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03 December 2015 / Dr Jon Robins
Issue: 7679 / Categories: Opinion
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Breaking point

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How can we solve the funding crisis within the legal not-for-profit sector, asks Jon Robins

Some 45 years after North Kensington Law Centre opened for business in a former butchers shop at the top end of Portobello Road, the 43-member strong movement is presently suffering “a mid-life crisis”. As the Law Centres Network (LCN) put it in their latest annual last month, it was “not so much a crisis of vision, but a crisis of funding”.

LASPO cuts

The brutal cuts under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) removed most of social welfare law from the legal aid scheme and, in doing so, threatened the future of the most radical attempt to redefine the delivery of legal services.

As Michael Zander QC, emeritus professor of LSE who was at North Kensington for its opening ceremony, explained back in 1978: “Nothing less than the introduction of a new public service to operate, alongside and in supplement to the private profession, would suffice to deal adequately with the problem of providing proper

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Cripps—Radius Law

Cripps—Radius Law

Commercial and technology practice boosted by team hire

Switalskis—Grimsby

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Firm expands with new Grimsby office to serve North East Lincolnshire

Slater Heelis—Will Newman & Lucy Spilsbury

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Property team boosted by two solicitor appointments

NEWS
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NLJ this week: Tightening the screws on JCT terminations
The Supreme Court has delivered a decisive ruling on termination under the JCT Design & Build form. Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Singer KC and Jonathan Ward, of Kings Chambers, analyse Providence Building Services v Hexagon Housing Association [2026] UKSC 1, which restores the first-instance decision and curbs contractors’ termination rights for repeated late payment
NLJ this week: Old rules, fresh warnings in employment law
Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
NLJ this week: The rise of the ‘ChatGPT client’ rattles the profession
The AI revolution is no longer a distant murmur—it’s at the client’s desk. Writing in NLJ this week, Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership and Legalito, warns that the ‘AI chickens’ have ‘come home to roost’, transforming not just legal practice but the lawyer–client relationship itself
NLJ this week: Surrogacy children caught in succession gap
A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
NLJ this week: Online safety law at a crossroads
Fresh proposals to criminalise ‘nudification’ apps, prioritise cyberflashing and non-consensual intimate images, and even ban under-16s from social media have reignited debate over whether the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) is fit for purpose. Writing in NLJ this week, Alexander Brown, head of technology, media and telecommunications, and Alexandra Webster, managing associate, Simmons & Simmons, caution against reactive law-making that could undermine the Act’s ‘risk-based and outcomes-focused’ design
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