Assisting Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

Latham helped found the Domestic Abuse Response Alliance (DARA) in 2022 to bridge the gap in legal services for domestic abuse survivors in England who cannot afford private representation. This alliance of law firms counsels clients experiencing all forms of abuse — including sexual and physical violence, control, coercion, and psychological or emotional abuse. In fall 2025, DARA took on its 300th case.

For many of DARA’s clients, the legal assistance is lifechanging. As one client recounted, “I felt so understood by the Latham lawyer assigned to my case. … I was supported in the court room and was granted the non-molestation order, for which I feel to a certain extent safer in my life.”

In 2024, London colleagues assisted Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA), as they released an impactful report raising awareness of economic abuse. “Locked into a mortgage, locked out of my home” details the ways in which approximately 750,000 UK survivors have had their lives devastated by their current or former partner weaponizing a joint mortgage against them. In conjunction with the financial services industry, SEA is urging the UK government to set up an economic abuse task force to prevent abusers from using joint mortgages to destroy lives, and is working toward a framework which helps financial services firms provide victim-survivors with support in cases of jointly owned mortgage property.

"I felt so understood by the Latham lawyer assigned to my case. … I was supported in the court room and was granted the non-molestation order, for which I feel to a certain extent safer in my life."

Domestic Abuse Response Alliance participant 

UK-based colleagues also continue to work with Killed Women in furthering its campaign to protect women, improve access to justice, and support families.

Further, we support Tender Education and Arts, which aims to prevent incidents of domestic abuse and sexual violence through an arts-based education program, and take part in the presentation of workshops run by the Schools Consent Project, a charity that delivers educational workshops on such topics such as consent and bystander intervention.

In the US, we advise clients of long-established partner organizations such as Human Options, a nonprofit offering education and shelter for those affected by relationship violence, and Laura’s House, which provides shelter and support to families experiencing domestic violence. Additionally, colleagues in Bay Area represent domestic violence survivors seeking restraining orders in partnership with Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto.