The Strategic Legal Fund (SLF) provides grants for strategic legal work that advances justice for asylum seekers, refugees and migrants who experience poverty, discrimination or disadvantage because of their migration status. It supports UK legal work capable of creating wider changes in law, policy or practice rather than resolving only one individual case.
History and Background
The Strategic Legal Fund was established as a pilot by the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund in October 2011, working with Trust for London and MigrationWork CIC. It became a Trust for London project in November 2012 and has been managed by the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) since April 2017.
The SLF is not a standalone charitable foundation. It is a specialised legal grant programme delivered by ILPA and supported by philanthropic funders, including Trust for London, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Unbound Philanthropy. The programme’s current website also identifies Paul Hamlyn Foundation among its funding partners.
Mission and Purpose
The SLF seeks to challenge legal injustices and inconsistent practices affecting migrants in the United Kingdom.
It supports work where the expected impact extends beyond an individual claimant and could improve rights or legal protections for a broader group. Its priority beneficiaries are asylum seekers, refugees and migrants living in poverty who face serious disadvantage or discrimination connected with their immigration status.
Areas of law may include:
- Immigration and asylum
- Human rights
- Housing and homelessness
- Education
- Welfare benefits
- Discrimination
- Community care
- Access to justice
- Human trafficking and asylum support
Criminal or family-law matters are not normally supported unless they also involve one of the Fund’s migration-related priorities.
Governance and Structure
ILPA manages the Fund’s administration and grantmaking process.
An Expert Panel of legal practitioners and policy specialists reviews eligible proposals, provides strategic guidance and recommends projects for support. At least three panel members normally assess applications, while members with conflicts of interest do not participate in the relevant decision. ILPA makes the final grant decision.
The Fund also developed the Strategic Legal Advice Committee, which connects nonprofit organisations with legal specialists to explore potential strategic litigation and improve understanding of how legal challenges can address systemic injustice.
Funding and Grants
The maximum grant for one application is £30,000, although smaller requests are encouraged because funding is limited. The average grant generally ranges from £12,000 to £15,000, and projects may run for a maximum of 12 months.
Funding may cover reasonable costs associated with:
- Pre-litigation evidence gathering
- Legal and policy research connected to a potential case
- Identifying suitable claimants
- Developing litigation strategies
- Translating relevant evidence
- Preparing third-party court interventions
- Temporary staffing and additional staff capacity
- Volunteer expenses and travel
- Subcontracting community organisations
- Limited organisational overheads
The Fund generally supports new or additional costs rather than existing operational expenditure. A contribution of up to 10% toward overhead costs may be included.
Who Can Apply?
Eligible applicants include UK-based:
- Not-for-profit organisations providing specialist legal advice to people disadvantaged by their migration status
- Solicitors’ firms providing specialist legal advice, where the funded work contains no element of profit
- Specialist legal representatives working with voluntary and community organisations
Applicants must demonstrate that the staff leading the project possess the experience, skills and accreditation necessary to undertake the proposed strategic legal work. Supporting financial and governance documents may also be required.
The Fund does not support general academic research, routine legal-advice provision or campaigning. Research must be directly connected to the possible development of a future legal case. It does not ordinarily fund the full cost of conducting litigation, although it may support third-party interventions and limited tribunal work required to develop a strategic challenge.
Application Process
Prospective applicants must first read the funding guidelines and contact ILPA with a brief outline of their proposal.
Where the idea meets the eligibility requirements, ILPA provides the official Word application form. Applications submitted in other formats are not accepted. Eligible proposals are reviewed by the Expert Panel, followed by a final decision from ILPA, normally within five to six weeks of the closing date.
Applications are assessed according to factors such as:
- Potential benefit for migrant groups
- Ability to create wider legal or policy change
- Prospects of a successful legal challenge
- Applicant expertise
- Availability of alternative funding
- Value for money
- Alignment with any published priority areas
Projects duplicating legal work already underway or offering little prospect of meaningful systemic benefit are unlikely to receive support.
Impact and Examples of Funded Work
The SLF has supported legal organisations, law centres and migrant-rights groups working on asylum accommodation, social security, citizenship, trafficking, family reunion, access to healthcare, discrimination and the EU Settlement Scheme.
Examples of supported work include:
- Funding the3million’s intervention in a case that found the Home Office’s interpretation of parts of the EU Withdrawal Agreement unlawful.
- Supporting Child Poverty Action Group research that contributed to legal protections for some EU citizens with pre-settled status facing destitution.
- Supporting litigation concerning family reunion for young refugees and migrants.
- Funding work related to the rights of trafficking survivors, asylum-seeking children and migrants affected by no-recourse-to-public-funds policies.
- Supporting research that contributed to the removal of a legal requirement for defendants to state their nationality at the beginning of criminal proceedings.
Recent grants have also supported work concerning asylum accommodation, unaccompanied children, digital immigration status, disability, welfare rights and the treatment of people with pre-settled status.
Conclusion
The Strategic Legal Fund is a specialised UK funding programme that uses strategic litigation grants to protect the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants.
Through grants of up to £30,000, it supports pre-litigation research and third-party legal interventions capable of producing systemic changes in law, policy and public practice. Its combination of philanthropic funding, specialist legal assessment and collaboration with migrant-support organisations makes it an important source of support for public-interest migration law in the United Kingdom.
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