Northumbria- A case study

In house

Open to the public (not just staff/students)

Works like a lawyer’s office

Key Features of the Student Law Office

A large clinic – 188 students this year, and 22 supervisors

Well established – over 20 years

Full casework model - 400 cases per annum

Since 2008- over 3000 enquiries, secured over £1 million for clients, and advised over 1000 clients

What are we?

Employment Housing Consumer Family Welfare Benefits Human rights Crime and miscarriages of justice Civil Charities Business advice planning

Areas of Law

Compulsory for Mlaw 4 Year route students

Graded

40% of the students’ final year

Integrated learning

Year 2 – Interviewing experience, problem based learning, legal drafting

Year 3 – simulated file management, interviewing, problem based learning

Integrated learning

All staff are on academic contracts

2/3 of the 20 or so academics who staff the clinic have other academic teaching duties in the school

Integrated Staffing

Different clinical projects

Joint clinic project with local law firm

12 students◦ Drop in advice◦ Some supervision provided by the law firm◦ Some provided by clinic staff◦ Includes referral system

Legal Advice Byker project

Who benefits?

Benefits for law firm Benefits for clinic/students

Increase client base Preview students as

potential trainees Publicity Fulfil corporate

responsibility

Contact with local profession

Expose students to law office

Intense learning experience

Shelter advice worker to email enquiry to Student Law Office

Enquiry passed via supervisor to student to prepare draft practical legal research, and

advice letter for supervisor within 2 weeks Supervisor to amend these to be sent back

to Shelter within deadline of 3 weeks

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Shelter Partnership

Discipline working within tight deadlines

Developed skills – research and written communications, time management

Gave comparative experience of clinical work- but reflective aspect to be developed further

Wide range of housing enquiries

 Benefits

Student volunteers Trained by CAB to carry out ‘gateway

advice’- a form of triage Supervised entirely by CAB staff CAB qualification at the end

Citizens Advice Bureau ( local not for profit advice agency) project

14 students from GDL,LPC and BPTC Links to Eversheds

New ‘Streetlaw in Schools’ project – a further 14 students from Mlaw

Voluntary and non assessed

Streetlaw project

Practical issues in running clinic

Groups to consider ; Issues arising from these questions and Potential solutions - what advice you can offer on this question from your experience?

1) Clinic design- things like….. Setting up and running clinic from scratch  Admin support Insurance 

2) Models of clinic – things like…….

Drop in referral secondments Added value- clinic as training Training contracts, Northumbria’s MLaw 5 yr route and other work based learning models  3) Supervision  - things like…..

Students carrying out reserved work Student workloads Staff workload Covering holiday periods Control of cases

 

What are we asking groups to do?

Compulsory (and assessed) or voluntary? Who takes ownership- and responsibility? Any admin support needed? Safeguarding your reputation for excellence Protecting the interests of students...

General issues

Advice and referral only? Open to members of the university only? Limited areas of law? Limited inherent risk in cases? – high value?

Emergencies? Short time limits? When will you be open? What happens in university holidays? Have

you sufficient cover in the event of illness/absence ?

Be realistic about what can be achieved

Admin support – paid/student? Space to work Space to meet Space to interview Filing Paper Post library IT Insurance

Resources

confidentiality- email, data

storage, who sees client files

money laundering, fraud-

identity checksClient Complaints

Supervision of work

Disability and discrimination Conflict checks

Ensure the clinic has policies and proceduresProfessional conduct

risks

In the office

Student/staff external

visits

Contingency plans for

catastrophe

Procedures relating to risk assessment

• Educate and involve the law faculty• Make the pedagogic case for clinic• Try to ensure core income is

assured ( from the university?)

• Build research capacity-develop reputation

• Place clinic at the heart of the learning experience

• Get policy makers on side

•Get the profession on side• Better new lawyers for them• Corporate social responsibility?

•Use the clinic to attract new students

University,faculty and academic community profession

Public students

•Awards, publications•General Publicity – tv, newspapers, internet

•

Top ten tips for sustaining clinic