Legal Assistance for AFAF members

AFAF offers advice and support for members based on our extensive experience of case work in the sector. However, we recognise that some members may need formal legal advice. To assist them we have partnered with the law firm Doyle Clayton, who specialize in the law around free speech on campus and academic freedom (as well as employment and discrimination matters more generally), to provide discounted legal advice to AFAF members – details available on request.

Additionally, for those involved in the implementation of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 (HE Act) at their institution, Doyle Clayton offer a fixed price audit and advice package. More details can be found here:

Members who require legal advice should contact James Murray at [email protected]

Profile of James Murray, Legal Director at Doyle Clayton

James is an employment and higher education lawyer. He is an expert on the law around academic freedom and free expression on campus. He has advised institutions, academics, think tanks, politicians and Government. He has published multiple articles on academic freedom, in addition to submissions of evidence to the United Nations, the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (twice), and the House of Commons Public Bill Committee in relation to the HE Act.

James regularly helps both individual academics and academic institutions with complex employment and free expression issues, including both disputes and compliance matters (e.g. on the HE Act).

He is a Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham. He has published several academic papers on the law concerning academic freedom and free expression on campus, a topic on which he regularly speaks and writes in the national press.