Immigration lawyer jobs in bermondsey, greater london
At Public Law Project (PLP), we work to champion fundamental rights and hold power to account. Our legal challenges have played a pivotal role in successful cases. In just the last year this includes:
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The fight against the Rwanda deportation policy
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The Government’s attempts to renege on Windrush commitments
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Attempts to radically cut disability benefits to 100,000 people without lawful consultation
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Intervention in the challenge against draconian and unconstitutional anti protest laws
Our work is highly respected, impactful, and deeply valued across the legal and social justice sectors.
The Role
This is an exciting opportunity for a capable, collaborative and motivated solicitor to join our exceptional casework team. You’ll be working at the cutting edge of public law in the UK, supporting our award-winning team of solicitors in work that brings about real change.
Join PLP and you’ll be playing a key role in the team that brought the main challenge to the Safety of Rwanda Act, intervened in the challenge to the prorogation of Parliament, helped survivors whose assets are controlled by their abuser to access legal aid, and put a stop to the no-notice removal policy affecting people claiming asylum.
You’ll be supervised by one of our Lead Lawyers and have the opportunity to collaborate closely with the whole team. The PLP team is friendly, diverse, and inclusive, and you’ll be supported and encouraged to develop your skills as a solicitor.
Your caseload will be a mix of asylum and immigration work for individual clients as well as assisting with strategic public law cases relating to the rights of migrants.
As part of our commitment to recruit fairly we use anonymised-selection processes until interview, offer additional interview opportunities to the highest-scoring candidates from under-represented communities, and use ‘tie-breaker’ provisions at all stages of our selection process.
PLP's mission is to improve public decision making, empower people to understand and apply the law, and increase access to justice.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
We are looking for a newly qualified solicitor or someone in the process of qualifying as a solicitor to join our Public Law team. This is a full-time role for a fixed term period of 12 months. You will be assisting one of the partners based in the Bristol office. You do not have to be based in Bristol and can be based in our London office but should be willing to travel to the Bristol office.
The role will be to assist in immigration, nationality, asylum- founded public law challenges. These include:
- appeal and review proceedings in the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) including an ongoing §40 BNA deprivation appeal.
- judicial review claims: unlawful immigration detention which requires understanding of deportation under the Immigration Act 1971 and UK Borders Act 2007 including of those with EUSS leave; trafficking public order disqualification claims; other immigration-related judicial reviews requiring understanding/knowledge of the workings of the Refugee Convention; ECHR; ECAT; legislation: BNA 1948 and 1981; Immigration Acts 1971, 2014 and 2016; NIAA 2002; UKBA 2007; NABA 2002; IMA 2023; immigration rules and guidance, including the test for further submissions under paragraph 353
- compensation claims: false imprisonment claims in the County Court which requires knowledge of immigration enforcement law and practice under legislation, Government policy and common law; historic discrimination claims arising from dated discriminatory nationality laws; and Windrush claims.
Applicants must have an understanding of the judicial review process under Part 54 CPR, including in the Upper Tribunal; familiarity with wider CPR and practice directions for the County Court or KBD claims; and SIAC rules.
Applicants that will be considered include NQ solicitors or those who have undertaken SQE exams and are in the process of qualifying as a solicitor in the next few months. Applicants should be accredited under IAAS at Level 2; or OISC level 3; or have worked in immigration practice, all with case-responsibility experience as this role will require you to run cases, albeit with supervision; and assist with ease on larger cases.
We know that diversity makes us a better law firm and helps us attract the best talent, drive innovation with diversity of thought, and deliver the best service to our clients. We recruit on the basis of merit, irrespective of age, disability, gender, gender identity, race or ethnicity, marital status, religion, sex, sexual orientation. We particularly welcome applicants from a minoritized background to apply for this role.
Details of the person specification can be found within the application form below, and the job description can be found here. DPGs aims and values can be found here.
Please quote the job reference 2025/10/BRSOL PL in the subject line of your email.
Closing date: 10.00am Friday 18th July 2025
Applications received after this time cannot be considered.
Interviews: Suitable candidates will be invited to attend a skills test and interview in the week commencing 28th July 2025
Please note that if you have not heard back from us by the week of the 10th of August, that your have not been selected to interview for the role. We thank you in advance for your application and would ask you to reapply in future if not successful this time.
