Beyond the Courtroom: The Roof Coalition and Social Justice Lawyering, with Fiona McPhail

Beyond the Courtroom: The Roof Coalition and Social Justice Lawyering, with Fiona McPhail

EPISODE NOTES In this week’s episode, we speak with human rights lawyer and lecturer Fiona McPhail about the campaign to challenge lock change evictions of people seeking asylum in Scotland, and what the Stop Lock Change Evictions Campaign – later known as the Roof Coalition – can teach us about social justice lawyering in practice. As former Principal Solicitor of Shelter Scotland’s Housing Law Service and as a leading member of the legal team that challenged SERCO’s proposed lock change policy, Fiona reflects on the possibilities and limitations of strategic litigation, the importance of coalition-building, and the role of lawyers in wider movements for justice. Fiona shares her insights on: •            How lawyers, grassroots activists, and third-sector organisations worked together through the Roof Coalition to challenge lock change evictions of people seeking asylum and defend their right to due process before losing their homes •            The possibilities and limitations of strategic litigation, including the impact legal action can have even when court challenges are unsuccessful •            Why collaboration, courage, and sustained investment in social justice lawyering are essential to challenging injustice and supporting communities facing exclusion, destitution, and homelessness Additional resources for this episode are linked below: •            A Site of Resistance: An Evaluation of the Stop Lock Change Evictions Campaign:https://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Stop-Lock-Changes-FINAL-VERSION.pdf [https://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Stop-Lock-Changes-FINAL-VERSION.pdf] •            Volunteer with Shelter Scotland: https://scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_involved/volunteer [https://scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_involved/volunteer] •            Scottish Refugee Council: https://scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk [https://scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/] •            JustRight Scotland: https://www.justrightscotland.org.uk [https://www.justrightscotland.org.uk/] •            Living Rent – the Tenant’s Union: https://www.livingrent.org [https://www.livingrent.org/] Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co [https://lawmanity.pinecast.co] Read transcript [https://pnc.st/s/lawmanity/dc954748/beyond-the-courtroom-the-roof-coalition-and-social-justice-lawyering-with-fiona-mcphail/transcript] ----------------------------------------

Law, Poverty, and Political Power: Justice for Single Parent Families, with Satwat Rehman

EPISODE NOTES In this week’s episode, we speak with anti-poverty campaigner and One Parent Families Scotland Chief Executive Satwat Rehman about the relationship between law, poverty, and political power, and whether legal systems are truly capable of delivering justice for single parent families. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience across the voluntary and public sectors in Scotland and England – spanning equalities, education, employability, regeneration, and early years and childcare – Satwat reflects on the realities of navigating systems shaped by austerity, and the importance of collective action in challenging injustice. Satwat shares her insights on: * How welfare reform, family law, education, and social security systems interact in ways that can compound inequality and deepen poverty for single parent families * Why access to justice depends not only on legal rights, but also on time, resources, confidence, and the ability to navigate complex, intimidating, and overly technical systems * The role lawyers, activists, and community organisations can play in shaping policy and law at the design stage – before legislation is enacted – and why collective organising is essential to holding power to account Additional resources for this episode are linked below: * One Parent Families Scotland: https://opfs.org.uk [https://opfs.org.uk/] * End Child Poverty Campaign: https://endchildpoverty.org.uk [https://endchildpoverty.org.uk/] * Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG): Abolition of two-child limit a gamechanger for millions of children: https://cpag.org.uk/news/abolition-two-child-limit-gamechanger-millions-children#:~:text=The%20two%2Dchild%20limit%20when,policy%20is%20abolished%20from%20today [https://cpag.org.uk/news/abolition-two-child-limit-gamechanger-millions-children#:~:text=The%20two%2Dchild%20limit%20when,policy%20is%20abolished%20from%20today] * Trussell Trust – Find a Food Bank: https://www.trussell.org.uk/emergency-food/get-a-food-voucher [https://www.trussell.org.uk/emergency-food/get-a-food-voucher] Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co [https://lawmanity.pinecast.co] Read transcript [https://pnc.st/s/lawmanity/5cb0f131/law-poverty-and-political-power-justice-for-single-parent-families-with-satwat-rehman/transcript] ----------------------------------------

