The Experience of Establishing and Maintaining Pro Bono Projects Within an Educational

The Experience of Establishing and Maintaining Pro bono Projects within an Educational Setting: A Narrative

Lydia Bleasdale-Hill Lecturer and Clinic Director University of Leeds

1 Introduction In December 2009 I was granted a University Teaching Fellowship by the University of Leeds. Fellowships are awarded to staff wishing to develop a project which will enhance the learning and teaching experience of students at the institution. My broad aim was to establish how other institutions have developed and maintained their pro bono projects, in order to see what the University of Leeds and other institutions could learn from those experiences. The School of Law at Leeds has a fairly recent history of developing pro bono projects. Although volunteering has always been heavily engaged in by its students, the development of sustainable ‘in-house’ projects first began in earnest in 2005 with the University of Leeds Innocence Project. This was followed by a wider range of projects capable of being offered as a result of the employment of a specific member of staff, part of whose remit was to develop such opportunities. I wanted to use my Fellowship to establish whether the range of opportunities we offered as a School was sustainable and whether we might be better focusing our efforts on specific projects (rather than continually developing new ones). I also wanted to establish what role, if any, students could realistically play in the School doing so. A further intention was to create a narrative of how specific projects came to fruition, problems encountered along the way, aspirations for the future and advice for those who might be at an earlier stage in the process of establishing such projects. My hope was that I could create a resource which would serve as a useful starting point for anyone wishing to establish a pro bono project at their institution, as well as potentially assisting those who might be encountering problems with existing problems to overcome those difficulties (by learning from the experiences of others). The result is this report, which draws upon a number of interviews conducted with clinical/pro bono directors at several institutions. The interviews were conducted during July – November 2010, with each taking a slightly different focus. I am grateful to each director who took the time to be interviewed and to review the resulting draft report, particularly at what were often busy times during the academic year.

2 University of Leeds Keywords: Running an Innocence Project; establishing and running a Legal Advice Clinic; funding; publicity Contact: Lydia Bleasdale-Hill ([email protected]) The University of Leeds School of Law first started to offer specific volunteering opportunities to students in 2002/03, when a group of undergraduate students (including myself!) started a pro bono committee. We decided that in order to demonstrate to staff that student support for pro bono activities existed we would start off with a relatively self-contained project, run in conjunction with Education Leeds. A mentoring programme with a few local schools was established through that organisation, and a selection of Law undergraduates mentored Law A-level students through a year of their study. This project proved successful and in the following academic year the (extremely active) student Law Society opted to elect a pro bono officer to a Law Society position for the first time. Since then pro bono at Leeds has grown to include a range of projects, some of which are law-focused e.g. a Legal Advice Clinic, an Innocence Project, Streetlaw, a corporate social responsibility project, mentoring schemes and fundraising activities through various committees. Some of these are run by, or with the help of, the Law Society’s pro bono secretary, but most are run either by an academic member of staff, or by the School’s WP/pro bono officer. The academic member of staff running the Innocence Project and the Legal Advice Clinic is given time within the workload allocation to do so. The WP/pro bono officer is employed to administer the Pathways to Law project four days per week, 1 and pro bono activities one day per week. This piece will discuss the establishment and running of the Legal Advice Clinic and the running of the Innocence Project by myself, as Director of both (2009-11). Due to space restrictions, and in keeping with the entire report, the other activities run by the School of Law will not be discussed in any further detail. Colleagues interested in knowing more about any of the activities (e.g. Streetlaw; mentoring) are encouraged to contact Herabans Kaur ([email protected])

Legal Advice Clinic2 The Legal Advice Clinic opened in October 2009, following a period of approximately nine months preparation. The Clinic operates a written advice-only service during term-time, and works with two local solicitors firms (Ford and Warren3 and Henry Hyams4) in doing so. The areas we offer advice in are family law, employment law, housing law, debt, consumer law and contract law. In the first year of operation (2009-10) the Clinic dealt with 97 queries from members of the public, and interviewed and advised 23. Here is a summary of the areas of law we were contacted about:

1 https://www.pathwaystolaw.org.uk/

2 http://www.law.leeds.ac.uk/about/legal-advice-clinic.php

3 http://www.forwarn.com/

4 http://www.henryhyams.com/

3 Total Employmen Housing Debt Consumer Persona Immigratio Crimina Unknown Ot client t complaint l injury n l her contac s matters ma t tter s 97 14 25 3 9 2 2 8 3 31

Feedback from clients, students and solicitors about the first year of operation was overwhelmingly positive. Partly in recognition of this, the Clinic received two awards in its first year of operation. One was a national award (the Higher Education Academy Student Project Award), and the other was a University award (the University of Leeds LeedsforLife Partnership Award). Thus far in 2010-115 we have been contacted by 76 clients. Feedback received thus far has been entirely positive, particularly from clients who have secured refunds on purchases as a result of the advice dispensed.

