Use of the Directory by the Public

This page is for those using this website to search for lawyers. Please see Our Aims  and our Business Case for Race Diversity as to why this site was set up.

The Directory will allow the public and businesses to find lawyers and provide employers with a dynamic tool to support their diversity recruitment strategies. It can also help users of legal services to view the diversity of the organisations they had instructed or intend to instruct as part of their supplier diversity strategy.

Those listed in this Directory are largely UK individual lawyers, UK organisations with at least one black minority ethnic lawyer (BME) and organisations that have advertised their job vacancies on the site.

To find a lawyer on the site, where you know the specific name of the lawyer or the organisation you are searching for, please enter this in the "SEARCH THIS SITE" box, which is at the top of every page and next to the "Member's Login" icon (the pen) or enter a keyword in that box. Then click "GO".

To carry out a general search, that is where you do not have a specific name, you can search by location and/or type of work by choosing a location and/or type of law (which is the area of law on which you need advice) under "FIND A LAWYER", which is shaded in green and is at the top right hand corner of every page. Then click "SEARCH NOW".

By using the Advanced Directory Search feature, you also have the option of carrying out searches by listing specific criteria of the lawyer or organisation you are looking for, such as whether they do Legal Aid (publicly-funded) work, the languages spoken and the type of work.

Please note that if your search returns a nil result, the organisation or lawyer is yet to be listed. For more information, please see our General Information Pack. Please also note that some of the lawyers listed are in-house lawyers, that is they are employed as the organisations' lawyers to advise those organisations only. Examples are local authority lawyers and lawyers employed by corporations.

Please also note that where your search result returns an individual barrister or a barristers' chambers, you can normally instruct them only through a Professional Client Access, such as a solicitor or a legal advice centre or where you have a Licensed Access. However, in certain limited matters, such as immigration and asylum and family and criminal proceedings (where proceedings have already started), you may instruct directly. For further information about this issue, please see the Bar Council's website further on Public Access Information for Lay Clients  and view the Public Access Directory.

A BLD search is a purely web-based service. If you have a query, please help us to keep our overheads down by first reading this page and viewing our Frequently Asked Questions where you may find the answer to your query. If not, please contact us by sending an email to us at info@onlineBLD.com.