Legal Services team

Our Services

The Legal Services team comprises a small group of solicitors who provide legal advice and support to UCL as an institution across a range of core activities.  

The team is unable to provide advice to individual members of staff or students on matters that are personal or are not of an institutional nature.

Early engagement with Legal Services is critical to ensure that timely and appropriate advice can be provided.

Core UCL activity and other activity

The Legal Services team has to prioritise the provision of advice and support to UCL’s core day to day activities.

If a request for advice does not relate to UCL’s core activities or is revenue generating, it is likely that external advisors will need to be engaged to support the activity.  
Any engagement of external lawyers must be coordinated through the Legal Services team.

Where external advice is required we utilise our significant experience of working within the legal sector to ensure that the project obtains best value for the legal advice required.  Our role is not restricted to identifying appropriately experienced lawyers and obtaining fee proposals for approval by the project team.  We will also manage every aspect of the relationship with the external advisors, coordinating the provision of advice and ensuring full instructions are given to external advisors.

Disputes with third parties

You should notify the Legal Services team as soon as you become aware that any individual or organisation is considering a legal claim against or involving UCL.  

If you receive formal notice of any legal action against UCL, you must provide details and relevant documentation to the Legal Services team immediately. 

Disputes with employees should be notified to the HR team immediately.

Engagement with Legal Services

The Legal Services team works closely with Professional Services and other teams / functions within UCL across a broad range of activity.  It is usually best to contact the relevant team / function within UCL first and they will then liaise with the Legal Services team if they require legal assistance.  Some examples of matters and the appropriate team are as follows:

Matter	Team
Student Matters	Student & Registry Services
Data Protection / FOI	Data Protection/FOI Officer
Funded Research	Research Services
Insurance	Insurance Team
Industry Placements	Student & Registry Services
NDAs & MOUs	Faculty Enterprise Team
Purchasing goods or services	Procurement
Staff Consultancy	UCL Consultants
Staffing/HR Issues	Human Resources
IP Commercialisation	UCL Business
IP Policies	Library Services / Innovation and Enterprise
Property Issues	Estates
Alumni / Fundraising	VP Development
International Activity	Global Engagement Office
Teaching / Consumer Protection	Student & Registry Services