How does our Clinic operate? The Clinic at Leeds allows students to perform two roles within teams of three for one academic year: an administrative role, and an interviewing/advising role. Unlike some other Clinics, ours does not have any paid administrative support, so during term time the students must perform this role. Outside of term time the Clinic Director performs the role. The administrative ‘office manager’ role requires the students to do the following: - Check the Clinic phone at least once per day (ideally twice) for messages, as well as their Clinic and University email accounts - Maintain the client database and all aspects of the Clinic’s work on the N drive. The N drive is the University’s secure network which only authorised people are allowed access to. All the students on the project have to be granted access to it at the start of the academic year and this access is removed at the end of the academic year. - Take details from potential clients about their case over the phone, and complete both a hard and electronic copy of the relevant form - Liaise with myself as Clinic Director about whether the case is suitable. - Refer clients to other organisations, or make appointments for them (including completing all paperwork to be sent to the client) - Confirm client attendance in the week of their appointment - Complete any outstanding tasks from the previous week’s office manager team and type up notes for the incoming office managers at the end of each week

5 As of 28.02.11

4 - Greet clients and solicitors on the day of interviews and be on hand to perform any relevant administrative roles. - Complete an evaluation form at the end of their week as office manager. As Director I review these and respond to any issues arising. Students typically perform this role four times over the course of the academic year. They perform the interviewing/advising role up to three times per year, although sometimes difficulties with clients not attending/slots being left open mean that this number is reduced. The interviewing/advising role requires the students to familiarise themselves with the client’s problem; devise their interview questions; liaise with their supervising solicitor about those questions and their subsequent advice letter; and conduct the client interview themselves. For the benefit of those who might be considering establishing a Clinic, there follows an account of how our Clinic works from the moment of initial client contact through to the end of a case:

First client contact and arranging the appointment – Office manager  Client telephones for an appointment and usually leaves a message; the office manager rings back. If an office manager is in the office at the time when the phone rings, they don’t have to wait for the client to leave a message.  The office manager completes a telephone interview pro forma (TIPF), taking brief details of the case from the client, as well as basic contact information. The Clinic Director and a relevant supervising solicitor then decide whether the case is suitable for the Clinic. Factors taken into account include urgency, complexity, available expertise, potential conflicts of interest and whether or not the case is likely to be of educational benefit to the students. I am extremely fortunate to have one point of contact at each firm who takes the decision whether that firm can help – this saves me having to chase up different solicitors.  If the Clinic cannot help, the client is told why and, where possible, alternative sources of help are suggested.  If the Clinic can help, the office manager allocates the case to a student team (with guidance from the Director), makes an appointment with the client over the phone and confirms the appointment in writing with the client. The client will also be sent written details of the nature and extent of the service provided. Office managers must complete a check-list during this process to make sure the client is given all the relevant information. Office managers are repeatedly reminded that at no point should they give anything which can construed as advice over the phone, but this is why we have back-up insurance through Advice UK – just in case!  In all accepted cases the firm which would be supervising the case checks whether there is a conflict of interest before the client is sent an appointment letter. We as a Clinic also check that there is no conflict from our perspective.  The office manager saves the TIPF and copies of all correspondence sent to the client on the N drive, under the client’s name. The office manager emails the relevant

5 student team (using the Clinic email accounts) to tell them there is a client waiting for them in their file, and tells them the interview date. The Clinic Director is copied into these emails

Pre-interview: student teams Student advisors must check the subfolder containing their client’s information before the interview date. This gives the advisors the opportunity to carry out any preliminary research that may be necessary after reading the TIPF and to devise their interview questions. Once these are drafted, they should be emailed to the supervising solicitor from the relevant Clinic email account (copying the Director in). The Director/the database will confirm who this is – their email address will usually be contained on the N drive.

