Bloomsbury Law Clinic

About the Law Clinic

The mission and purpose of the Bloomsbury Law Clinic is two-fold:

Social justice: we provide free legal advice to people who are not eligible for legal aid and cannot afford to pay
Student learning: the law clinic provides law students with clinical experience, and non-law students with the opportunity to develop their transferrable skills

We provide legal advice on Housing Law for residential tenants (we do not provide advice to landlords), covering tenancy disputes, disrepair and homelessness. From February 2023 we will also be extending our clinic to advise on a whole range of civil and family disputes.

Get in touch

To request an appointment, please email blc@bil.ac.uk with a brief description of your legal dispute.

Request an appointment

When you contact the law clinic, please confirm that you accept the clinic’s Terms and Conditions. If you do not accept the Terms and Conditions, we will be unable to provide you with an appointment.

Privacy Notice

The Law Clinic’s Privacy Notice concerns the processing of personal data of past, present and prospective clients of Bloomsbury Law Clinic. The Privacy Notice explains how the Law Clinic collects, uses and shares a client’s personal data, and a client’s rights in relation to the personal data that we hold.

How we operate

We provide our clients with comprehensive written advice to help clarify legal procedures and support them through disputes.

For clients

For students

Once a client has contacted Bloomsbury Law Clinic, and their case has been accepted, the service will provide:

A 45-minute interview with a Student Advisor to grasp the scope of the problem. This interview can take place online via Microsoft Teams (which just requires a smartphone, tablet or computer with camera facilities) or in person, either at our Great Portland Street office or another outreach centre.
Following the interview, you will receive a written letter of advice within 15 working days
If appropriate, the Student Advisor will provide a template letter to send to your opponent
We do offer one follow-up appointment if necessary.

Through the Law Clinic, Bloomsbury Institute students and recent graduates assume the roles of:

Student Advisors who interview and advise clients providing invaluable clinical legal experience
Student Assistants who develop key transferrable skills by completing administrative tasks associated with the running of the Law Clinic

Bloomsbury Institute staff are also involved in the running of the Law Clinic.

External practising solicitors are engaged (on a pro bono basis) to supervise Student Advisors.

All advice provided by the law clinic is supervised by a registered legal practitioner. After the interview, the Student Advisor will draft a letter of advice which is reviewed by the Clinic Director before it is finalised and sent to the client.

We are unable to represent our clients in courts or tribunals. This is for both educational and professional reasons. This restriction also applies to a client’s request for someone from the Clinic to go along with them to a hearing just to help them.