Legal Walks - The Access To Justice Foundation

Organise a local legal walk to support access to justice!

What are the Legal Walks

Legal walks are sponsored walks which take place across the UK, organised by local committees, to raise money for access to justice. They are a great way for local legal communities to meet up, raise much needed funds, and enjoy the sights of your local area.

The Legal Walks across England and Wales are sponsored by The Law Society of England and Wales.

For more information on events in Scotland, please visit the Access to Justice Foundation Scotland page.

Where does the money go?

Money raised through Legal Walks is used to fund free legal advice in the form of grants to advice charities working in communities that need it most. The Access to Justice Foundation is committed to grant-making in a regionally proportionate manner. Any funds raised in Wales and Scotland will be distributed within the devolved nations. You can find more information about our grants here.

We will use our expertise to tackle the barriers to justice that advice organisations face across the UK and help build stable foundations for advice charities to continue to provide vital legal services to the most marginalised individuals.

The Access to Justice Foundation has been coordinating Legal Walks around the country for over a decade, raising over £500,000 for free legal advice.

We are incredibly grateful to our Walk Organisers for their hard work and dedication in bringing together the legal community to take a step towards a society where everyone has access to justice.

New in 2024

In previous years we have assisted walk organisers to raise funds for their local free legal advice charity.

This year we will be using the funds raised to support advice centres most in need of funding across the UK.

Every year we have to turn down requests for funding from local legal advice centres – knowing that this means turning away people in desperate need of advice. By raising funds for a Legal Walk, you can be confident that donations will go where they are needed the most.

How does it work?

1. Be an organiser and ask others to help

Legal Walks can be organised by individuals or groups from law firms, barristers’ chambers, university law societies, local law societies, junior law divisions, and even free legal advice organisations themselves. If you are committed to achieving access to justice for all, then get organising today!

2. Register your event

We can only provide insurance if you are raising funds for The Access to Justice Foundation.

To be eligible for our events insurance, we ask that you complete a Walk Registration Form no later than 6 weeks prior to your scheduled event and Risk Assessment no later than 3 weeks prior to your scheduled event. These forms will ask you for some basic information such as the primary organiser’s name and contact details and the event date.

Once we have received and approved your Walk Registration Form, we welcome you to be as creative as you like when organising your Legal Walk.

We will send you our Walk Organiser Pack which includes key information, a suggested timeline, and fundraising tips!

3. Get fundraising

We recommend using JustGiving for your Legal Walk’s fundraising. This no-cost fundraising platform is user-friendly and allows organisers to easily set up event and team pages to collect donations, which will automatically be sent to us at the end of the event. Invite your friends and colleagues to join in and raise funds to help people get the free legal advice they need.

We ask that you do not collect offline, cash donations or host raffles.

Fundraising in London and the South East?

Our colleagues at the London Legal Support Trust facilitate the Legal Walks, Bakes, Quizzes, and a huge range of other fundraising events in London and the South East.

They support and coordinate fundraising for free legal advice agencies in London and the South East. Anyone interested in taking part in fundraising events to support free legal advice in London and the South East should get in touch with the team at the London Legal Support Trust.

How can we help?

The Access to Justice Foundation will provide Public Liability Insurance for Legal Walks (for scheduled events that meet the eligibility criteria set out on the Events Registration Form), as well as our new Walk Organiser Pack.

This Pack gives Walk Organisers all the resources you need to run your Legal Walk Event and includes suggested timelines that will enable you to manage, promote and deliver an amazing event.

Once your Legal Walk is registered and you have completed the Risk Assessment Form, we will provide you with an Imagery & Branding Pack via email, containing graphics, logos and banners which you can use to promote your event.

Where possible, we will put you in touch with our local Access to Justice Committees that can support and coordinate your event with others happening in the area.

Ultimately, we aim to empower local legal communities to have full autonomy in how they organise their Legal Walks to ensure the events are delivered in the way that works best for their local community.

If you have any questions about the Legal Walks process, do get in touch at events@atjf.org.uk.