To create a financially sustainable firm that enables us to use the law to empower our clients to hold the state to account for its actions.




The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Rainbow Migration is the longest-running charity in Europe dedicated to supporting LGBTQI+ people through the asylum and immigration system and has been campaigning for their rights since 1993. We are recruiting for a Legal and Support Services Assistant to act as a first point of contact for the charity and assist the legal and support services teams.
The Legal and Support Services Assistant will help ensure smooth delivery of our services. You will be the first point of contact for new queries and play a key role in providing the information needed and passing enquiries to the relevant service.
This role will receive full training and support as required to deliver your responsibilities, which include the following:
- Provide admin support for the legal and support services teams
- Answer calls and emails
- Prioritise enquires from service users or signpost them to other organisations
- Organise legal advice sessions for asylum and partnership service users
- Input data onto our Salesforce database
- Write minutes for legal and support service team meetings
- Assist with organising and running events (e.g. Pride, service user Christmas party)
- Assist with preparations for training and presentations
Rainbow Migration’s vision is that LGBTQI+ people can settle safely in the UK and lead fulfilling lives.
Our values are:
- Safety: We believe everyone should be safe from persecution and safe to be themselves. We strive to create a safe workplace culture, and we place importance on the wellbeing of everyone involved with Rainbow Migration.
- Integrity: We are thorough and honest in everything we do, and we take responsibility for our actions. We want to be accountable to our communities and those who support us.
- Belonging: We welcome and include all LGBTQI+ people, and we celebrate and value their range of experience in terms of gender, religion, race, age, disability status and class. We try to remove obstacles to participation, champion equality and promote a sense of family or home through our services.
- Respect: We believe that every person is equal and deserves the same level of courtesy, care, and attention. We respect the rights, wishes and feelings of our service users, and campaign for their rights to be respected as they go through the asylum and immigration system.
Diversity, inclusion and anti-oppression
At Rainbow Migration, we don’t just accept difference – we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it. We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity. We do not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability status. We consider all qualified applicants, consistent with any legal requirements.
We strive to build a team that reflects the diversity of the community we work in and welcome applications from candidates who have been through the UK asylum system and people of colour, who are currently underrepresented among our staff in relation to our service users.
We are also reviewing what we do and how we do it through an anti-oppression and anti-racism lens, as well as investing in being more informed and led by LGBTQI+ people who have sought asylum.
We offer a guaranteed interview scheme for anyone considered as disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if they meet all the necessary criteria in the person specification. If you wish to qualify under this scheme, please make this clear when applying.
We send a selection of questions in advance of job interviews to give applicants more thinking time. You are welcome to take notes in interviews to help process information. If your interview is online, we can also put questions in the meeting chat. Please let us know if we can make other adjustments to support your interview process.
Owing to the nature of the work, the successful applicant will be required at the point of conditional job offer to disclose all unspent criminal records and subsequently to undergo a basic DBS check. See our website for more information.
Role overview
Contract type: Permanent
Hours: Full-time (35 hours per week Monday to Friday). Occasional work in the evenings and at weekends may be required but with plenty of notice. Rainbow Migration encourages staff to maintain a good work life balance and has a TOIL system in place.
Salary: Starting at £25,244 FTE with potential annual step increases up to £28,412, plus statutory employer’s pension contribution. In addition to an annual step increase, the trustees consider giving a separate inflationary increase every April.
Location: Rainbow Migration’s wheelchair accessible offices are based between Vauxhall and the Oval, London. This role will have an office-based contract but the postholder can choose to work from home for part of the week in agreement with their line manager as per our hybrid working policy. You must be available to work from our offices in London when necessary. The successful candidate would also be welcome to work from the office full-time if that is their preference. At the time of posting this advert, staff mostly work from home. There might also be occasional travel outside London with plenty of notice. Please contact us if you have any questions.
Annual leave: 25 days per year rising after 24 months by 1 day after each year of service to a maximum of 28 days per year (pro rata if working part-time).