The interview day  Student advisors should decide who is asking which questions before the solicitor(s) and client arrive. The advisors meet with their supervising solicitor(s) fifteen minutes prior to the interview to discuss how they intend to conduct the interview. They will be supervised throughout the case by the same supervising solicitor(s).  Before starting the interview student advisors inform the client verbally of the nature and extent of the service offered by the Clinic, including the fact that advice can only be given in writing after the case has been researched. The advisors then interview the client. A supervising solicitor is always available for consultation but does not take part in the interview. This is a fact-finding exercise. No advice is given at this stage, and no opinion is offered on the client’s situation.  Once student advisors have asked all of their questions, they should check whether the supervising solicitor has anything to add.  Following the interview, the student advisors and supervising solicitor have a post- interview review. They discuss whether the case is suitable for the Clinic to advise on and, if so, how the advisors intend to progress the case.  On the same day as the interview, the student advisors draft a letter informing the client whether the Clinic can advise him or her. If we can the client is also told when the advice letter will be ready (normally within fourteen working days of the interview). If the Clinic cannot advise (for example, because a previously unknown conflict has arisen, or because the problem is much more complex than initially expected), the client is given the reason and, where relevant, referred on to another agency which may be able to help. Thus far we have always been able to advise each client who we have held an interview with.  If the Clinic is able to help, the student advisors agree an action plan with the supervising solicitor to conduct and record factual and legal research. The advisors

6 also arrange a deadline (within 7 days – i.e. by the following Wednesday) by which by which they will send the supervising solicitor the first draft of an advice letter.

Post-interview  Student advisors draft their advice letter and send this from their Clinic email account, along with the completed research pro forma, to the supervising solicitor. The students are told to copy the Director into all correspondence with the solicitor, no matter how trivial it may seem. The supervising solicitor scrutinises the draft advice letter and approves or suggests appropriate amendments. In practice, it takes advisors several drafts to produce a professionally-acceptable advice letter, but at times solicitors will make the amendments themselves (e.g. because of time constraints). Exceptionally, if the period exceeds 14 working days, the client is advised of the delay. When the advice letter is eventually approved, the supervising solicitor will sign it and post it. The Clinic never sends advice letters.  Student advisors post the client an evaluation questionnaire, along with a covering letter. These are not always responded to, but when they are the feedback is made available to the students and the solicitors.

Post-case On conclusion of the case, all students are asked to complete an Experience Evaluation Form. The Director considers all of these, and will respond where necessary.

Issues to consider during the process of planning a Clinic I was able to work through many of the planning issues by drawing upon the expertise of LawWorks, as well as that of Julie at QMU (who proved invaluable when it came to discussing the matter of insurance and reassuring me that it would all be worth it!). I also had to discuss many of the issues with the University lawyer (who needed to be convinced that the processes were as watertight as possible), and the Head of School and the School’s Director of Learning and Teaching. I also gained official approval for the Clinic through the School’s Senior Management Team – you might want to consider whether it is possible to ‘rubberstamp’ your own Clinic in this way, just in case there are problems in the future. Before opening, the following factors had to be considered:  How would the Clinic be supervised? Based on existing models, the options appeared to be using exclusively in-house staff, exclusively external lawyers, or a combination of both. Whilst the School does have a number of former solicitors amongst its staff, the decision was taken to use external supervisors for three main reasons: 1. The cost of insuring the in-house staff could potentially be prohibitive; 2. It was thought it would be beneficial to students to work with solicitors from law firms e.g. for future career purposes; and

7 3. Working with external solicitors offered an opportunity for the School to develop and consolidate relationships with external partners.

 Would the Clinic only be open to members of the University (e.g. just students), or would it be open to other members of the public? The University already offers two services to staff and students experiencing problems. The Student Union runs an Advice Centre6 which offers assistance with a range of areas, and the University offers a staff advice service in conjunction with the CAB.7 The availability of these services, combined with a feeling that the Clinic would offer an opportunity to ‘open out’ campus to people living in the surrounding areas, meant the decision was taken to offer the service to both members of the University and members of the wider community. Contact was made with the Student Union prior to opening, to ensure that there was no sense of the Clinic being ‘in competition’ with that pre- existing provision. Wherever possible, we refer students with housing problems for example to the Union, unless we are short of clients at the time when they make contact with us.

