Our Children’s Citizenship Pro Bono Service, run as part of KIND UK, provides free legal services to children and young people to secure British citizenship.
At Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CLCC) we partner with four global law firms ~ A&O Shearman, Baker McKenzie, DLA Piper, and Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom ~ to provide free legal services to children and young people who would otherwise be unable to access legal support due to the limited availability of legal aid. The service assists children and young people in the UK to apply for and enjoy British citizenship.
The service addresses the huge gap between the tens of thousands of children and young people with a legal entitlement to apply for British citizenship and the number of children who apply in practice.
An award-winning project
In 2015, CCLC and its partner firms developed a different model from that historically seen in the UK. Instead of providing capacity for one-off advice clinics, the project takes on cases and provides end-to-end representation. Casework is carried out by volunteer lawyers from the partner firms who are trained and supervised by specialist immigration lawyers at CCLC. This innovation led to the service winning the prestigious Law Works award for most effective pro bono partnership in 2015 and CSR Innovation at the 2016 Legal Week Innovation Awards.
Our wider collaboration with Kids in Need of Defense UK (KIND UK)
Since 2018, this work has been part of the Kids in Need of Defense UK (KIND UK) collaboration.
KIND is a global NGO which protects the rights and wellbeing of unaccompanied and separated children and other vulnerable groups of refugee and migrant children through the provision of legal and psychosocial assistance, advocacy, capacity building and systems strengthening work. KIND works in the UK to strengthen the rights and protection of refugee and migrant children and young people. It works with law firms and corporate legal partners to provide free, independent legal advice and representation to those who need it most. For further information about KIND please see the KIND UK website.
We work alongside four UK based not for profits that also specialise in children’s immigration and asylum law: Central England Law Centre, Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit, Just Right Scotland and Migrant and Refugee Children’s Legal Unit (at Islington Law Centre) to support and develop this pro bono model of legal representation reaching as many children, young people and their families as possible, across the UK.
Referrals
CCLC provides free legal advice and representation to children, young people and families in the London area as well as South East and West England.
To refer a child or young person to our pro bono service for assistance with a British citizenship application, please complete our online referral form.
All services provided by KIND’s partners in the UK are:
Free: the legal advice and representation provided is completely free. We work with lawyers and law firms to provide the best quality legal advice and representation for free to those who need it. We are unable to cover Home Office fees or additional costs such as medical reports, although we may be able to refer you to sources of help with these costs.
Confidential: we will never share your information with the Home Office or anyone else unless you have given your permission or it is required by law.
