Sweeping cuts to legal aid have made accessing legal advice, representation and vital protection orders impossible for many victims of domestic abuse. Recognising the enormous need for end-to-end representation for victims of domestic abuse, a group of leading law firms have combined their resources to launch the Domestic Abuse Response Alliance (DARA).

DARA was founded by Sam Cottman, Director of Pro Bono at Travers Smith. The founding member firms that comprise DARA are Travers Smith, Debevoise & Plimpton; Gibson Dunn & Crutcher; Hogan Lovells; Latham & Watkins; Reed Smith and Slaughter and May.

DARA will represent individuals who are not eligible for legal aid but who cannot afford to pay for private representation. It will provide them with help, support and representation from the outset to the conclusion of their court proceedings seeking protective injunctions against their abuser, providing an invaluable resource to help survivors who would otherwise be at huge risk.

DARA sits as one of LawWorks' (https://www.lawworks.org.uk/) secondary specialisation projects and will take referrals from the National Centre for Domestic Violence (https://www.ncdv.org.uk/). It is supervised by leading specialist family law firm, Beck Fitzgerald (https://beckfitzgerald.co.uk/), under the guidance of Jenny Beck QC (Hon).

Treebeard provides multi-year unrestricted funding to DARA.