Not Without Us: Disability Justice, with Heather Fisken, Tressa Burke, and Louise Whitfield

EPISODE NOTES In this week’s episode, we speak with disability rights activists Heather Fisken and Tressa Burke and human rights lawyer Louise Whitfield about disability justice, strategic litigation, and the gap between legal rights on paper and disabled people’s lived experiences of inequality in the UK.  Drawing on their work across disabled people’s organisations, community advocacy, policy, and strategic legal challenges, our three speakers reflect on the possibilities and limitations of using law to secure justice for disabled people, the barriers people face in accessing legal remedies, and what meaningful equality and independent living would require in practice.  Heather, Tressa, and Louise share their insights on:  * How disabled people continue to face discrimination across everyday life – including employment, education, social care, transport, access to services – despite extensive legal protections and human rights frameworks  * The multiple barriers to accessing justice, including cost, fear, lack of legal support, inaccessible systems, and legal processes that often fail to deliver systemic change  * Why collective organising, strategic litigation, and closer collaboration between lawyers and disabled people’s organisations are essential to making rights meaningful in the lives of disabled people today  Additional resources for this episode are linked below:  * Want to get involved? Check out Inclusion Scotland's campaigning toolkit Campaign Toolkit - Inclusion Scotland [https://inclusionscotland.org/campaign-toolkit/] and their Justice Hub Justice Hub - Inclusion Scotland [https://inclusionscotland.org/our-work/justice-hub/]    * For more information about the closure of the Independent Living Fund in London and the impact for disabled people there, read this Guardian Article from July 2016, “Disabled people call for return of UK-wide Independent Living Fund” https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/13/disabled-people-call-return-independent-living-fund [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/13/disabled-people-call-return-independent-living-fund] Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co [https://lawmanity.pinecast.co] Read transcript [https://pnc.st/s/lawmanity/5011aa81/not-without-us-disability-justice-with-heather-fisken-tressa-burke-and-louise-whitfield/transcript] ----------------------------------------

More Than a Label: Migration Law and Justice in the UK, with Pinar Aksu

Read transcript [https://pnc.st/s/lawmanity/3a8d4cac/more-than-a-label-migration-law-and-justice-in-the-uk-with-pinar-aksu/transcript] ---------------------------------------- EPISODE NOTES In this week’s episode, we speak with researcher, theatre-maker, and human rights campaigner Pinar Aksu about migration justice, hostile immigration law, and the possibilities and limitations of using law to create social change. Drawing on her work in migrant justice campaigning and community organising, and her ongoing doctoral research ‘Art and Law in Migration’, Pinar reflects on how immigration law shapes the lives of people seeking asylum and refuge, the pressures facing those trying to access justice, and what more collaborative, community-led approaches to legal practice can look like.  Pinar shares her insights on: * How over a century of immigration law – from the 1905 Alien Act to recent immigration legislation – reveals enduring patterns of hostile, divisive, and criminalising approaches within UK migration policy * The barriers people face in accessing immigration justice, including legal aid pressures, capacity constraints, miscommunication, and the human impact of increasingly restrictive immigration laws * Why creative practice, grassroots organising, and community lawyering approaches that bring legal knowledge into community spaces, centre lived experience, and build collaborative relationships are essential to creating more welcoming and just communities Additional resources for this episode are linked below: Learn More * Listen to Lawmanity podcast episode “Breaking Barriers: Access to Education for Young Migrants, with Andy Sirel”: podfollow.com/lawmanity/view [https://podfollow.com/lawmanity/view] * Read “Our Grades Not Visas: How community lawyering brought education justice for young migrant and refugee people in Scotland”: https://www.justrightscotland.org.uk/2025/10/our-grades-not-visas-how-community-lawyering-brought-education-justice-for-young-migrant-and-refugee-people-in-scotland/ [https://www.justrightscotland.org.uk/2025/10/our-grades-not-visas-how-community-lawyering-brought-education-justice-for-young-migrant-and-refugee-people-in-scotland/] * Read “Jo Wilding chronicles deepening immigration and asylum legal aid crisis, with failure to recruit staff an ‘existential threat’ to the sector” https://www.ein.org.uk/news/jo-wilding-chronicles-deepening-immigration-and-asylum-legal-aid-crisis-failure-recruit-staff [https://www.ein.org.uk/news/jo-wilding-chronicles-deepening-immigration-and-asylum-legal-aid-crisis-failure-recruit-staff] * Read “Scotland adopts a more inclusive franchise”: https://globalcit.eu/scotland-adopts-a-more-inclusive-franchise/ [https://globalcit.eu/scotland-adopts-a-more-inclusive-franchise/] * Read “Can a Student visa holder sit as a member of the Scottish Parliament? Yes, they can”: https://freemovement.org.uk/student-visa-member-of-scottish-parliament/ [https://freemovement.org.uk/student-visa-member-of-scottish-parliament/] * Check out “#LiftTheBan: Give People Seeking Asylum the Right to Work”: https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/lift-the-ban/ [https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/lift-the-ban/] * Check out Refugees for Justice: https://www.refugeesforjustice.org.uk/ [https://www.refugeesforjustice.org.uk/] * Check out Sistren Legal Collective: https://sistren.co.uk/community-lawyering/ [https://sistren.co.uk/community-lawyering/] Take Action ·      Maryhill Integration Network: https://maryhillintegration.org.uk/get-involved/ [https://maryhillintegration.org.uk/get-involved/] ·      Govan Community Project: https://govancommunityproject.org.uk/get-involved/ [https://govancommunityproject.org.uk/get-involved/] ·      Community Infosource: https://www.infosource.org.uk/get-involved.html [https://www.infosource.org.uk/get-involved.html] ·      Refuweegee: https://www.refuweegee.co.uk/copy-of-about [https://www.refuweegee.co.uk/copy-of-about] ·      Scottish Detainees Visitors: https://sdv.org.uk/join-us [https://sdv.org.uk/join-us] ·      The Welcoming (Edinburgh): https://www.thewelcoming.org/get-involved-the-welcoming-edinburgh/ [https://www.thewelcoming.org/get-involved-the-welcoming-edinburgh/] Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co [https://lawmanity.pinecast.co]

