Good Law Project to set up law firm headed by joint head of public law team at Bindmans
Not-for-profit campaign organisation Good Law Project will next month launch a new independent law firm, headed up by the current joint Head of Bindmans’ Public Law and Human Rights team.
The law firm, Good Law Practice, will – alongside Good Law Project’s paid and pro-bono panel of solicitors – help to run litigation brought by the Project and its partners.
“It will build specialist advisory capacity to help communities build the ownership models – housing, businesses, land – that work for them. And it will train those who believe the law exists to serve society rather than the wealthy,” Good Law Project said, adding that the firm would be regulated by the SRA.
The firm will be funded by Good Law Project and will make its services available to Good Law Project, and its partners, “on terms they can afford”.
Headed by Jamie Potter from Bindmans, it will start with four qualified lawyers, plus a number of paralegals and support staff. However, it is expected to double in size by the end of the year.
Any profits it makes will be returned to Good Law Project.
Jo Maugham, Director of Good Law Project said: “We are delighted to have a lawyer of Jamie Potter’s calibre leading the firm. We want to foster legal structures that help people respond to the world around them. The engagement that follows is, we believe, how we make a better world and fulfil the desire we all share to leave a better world than we found. Delivering on this is my mission.”
“The Practice will help us become even more responsive to the needs of the communities that we serve, in a world, and a political system that is growing ever more dynamic. And to train lawyers that share our mission.”
Jamie Potter, incoming Managing Director of the new firm, Good Law Practice said: “This is an exciting opportunity to build a law firm that can support and facilitate the exceptional work being done by Good Law Project to scrutinise public decision-making through the law, and to empower under-represented groups to participate in a legal system that can often feel impenetrable to the uninitiated.
“We want Good Law Practice to be a training ground for the public law and social welfare lawyers of the future. Such expertise is invaluable as trust in our political system is eroded, wealth is distributed increasingly unequally and legal aid is constantly narrowed.”