 Would the Clinic limit the area its clients could come from? There was no reason to do so e.g. no funding restrictions were in place, so the decision was taken to accept clients from any part of the country. We have been contacted by people around the country, although coincidentally thus far all of those advised have lived within the Yorkshire region.

 Which areas of law would the Clinic assist with? It was accepted that this would to some extent have to be determined by the lawyers willing to work with us, but at the same time areas which might be of use to people in the local community had to be identified. No comprehensive analysis was done of the local area – something which new Clinics might want to consider undertaking – but it was recognised that the areas surrounding the University were relatively impoverished. The feeling was that ‘traditional’ Clinic areas such as housing and employment would be relevant to people living in the area, something which has proven to be the case.

 Would clients be means tested? Although this is something which might become necessary as and when our service becomes more in demand, the decision was taken at the outset not to means test potential clients. Doing so would be very time- consuming, and (as Director), I lack the relevant experience in doing so.

6 http://www.leedsuniversityunion.org.uk/helpandadvice/

7 http://www.leeds.ac.uk/hr/support/advice_line.htm

8  How would the Clinic be funded? The Clinic has been fortunate enough to receive financial and practical support from the School of Law, as well as from a learning and teaching fund. The Clinic was given its own office by the School and the School pays for the back-up insurance. I was also successful in obtaining £3000 from the White Rose Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning of Enterprise (now replaced by the Leeds Enterprise Centre)8 to establish and run the Clinic. These funds allowed me to purchase relevant materials and books, pay for the parking costs for solicitors, purchase launch materials and to learn from the experiences of others at relevant conferences.

 How would the Clinic be advertised? I have advertised through the following methods:  Leafleting surgeries, libraries, small shops, takeaways, cafes etc (but not on the street: your area might be different, but Leeds City Council takes a dim view of unauthorised leafleting on the street). Clients who have completed our client feedback sheet often mention having picked up a leaflet in a library – these seem a good place to start.  Website: The Clinic has its own website which comes up through Google.9 In addition to this, I have made use of opportunities to promote ourselves through the University staff website and the University’s monthly newsletter. I have supplemented this with emails to students when we have been desperate for clients: I think we need to strike a greater balance between not stepping on the toes of existing services in the University and making clear that we can provide a range of services which they are not able to offer e.g. family law advice.  Local community organisations: before the Clinic opened I did try to make contact with the primary advice provider within the local area, but received no response (due to a staff changeover, it transpires). I have now however established a relationship with them and although we have had no clients referred to us from them, this link did lead to us becoming an associate member of a Leeds-wide advice service network, Advice Leeds.10 This provides an opportunity for us to advertise our services with other providers in the local area, to influence policy, and to learn from the experiences of others.  Paying for a prime slot on the Gumtree website. I did find another Leeds- based website advertising local services, but after spotting some racist comments on it I did not use it. I did not want our Clinic associated with that sort of website, so this is something to be aware of.

8 http://lec.leeds.ac.uk/

9 http://www.law.leeds.ac.uk/about/legal-advice-clinic.php

10 http://www.adviceleeds.org.uk/

9  Leafleting at a local community day, Unity Day.11 This was, by my own admission, hampered by a lack of forward-planning on my part: I only realised the event was on the day before it occurred (having just returned from holiday), and so I was rather rushed in getting information together for the organisers. It was still useful because I managed to make contact with someone working within a local community centre (of which I had previously been unaware), and she offered to make leaflets available within that centre.  One of my students held a Union committee position last year, and volunteered to raise the profile of the Clinic through her community work.  Although other Clinics have found success with engaging the media, I have struggled to do so to some extent. The press office sent out a press release about the opening of the Clinic, but this received no attention at all. I have subsequently managed to engage the local media myself (using the BBC Leeds website).12 Emails to local radio stations and newspaper journalists have come to nothing (even when they have previously reported on, for example, the opening of the Innocence Project). However, I have recently been contacted by a journalist expressing an interest in the Innocence Project, which resulted in a discussion about the possibility of the Legal Advice Clinic featuring as a story on the local television news programme.

 Would the Clinic offer advice only, or would it offer representation as well? The decision was taken to offer advice only, as this was less complicated/risky than offering representation as well.

