Skip to content

Nottingham Law School’s teaching law firm rebrands to reflect expanding services on offer to local community

Nottingham Law School’s multi award winning teaching law firm has been rebranded to NLS Legal to reflect its status more accurately as a regulated law firm and its growing range of services.

Man and woman sitting in a consulting room
NLS Legal offers a range of free and affordable legal services to the local community

Formerly the Nottingham Law School Legal Advice Centre, NLS Legal sees Nottingham Law School students support members of the local community with free and affordable legal advice.

Supervised by a small team of experienced lawyers, they assist on a range of legal areas including employment, family, housing, business,, civil  litigation, intellectual property, special educational needs and disability,  welfare benefits and victims’ rights The firm also delivers a number of public legal education sessions each year in order to raise awareness of legal rights and responsibilities.

The firm provides hundreds of work experience opportunities for Nottingham Law School students each year. The law students provide administrative and management support to the firm, such as dealing with new enquiries and being involved in monitoring risk and compliance, through to case work such as research, drafting, client interviewing and representing clients at tribunal or court.

NLS Legal logo
The teaching law firm has rebranded as NLS Legal

The service is aimed at those that are unable to afford, or unable to access, legal services and the team has secured financial awards totalling more than £5.5 million for its clients. The firm has also won numerous prominent accolades, including most recently being named Law Firm of the Year at the Lexis Nexis Legal Awards 2022 after being nominated alongside five private national and international law firms.

As a not-for-profit teaching law firm with charitable status, NLS Legal was the UK’s first law firm fully integrated into a law school when it obtained an ABS (Alternative Business Structure) licence in 2015.

Head of NLS Legal, Laura Pinkney, said: “When we launched as an ABS, we were the only firm of its type in the UK and this model remains rare both in the UK and internationally. As a law firm with a difference, we pride ourselves on providing high quality legal services, promoting access to justice and supporting the development of our students.”

“Over the last seven years we have continued to grow and adapt, supporting more than 150 clients each year through the effects of cuts to legal aid, the pandemic and now the cost-of-living crisis.

“We now offer such a full range of support covering many areas of the law that we felt the time was right for a name change to reflect the services we offer as a fully regulated not-for-profit law firm.”

Find out more about NLS Legal via the website

  • Notes for editors

    Press enquiries please contact Helen Breese, Public Relations Manager, on telephone +44 (0)115 848 8751, or via email.

    About Nottingham Trent University

    Nottingham Trent University (NTU) received the Queens Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2021 for cultural heritage science research. It is the second time that NTU has been bestowed the honour of receiving a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its research, the first being in 2015 for leading-edge research on the safety and security of global citizens.

    The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent. 86% of NTU’s research impact was assessed to be either world-leading or internationally excellent.

    NTU was awarded Modern University of the Year 2023 (Times and Sunday Times), Outstanding Support for Students 2020 (Times Higher Education Awards). It was the University of the Year 2019 (Guardian University Awards, UK Social Mobility Awards), Modern University of the Year 2018 (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide) and University of the Year 2017 (Times Higher Education Awards).

    NTU is the 5th largest UK institution by student numbers, with over 33,000 students and more than 4,000 staff located across five campuses. It has an international student population of 4,000 and an NTU community representing around 160 countries.

    In the past 15 years, NTU has invested £450 million in tools, technology and facilities.

    NTU is in the UK’s top 10 for number of applications and ranked first for accepted offers (2019 UCAS UG acceptance data) It is also among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

    75% of NTU students go on to graduate-level employment or graduate-entry education / training within fifteen months of graduating (Guardian University Guide 2021).

    NTU is 4th globally (and 3rd in the UK) for sustainability in the 2021 UI Green Metric University World Rankings (out of more than 900 participating universities).

Published on 5 October 2022
  • Category: Press office; Nottingham Law School