Established in 2022, The Law for Change was set up to fill a very real gap in the current landscape by directly supporting legal cases in the public interest with the purpose of reforming the law, policy or practice of a public body, institution or company.

The Law for Change Fund was set up by philanthropists Stephen Kinsella and David Graham together with philanthropy expert and law reformer Charles Keidan.

We select cases that have a tangible social benefit and a strategy not just for success but those that can contribute to lasting social change. We look for cases that might not be brought to a conclusion without our support. In addition, we will generally be looking for cases that have a predictable timescale and a limited cost/expense exposure rather than open ended commitments. We will be asking the law firm that brings us the case and our own expert panel to rate cases against those criteria and offer us some assurances of the likely outcome.

Law for Change focuses on cases that can make a difference, perhaps even by changing or clarifying the law but certainly giving rise to benefits for a significant number of people rather than simply an individual benefit for a particular claimant. In particular, we are interested in cases that have a clear social benefit to the community or sections of the community, especially marginalised groups and/or groups that have limited access to justice and stand to benefit from legal actions in the public good.

We take an interest in a number of different issues - whether that’s employment rights, environmental protections, protecting access public services or challenging discrimination faced by marginalised communities.

As a small fund, our focus is on getting involved at the outset of cases that address discrete legal, rather than factual, issues. This is to help progress claims that would otherwise fail without our support. We may reject cases that are simply too large (in costs terms), too advanced or too complex and in particular too fact-specific to meet our criteria for funding.

We are reluctant to fund legal claims where an organisation is well-funded and should have the capabilities to cover their own costs, particularly in an area that seems to be a core activity for that organisation. We also recognise the important and unique work of existing strategic litigation funding projects and will tend not to fund legal actions that are well-served by others in this field.

As a ‘funder of last’ resort, we will want to see that other funding options have been pursued, including commercial funders, crowdfunding, ATE insurance and legal aid (where applicable).

At Law for Change, our aim is to support the most robust legal challenges on public interest issues. As a result, we may reject funding applications if we identify alternative legal claims that demonstrate stronger legal credentials or have the potential to establish a significant precedent. We will also generally turn down an application if the dispute is fundamentally over facts and evidence rather than law – a good example would be planning disputes which often turn on their own facts and where even if the case is successful it will have little impact on other cases.

Please allow up to two weeks (10 working days) to process and give you a decision on your application

We are a small organisation that receives far more applications than we can accept and also we do not have the capacity to engage in discussions with unsuccessful applicants. However you might find the following guidance helpful for future cases. Where applications are rejected it is often for one or more of the following reasons:

• It is not absolutely clear that the applicant will have standing to bring the case or it appears to us that there are other cases pursuing the same or similar issues that have a greater prospect of success

• The application does not spell out sufficiently clearly and succinctly how the case will definitely establish a precedent that will be binding on authorities and confer a real benefit on a wide range of persons; often we see a compelling argument in favour of the benefit to one or a small group of plaintiffs on a particular set of facts but insufficient assurance that a ruling will avoid the need for similar cases in slightly different factual scenarios

• It does not set out precisely what financial support is sought, what elements make that up and what will be the consequences of the various possible outcomes

• It does not explain why the approach is being made to us now and why other funding sources will not be available or sufficient to cover some or all elements of the case

• It is made after the process has already begun and seeks a contribution to expenses already incurred

• The timescale is unrealistically tight, particularly when it is clear that an approach could have been made earlier

Law for Change is Community Interest Company. The majority of Law for Change’s funding comes from charitable foundations.

This means we can only fund work that has ‘charitable purposes’, however, this does not mean you have to be a charity to apply.

If a legal case has ‘charitable purposes’ it means that it has aims that fall under one of thirteen categories of what is seen as ‘charitable’ under the Charities Act. Charitable purposes that fit our aims are:

• The prevention or relief of poverty

• The advancement of education

• The advancement of health or the saving of lives

• The advancement of citizenship or community development

• The advancement of the arts, culture, heritage or science

• The advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity

• The advancement of environmental protection or improvement

• The relief of those in need, by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage

• Any other charitable purposes

No. At Law for Change, we deal directly with law firms (working with law centres, legal experts and other professional service providers) who will take on the management of the case on behalf of claimants and provide a single professional point of contact with The Fund.

Law firms and solicitors are expected to act in client’s best interests at all times and give an honest assessment of the merits of each case. These assessments will be tested by The Fund which will conduct its own independent assessment.

Our founders will be responsible for determining which cases to support and at what level taking into account the advice of the legal panel on the merits of the case.

Law for Change is unique in that alongside our legal experts, we have a group of strategic advisors to help ensure that impact - the causes not just the cases - is at the forefront of our work. Alongside that, we’ve put some basic indicators in place to ensure we start off along the right lines. These include:

a) Providing tangible support for a minimum of six public interest cases a year

b) Securing at least one change in policy, practice or the reform of the law each year as a result of our intervention

c) Willingness of an expert legal panel to act pro bono and firms to apply reduced rates

d) Securing funding from a wider pool of progressive donors, including but not limited to its founders

We recognise that the funding process for judicial reviews and other legal actions can be protracted and fraught with uncertainty. In our experience many cases can be resolved on the basis of clear legal advice, perhaps including an expert opinion, and demonstrable readiness to go to court if necessary. Therefore, we tend to offer modest grants, although the funding required could vary considerably.

Law for Change is a funder of ‘last resort’. We actively encourage law firms and claimants to carefully consider the most effective funding strategy including protective cost orders, cost caps, reciprocal costs caps, conditional fee agreements, alongside support from philanthropic sources such as crowd funding and other donors.

The objective of Law for Change is to sufficiently ‘de-risk’ the process by providing law firms with the resources needed to enable more cases in the public interest to proceed than would otherwise be possible. It is not expected or intended that Law for Change would cover the entire potential costs of a claimant’s case. Decisions will be made on a case for case basis in accordance with the strategic goals of the Fund, and tactical considerations about the size and timing of any funds committed.

It is also expected that some proportion of the allocated funds might be used to pursue activities necessary to get the case off the ground, for example campaigning to raise the profile of the issue. This is welcomed so long as it helps the underlying purpose of ensuring a case gets prosecuted which might not otherwise be viable.

Funding from Law for Change might cover a combination of the initial stages of an action, e.g. pre-action correspondence to get a credible case off the ground and/or support in the event a case goes to trial. Law for Change will approach funding in a tactical manner designed to avoid being counterproductive in terms of obtaining cost capping protection. And one factor in our decision to support a case would be the possible level of adverse costs.

Law for Change has recruited a Fund Manager who provides secretariat support to the fund, including being responsible for handling of paperwork, dispatching bundles to our expert legal panel, fielding enquiries and providing general administrative support.