About us.

Background to the Law Centre

Law Centre NI (LCNI) is an award-winning organisation and for 48 years, LCNI has been using the law to drive change in Northern Ireland. We are constantly innovating, working in communities, and using the law to transform people’s lives. We are fiercely independent and unrelenting in our pursuit of justice. With a strong track record of strategic litigation and policy advocacy we make change through a unique blend of legal, training, education, community engagement and policy advocacy work.

The Law Centre’s work is focused primarily on three distinct key projects.

❖ The Migration Justice & Refugee Project works with asylum seekers, refugees and victims and survivors of trafficking and domestic abuse to uphold their legal rights and campaigns for a fairer and more humane immigration system. We lead the Refugee and Asylum Forum, a network of organisations with direct experience of providing support and services to asylum seekers and refugees. Our policy advocacy and influencing work draws heavily on our community engagement and our legal expertise, so decision makers know and understand the impact of how law and policy is working on the ground.

❖ The Anti-Poverty (Social Security Rights) Project works to address poverty in NI by ensuring the social security system delivers an effective safety net for people when they need it. Our impact litigation in the public interest has been at the cutting edge of changes to law and policy, making life better for many people and not just in NI. As a second tier support organisation we support frontline advice organisations by delivering an advice line and boosting capacity by providing extensive legal information resources and specialist training on all aspects of social security law. Our important policy interventions includes the convening of the Cliff Edge Coalition to advocate for the retention and strengthening of the NI Executive’s ‘welfare reform mitigations’ that are an essential bulwark against some of the harshest elements of social security change. We deliver extensive legal information resources and training to advisers on all aspects of social security law and our Social Security Law & Practice Conference keeps advisers up to speed on law and policy changes.

❖ The Employment Rights Project supports workers across Northern Ireland to challenge unfair working practices and uphold their employment law rights. Our team provides a dedicated employment law advice line, providing free and confidential advice to workers. We provide legal representation to claimants at the Employment Tribunal in Northern Ireland and produce regular public legal education resources to empower people to understand their legal rights. As a
regional support organisation, we provide specialist employment law advice and practitioner led training to the Northern Ireland advice. We also contribute to the development of employment law and policy in Northern Ireland with our policy advocacy work.

Law Centre NI work is supported by both government funding and a range of philanthropic foundations. Our work is Lexcel-accredited and regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA). The Law Centre is registered with the Charity Commission NI and is governed by a Board, all of whom give their time and expertise freely in support of our mission.