Hogan Lovells partners with LawFairy to offer pro bono support for undocumented children in the UK
- Mar 2
- 3 min read
Hogan Lovells Partners with LawFairy to Launch Legal Intelligence System Supporting Undocumented Children's Immigration Cases
New structured decision support system to help 215,000 undocumented children in the UK navigate complex British nationality registration
Hogan Lovells, a leading global law firm, has partnered with LawFairy, a legal intelligence company that automates complex legal and compliance workflows, to develop a structured, natural language immigration decision support system. This system, developed by LawFairy, will assist KIND UK in analysing an undocumented child's eligibility for registration as a British national, and in generating clear, consistent outputs to support triage and next steps. This is an area where Legal Aid is generally unavailable and where private representation is often unaffordable for some of the most vulnerable clients.
Central England Law Centre, one of the members of the KIND network in the UK partnering with Hogan Lovells, also collaborated with LawFairy on this initiative.
"An intake handling and decision support system like LawFairy will expand the sector's ability to handle many more requests for advice, despite the continuing collapse in numbers of qualified advisors in this area since 2010. Working with Hogan Lovells and LawFairy from the outset has enabled us to support LawFairy in the development of its legal technology platform to increase access to justice for people in need, bringing some of the benefits that the commercial legal world has already seen through automation into a sector which otherwise struggles to find private investment," said John Glanville, Project Coordinator for CELC.
In the UK, there are approximately 215,000 undocumented children, many of whom face significant barriers to accessing their rights. With the launch of this system, the legal sector will be able to enhance its capacity to help children navigate the complex immigration rules.
"It is incredible to see legal technology being used in this way to effect real change and have such an important and remarkable impact on an area of law which is in desperate need of being streamlined and simplified," said Michael O'Donoghue, Senior Associate, Hogan Lovells.
This system helps legal service providers navigate the fast-changing and complex area of immigration law and streamlines how support and advice are provided to applicants.
The platform works by:
Asking the applicant a structured series of questions in plain English;
Identifying potential application routes and flagging where specialist legal advice is needed; and
Producing a clear report that can be used to triage cases and determine the most appropriate next steps.
"We are thrilled to partner with Hogan Lovells and CELC as a member of KIND in the UK on this vital initiative. At LawFairy, we are applying structured, explainable legal intelligence to help organisations deliver better outcomes at scale. Our mission is profit with purpose, and this new system exemplifies our commitment to supporting vulnerable communities. By making legal processes more accessible, efficient and easier to understand, we want to help ensure that every undocumented child has a fair chance to secure their rights and a brighter future," said Raj S. Panasar, Founder of LawFairy.
"We are seeing the exponential rise of use of legal technology in commercial environments but many of these developments are not available for the marginalised communities who are frequently missed out making access to justice even more remote. Working with the ingenuity and commitment of LawFairy over many years to perfect a workable, intelligent system which complements the empathetic immigration expertise of Central England Law Centres has been a challenge but also hugely rewarding. Also having the support of our global partner KIND has been incredibly important to allow us to reach into communities and gives us the potential to broaden access further. Above all this is an excellent demonstration of how collaboration for impact works!" said Yasmin Waljee OBE, Partner, Hogan Lovells.
"As a charitable partnership, we're always looking for ways to improve our efficiency and scalability, while ensuring quality legal assistance to children and young people who need it most. Our partner, Central England Law Centre, worked with LawFairy to embed the knowledge, skill, and experience of specialist immigration lawyers into a system to support early evaluation of referrals, training and casework support, to quickly and confidently match the people who turn to us for help, to receive appropriate support and legal advice. We look forward to working with LawFairy to help us expand our ability to help more children and young people access their right to British nationality," a KIND spokesperson said.
LawFairy has recently received authorisation from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to operate as a law firm. It is believed to be the first technology-only firm in England and Wales built around a fully deterministic legal model.
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