Wiseman Lee fields legal team at Upton Park clinic

East London firm Wiseman Lee has teamed up with West Ham United Football Club to run a free legal advice clinic. It is the first time in the UK that a legal clinic has been run in conjunction with a football club.

The scheme kicked off in April 2003, when associate legal executive and West Ham fan Peter Coleman approached the club with the idea.
The clinics run every second Tuesday, from 11am to 2pm, in the firm’s corporate box. Six of the firm’s lawyers, including three partners, staff the centre on a rota basis.

The local authority has helped promote the scheme, distributing leaflets around libraries and local churches, and the clinic is advertised in the West Ham match programme.

So far the firm’s lawyers have advised drop-in clients on family law, consumer disputes and even some crime. While it is not as busy as Citizens Advice Bureaux, the clinic advises up to half-a-dozen clients per session. Clients are mainly from East London, although Coleman revealed that the clinic “once had somebody come up from Essex”.

The clinics are not run solely out of altruism. “Of course, we’d like the clinic clients to instruct us later,” admits Coleman. “I’ve had two jobs out of it so far.”