 Would the advice extend to completing forms for clients for example? The decision was taken not to do so. This was for a number of reasons, but the main one was that I was keen to stick to a standard format of providing advice (namely by letter only and only after the interview). The need to do so was enhanced by the fact that one of the solicitors the Clinic works with would require someone within his firm to sign off the advice given (because he is not three years PQE), and that supervision could not be provided within the Clinic itself.

 How would the Clinic be insured? The potential supervising solicitors were approached on the understanding that the Clinic would have back-up insurance, but that the advice letters themselves would be insured by the firm which had supervised the case and would be sent from their offices on their headed paper. Two firms readily agreed to this; another firm had no difficulty insuring the advice but came up against an insurmountable problem in terms of sending the letters out on their headed paper. If they did so they would, as a matter of company policy, have to create a client file and run through the relevant money laundering checks

11 http://www.unityday.org.uk/

12 http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/leeds/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8995000/8995368.stm

10 for each client. This proved to be a difficulty which we could not overcome. Although we could have in theory said we as a Clinic would send the letters out and insure them ourselves, this would have created a disparity between the ways in which different firms were dealing with the Clinic. This was naturally unwelcome and I was personally happier with the firms insuring the advice and sending the letters themselves.

 Would the Clinic be co-curricular, or assessed? The decision was taken to make the Clinic a voluntary, co-curricular activity which is open to School of Law students in their second year or above. The Clinic is currently in its second year of operation and remains non-assessed, although this might have to change in order to ensure the workload required to run it is appropriately recognised. There are several reasons why it currently remains non-assessed however and these are worth bearing in mind when considering whether to move to an assessed model: 1. I cannot at present guarantee sufficient parity in the experience students have on the Clinic. For example, this academic year we have been left with several interview slots unfilled (despite a reasonably large number of people contacting us), so some students have already conducted two interviews and others have conducted none (due to the way in which the rota, which details which team has an interview and when, has worked out). Even when attempts have been made to amend the rota to ensure a more equitable experience these have not always been successful (I have one very jinxed team who have thus far had two slots left unfilled, an interview cancelled due to the extremely heavy snow we experienced before Christmas, and a client who was a ‘no show’!). At present the students accept that that is just ‘the way of the world’: I am not sure they would be as pragmatic if marks were riding on those interviews and I would certainly suffer even more sleepless nights if that were the case! 2. The students themselves do not want this to be an assessed activity. In common with the Innocence Project students (discussed below), the students consistently say they value this as a co-curricular opportunity and they feel employers value it as a considerable burden on their time outside of their academic work. This, they feel, assists them in demonstrating clear time management skills 3. Finally, there is of course the mode of assessment to consider. For example, would you incorporate an assessment of their practical legal skills e.g. interviewing skills? If so, do you have sufficient experience and expertise to do so? If you incorporate a reflective exercise within the assessment, would your more ‘traditional’ colleagues accept that as a suitably taxing mode of assessment? How would you ensure it was sufficiently taxing and achieve parity with the assessment method used in other modules?

From planning to launching  Engaging solicitors Once the issues above had been resolved, I had to start the process of engaging solicitors (as without them, according to our model, there could be no Clinic). I was extremely

11 fortunate as far as this element of the Clinic was concerned. I got one firm on board through a friend of mine who is a solicitor at that firm (he was keen to work with us and is the only solicitor from that firm to do so). Having one firm on board gave me greater confidence in approaching other firms, which I started to do through the University Alumni Engagement Office. They were fantastically helpful in providing me with the names of senior Alumni at local firms, but before I could even start contacting them the Alumni Office contacted me to say they thought one firm in particular might be interested. The managing partner of that firm is an alumnus of the School of Law and he was keen to see the firm engage with the University at a greater level. The initial conversation he wanted to have with the School was about expanding the number of prizes the firm funded from one to five, but he also responded positively to the idea of their being involved in the Clinic. He accepted the model proposed and the firm developed a clear process for approving clients sent through by the Clinic. This involved appointing one associate solicitor as the point of contact at the firm for all Clinic matters. This solicitor, together with his PA, approves cases for supervision by the firm and allocates each case to a supervising solicitor. Initially a third firm was also involved, but sadly they were unable to continue with their involvement due to staffing issues. I used a pre-existing contact with them to get them on board and would advocate making use of any such contacts which you might have. I had initially dismissed the idea of trying to involve this firm and the firm for whom my friend works because I thought it would either be cheeky to ask, or they would already be doing so much work in a similar field that they would not want to help (the firm my friend works for sees about 50 per cent of their work come from legal aid, or certainly did at the time when I was setting our Clinic up). However, both firms proved me wrong: this taught me a valuable lesson in just asking – all they can do is say no. Finally, there were prolonged discussions with the firm mentioned previously which was eventually unable to overcome the problem with the advice letters going out on their headed paper. Although it would have been fantastic to have them on board – they are an international firm with an excellent reputation – I took the view that it was most important to ensure that the law firms all followed broadly the same processes and procedures as far as this crucial element of the Clinic was concerned. Others might take a different view, but for me the politics of allowing one large firm to be treated differently to a smaller, local firm was too troublesome. Once the firms were all on board I confirmed the nature of their involvement and their remit via a contract (approved by the University lawyer).

