LGBT rights: a growing part of many housing, family and human rights lawyers’ practices

updated on 12 September 2013

As recent changes to the law move to reflect wider society’s growing embracement of diversity and LGBT equality, more lawyers are making LGBT rights part of their practices.

While The Guardian reports that LGBT law is not yet a fully fledged legal specialism, increasing numbers of housing, family and human rights lawyers are using their expertise to serve LGBT clients and safeguard their rights.

This has been facilitated by the Pink Law Legal Advice Centre, a free legal advice service set up by Queen Mary, University of London for the LGBT community. Firms including Reed Smith, Mishcon de Reya and Field Fisher Waterhouse all provide pro bono legal advice to LGBT clients through the scheme, which has been running since 2008. Meanwhile, the fact that over 300 firms have signed up to the Law Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Charter shows that the wider legal profession is getting increasingly serious about diversity and equality, both in terms of the access to career opportunities that it provides and in the services required of it by the public.