Finalists: Ashurst; Capsticks; Hogan Lovells; Legal Social Mobility Partnership; Paul Hastings; RPC; Weightmans.
Allen & Overy, DLA Piper and charity Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CCLC) picked up the CSR Innovation award for opening a specialist legal clinic to assist children of immigrant families. The Children’s Pro Bono Legal service helps children in the UK to apply for British citizenship, bridging the gap between the tens of thousands of children who have a right in law to become citizens and the smaller number who actually apply.
The clinic focuses on providing free representation for children who were born in the UK and have lived there for the first 10 years of their lives – an area of law where legal aid is not available.
It supports clients throughout the legal process, with casework carried out by volunteer lawyers trained in this aspect of nationality law and supervised by a specialist lawyer at CCLC.
The partnership also enables families to access related legal advice that goes beyond what the clinic can provide. As of March 2016, eight children have been granted citizenship, four applications are awaiting consideration by the Home Office and around 25 applications are being prepared.
“Identifies a huge and underserved need and works out exactly how these firms’ particular skillsets can be useful. Really impressive,” a judge said.
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