Central England Law Centre

Who we are

As a community Law Centre, we use our legal knowledge and expertise to help to build a more equal society. We believe that legal rights play a key role in this, and our mission is to activate rights in the communities where we work. You would be joining a highly-respected team who are dedicated to:

• Making a difference for individuals living in some of the most marginalised communities by defending and enforcing their rights, challenging unfair decisions and take cases to the highest courts;
• Working with those clients to help them navigate problems better in the future and keep their lives on track;
• Forming close partnerships with other community-focused services to help to place legal rights at the heart of their work and to activate a rights-based approach in their contacts with service users. Blending our work with theirs so that together we can offer more holistic support to people;
• Building an alliance of organisations committed to identifying and tackling systemic injustice using legal processes.

We seek to reduce poverty, inequality and discrimination.  Our approach aims to provide early intervention and solutions that prevent people reaching a point of crisis. 

Central England Law Centre is the UK’s largest Law Centre operating across Coventry and Birmingham. Our size enables us to provide legal expertise across eight different areas of social welfare law:

❖ Discrimination ❖ Employment

❖ Family ❖ Health & Community Care

❖ Housing ❖ Immigration and Asylum

❖ Public Law ❖ Welfare Benefits 

The Law Centre is a charity employing solicitors and advice workers. We  receive funding from a variety of Foundations and Trust Funds and also from Coventry City Council for our work in Coventy. We hold a legal aid contract with the Legal Aid Agency in Housing, Community Care, Public Law, Family, Welfare Benefits (Upper Tribunal), Immigration and Asylum. We offer specialist advice, representation and advocacy, and our aim is to use the law to seek change.  We take on test cases that may well have an impact beyond the actual case fought. We produce leaflets, give talks and maintain a website to help individuals have awareness of their rights and to make informed decisions.

The Law Centre is a member of the national Law Centres Network. It is governed by a board of trustees, who are the Directors of Central England Law Centre - a company limited by guarantee. The Trustees meet monthly to monitor the Law Centre’s work and give guidance on policy and direction. The Law Centre employs a Chief Executive, solicitors, caseworkers, admin and reception staff. Staff are organised into teams with a Team Head to lead and manage them. The Chief Executive is responsible to the Trustees for the running of the Law Centre and advises them on policy issues. Each team covers one or two areas of law. Staff generally work in only one team but we recognise that many cases cross boundaries and staff therefore need to be able to work closely with other teams where their expertise is needed.