Benefits:
- Two days of wellbeing leave to be taken at short notice in each calendar year (pro rata for part-time staff)
- Enhanced parental leave and pay
- Full pay for jury service (up to four weeks), compassionate leave (up to two weeks) and dependants’ leave (up to four days, pro rata for part-time staff)
- Separate salary step and inflationary increases considered every year
- TOIL system
- Hybrid working policy, including possibility of working abroad for 10 working days (pro rata for part-time staff) each year
- Policy on staff loans or salary advances for difficult times
- Work laptop and mobile phone
- Training and learning opportunities
- Occupational health assessments for disabled employees to understand how we can support and make reasonable adjustments
- Employee assistance programme which includes counselling service, wellness advice, legal and money advice, and other matters
- Clinical supervision for staff delivering services (a safe space with an independent therapist to offload and discuss feelings and challenges)
How to apply
Closing date: 9am 25 July 2025
Interview dates: Initial interviews will be online on 7 August 2025. A second round of face-to-face interviews in London will follow.
Please read the job description and person specification. If you have any questions about the role or would like to find out more before applying, then you can contact the line manager via the email in the JD.
Please send to the email in the JD:
- Your CV
- A written statement (max 1,000 words). Instead of a written statement you may submit your statement by video or audio recording (max 8 minutes)
We would also be grateful if you could complete this optional monitoring form (link in JD).
In your statement, please:
- Explain why you are interested in this role and give examples of how you meet the person specification. In addition to what is on your CV, we want to hear about any relevant skills and experience that demonstrate how you meet the necessary criteria for the role, and if you meet any of the advantageous criteria. Skills and experience could be from training, volunteering, interests or life experience
- Confirm if you wish to be considered under the guaranteed interview scheme for anyone considered as disabled under the Equality Act 2010 (physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ effect on your ability to do normal daily activities)
- State how many hours a week you wish to work and if you have a preferred pattern
- Explain if you have used AI to help with your application in any way and the reason why. While AI can be a helpful tool, we expect all applications to reflect your own experiences, qualifications and style of writing. Transparency is valued, so applications that are obviously written with AI without explanation will not be considered
By submitting an application, you:
- Confirm that you have the right to work in the UK and will produce the necessary documentation if you are offered this post.
- Declare that to the best of your knowledge and belief, the information provided with your application is true and correct and that you understand that any false information or statement given will justify your dismissal from Rainbow Migration if appointed.
- Accept that owing to the nature of the work, if successful, you will be required to disclose all spent and unspent criminal records at the point of conditional job offer and subsequently to undergo an enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check. See our website for more information.
We are proud to be a member of the Experts by Experience Employment Network, which aims to create a charitable sector that is led by people with lived experience of the asylum and immigration system. As part of this network, we challenge the one-size-fits-all approach in our employment practices and respect the personal circumstances and needs of people with lived experience.
If you are an expert by experience (a refugee or a migrant with direct, first-hand experience of issues and challenges of the UK asylum or immigration system), you can ask for independent and confidential support for your job application from the Experts by Experience Employment Network. Please complete the form (link in JD) to request support and they will confirm if they can match you with a mentor to support your application.
Privacy notice
If you apply for this role, the information you provide will be processed according to Rainbow Migration's privacy policy. Rainbow Migration will not share your information with any third parties unless part of the recruitment process or are legally required to do so. By applying, you are permitting Rainbow Migration to access and use the information for recruitment purposes. Information is kept for the minimum period necessary, which for CVs, covering statements and/or audio or video submissions for unsuccessful applicants is 12 months after the conclusion of the recruitment campaign. Monitoring information is kept separately and is pseudonymised to avoid identification of applicants. It is amalgamated for statistical purposes and the original data is then deleted after six months.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
We are recruiting for a new Operations Manager to take on a broader and more strategic version of an existing role, with overall responsibility for the operational delivery of our services across three office locations.
The successful candidate will oversee HR, facilities management, IT, and our volunteer programme. You will lead a small but dedicated administrative team and work closely with colleagues at all levels as part of our Senior Management Team (SMT).
We are seeking a practical, solutions-focused and detail-oriented individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment and enjoys improving systems, processes and ways of working— especially within a charity context and with limited resources. You will be confident working with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, including major City law firms who support our pro bono work.
To apply, please share your up-to-date CV together with a cover letter of no more than two pages of A4, setting out how you meet the person specification and why you would like to work with South West London Law Centres.
Please note that applications without a cover letter will not be considered.
The closing date for the post is 29 July 2025 by cob 5 pm with interviews soon after. If you would like to have a brief informal chat to discuss the role, please contact us.