“We’re Going to Have a Party”: Law, Protest, and Social Change, with Lily Greenan

EPISODE NOTES In this week’s episode, we speak with feminist activist, researcher, and former Scottish Women’s Aid Chief Executive Lily Greenan about decades of campaigning on violence against women and girls and LGBT+ rights, the limits of legal reform, and the role of activism in creating social change.  Drawing on over forty years of organising – from rape crisis advocacy and police training in the 1980s, to campaigning against Section 28, to legal reform on domestic abuse and coercive control – Lily reflects on working both within and outside legal systems, and on the importance of joy, solidarity, and collective action in sustaining movements for justice.  Lily shares her insights on:  * Why legal reform alone is not enough to transform the lived realities of women, LGBT+ people, and survivors of abuse  * The role of activism both within and outwith legal systems, and how grassroots organising, public protest, and collective action shaped campaigns against violence against women and girls in Scotland and for LGBT+rights.  * The opportunities and frustrations of working with legal systems, policymakers, and public institutions to create lasting social change  Additional resources for this episode are linked below:  Learn More  * About the Women’s Aid movement through the Speak Out project, hosted by Glasgow Women’s Library: featuring oral history clips [https://womenslibrary.org.uk/discover-our-projects/speaking-out/speaking-out-oral-history-clips/] of women connected to the movement * “Section 28, how it came and went”: A blog post on Section 28, the Scottish Homosexual Action Group (SHAG) and Lark in the Park, by the Equality Network: https://www.equality-network.org/our-work/history/section-28-how-it-came-and-went/ [https://www.equality-network.org/our-work/history/section-28-how-it-came-and-went/]   Take Action  * Find your nearest Scottish Women’s Aid group [https://womensaid.scot/find-nearest-wa-group/]   * Find your nearest Pride 2026 event [https://rainbowandco.uk/blogs/what-were-saying/lgbtqia-uk-pride-events-calendar-2026] Find out more at https://lawmanity.pinecast.co [https://lawmanity.pinecast.co] Read transcript [https://pnc.st/s/lawmanity/d79a6f14/we-re-going-to-have-a-party-law-protest-and-social-change-with-lily-greenan/transcript] ----------------------------------------