Lawyers are getting the hang of crowdfunding

Posters campaigning to save the Human Rights Act have appeared across the London Underground, thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign run by a number of well-known lawyers.

The emotive posters have been funded by the £55,870 raised by ‘Act for the Act’ — a campaign launched by Doughty Street Chambers‘ barristers Caoilfhionn Gallagher and Martha Spurrier to combat the Conservative Party’s promise to scrap the Human Rights Act.

Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith OBE and children’s rights campaigner Anna Edmundson, amongst others, have also shown their support for the project.

The initial £50,000 target set by the group was surpassed in just a month — emulating the highly successful billable hours for refugees campaign by Sean Jones QC — thanks largely to chunky donations from Doughty Street and Garden Court Chambers. Law firms such as Bindmans and Hodge Jones & Allen have also shown their support and contributed.

The posters feature real-life stories from ordinary people who have relied on the Act to challenge the law.

Eagle-eyed law students may recognise some of the cases. One poster features Hughes Cousins-Chang, whose Article 8 challenge prompted a change in police protocol. Another tells the story of Catherine Smith, who was able to obtain crucial documents about her son’s death following an Article 2 challenge. Act for the Act hopes that these posters will:

Fill a gap by reaching out to all members of the public, many of whom voted for the Conservatives in the General Election or do not read the newspapers which print positive human rights stories.

Now that the initial target of £50,000 has been reached, Act for the Act has set a stretched target of £100,000, which will enable the campaign to spread both beyond The Tube — and the M25 — into the regions.

You can tweet your support for the campaign using the hashtag #ActfortheAct and can find out more about the campaign on their crowdfunding website here.

Follow @actfortheact

