UCL Centre for Access to Justice (London) - Social Welfare Solicitor

The Centre for Access to Justice (CAJ) at UCL Faculty of Laws aims to provide significant benefit to, and strengthen links between, the local community, UCL students and the legal profession. Importantly, the Centre combines the unique advantages of social justice education with the provision of legal aid and pro bono legal advice to vulnerable communities. Our vision is to provide a world-leading legal education dedicated to promoting access to justice and to inspire a student body committed to addressing inequality before the law.

Our mission is to:

• Meet community need through the provision of high quality legal casework
• Inspire the next generation of social welfare lawyers
• Promote the ethical and professional development of our students
• Be a leading voice for clinical legal education (CLE), committed to innovative teaching practices
• Create an inclusive student community that enables all students to thrive
• Generate systemic change through research, influencing policy, and community engagement.

The Centre for Access to Justice runs the UCL Integrated Legal Advice Clinic (UCL iLAC), a student legal advice clinic in Stratford, where this role is based. Deeply embedded within the teaching and learning provision at the Faculty of Laws, the Clinic offers legal advice across a spectrum of social welfare law issues including welfare benefits, housing, education, and community care. UCL iLAC is currently the only university with legal aid contract and won a LALY in 2022.

Main purpose of the role:

To provide quality legal advice and representation (both legally aided and pro bono) to members of the local community who would otherwise be unable to afford it; To engender an awareness of social justice in our students; To supervise students undertaking casework and implement innovative teaching and learning methods; To support the delivery of legal advice projects and externally-funded contracts held by the clinic; To maintain high professional standards and up to date knowledge of relevant statute and case law.

About you

We are seeking a qualified lawyer with a current practising certificate and relevant practice experience in at least one of our areas of legal aid practice (housing, welfare benefits and community care) and a commitment to developing expertise across additional areas of social welfare law. Experience working within a legal aid practice is required, as is a sound understanding of the Specialist Quality Mark standards. Candidates must also have experience supervising others-whether students, volunteers, or staff- in an advice-giving environment. Our goal is to inspire the next generation of social welfare lawyers, so we are looking for candidates with strong interpersonal skills, highly developed sense of professionalism and client care skills who can engage and motivate our students. We are a small team, so we are looking for someone who is willing to undertake their own administration and maintain their files to the requisite standards of regulatory compliance.

A job description and person specification can be accessed here . Depending on level of experience, applicants may apply for either the Solicitor or Senior Solicitor role. Please clearly state in your application which position you wish to be considered for and demonstrate how you meet the relevant criteria. To apply for the vacancy please click on the ‘Apply Now’ button below. Applicants are not required to upload any research documents as part of their application. Please note that a basic DBS check will be required as part of this role. For further details about the application process please contact lawshr@ucl.ac.uk