 Policies and procedures - Paperwork A great deal of paperwork goes into creating and running a Clinic. As an overview, I compiled the following (and am happy to share these with interested parties):  A student handbook, detailing everything they should know about the clinic. I adapted the version kindly made available through the LawWorks website.  A solicitor handbook, making clear how the Clinic would work and what their role within it was

12  Telephone interview pro formas, for the students to complete when on the phone to prospective clients  Various checklists for the students to complete when on the phone to clients (including – calling clients back for the first time; making an appointment; referring clients). These checklists remind the students of what they need to tell the client, and provide a check for me that they have followed procedures.  Client information sheet: this details everything the client might need to know about the Clinic, in order to ensure they know what service we can provide  Client and student evaluation questionnaires, for distribution when a case finishes. I used to provide solicitors with a questionnaire to complete about the students, but I found that many provided informal feedback on the day of the interview, and after the advice letter was sent out.  Contracts for the solicitor firms

In addition to these paper documents, there are numerous electronic copies to be created e.g. client appointment letters, research records, and the client database. A reliable system of recording client contact and appointments needs to be established and should ideally be available in electronic form (so that you do not need to check a paper diary in the office for example). We record every client who contacts us for monitoring purposes, so that we know how many people are contacting us every semester and which areas of law their problems fall within. Whenever we refer people we record where they have been referred to.

- Client confidentiality Client confidentiality is of course a major issue when running a Clinic. In our old office we had lockable filing cabinets where all information was stored, and students were instructed not to leave anything out of those cabinets. In our new office we have a lockable store cupboard shared by both the Clinic and Innocence Projects. Students on both projects sign a confidentiality agreement before starting work. Again, nothing which could identify clients is to be left outside of that area. A concern I had in our first year of operation was that the students were sending and receiving information about clients – including advice letters – from their general University email accounts. I was concerned that this was not secure enough: although they were told that under no condition should they work on Clinic work outside of the Clinic office, my concern was that they might nonetheless open up a client advice letter in a shared computer cluster for example. I therefore worked with the IT rep to create individual Clinic email accounts for each student which can only be accessed from the Clinic computers. This also gives them access to the general Clinic account which clients email us at, although I am the only one who responds to clients in that manner (it makes it easier to keep track of what has been done). This does mean that they have to go into the Clinic regularly just to check if they have anything back from the solicitor, although we have avoided that problem to some extent by me emailing them when a solicitor has responded (I am always copied in), or when they have a new client (without revealing any names). This has created an extra job for me, but it does at least mean the email system is more secure. It should be noted that the Advice

13 Leeds network will not share client information by email unless it is encrypted, so you might encounter solicitors who take that approach.

- Client and student security and safety Thankfully we have not encountered any rude or hostile clients or potential clients yet, but I have made a point of ensuring the number for security is available for the students if needed. I am also present at every interview for that reason and I have had a CRB check because we could be working with vulnerable people according to the CRB’s criteria (as well under 18s of course).

Recruiting students I took the decision to advertise to undergraduate students across the Law School in the first year and extended the application process to postgraduates in its second year of operation (although no postgraduates applied). The students are informed of the opportunity via email/posters and we now have a system whereby all first years are provided with information about all the School’s pro bono opportunities during Intro Week as well. Students are invited to submit an application to be part of the Clinic for one academic year. In both the first and second year of operation I was able to review these applications alongside their academic marks for the previous academic year, something which I would recommend. I made it explicit during the application process for the second year of operation that I would be doing so and asked students to make clear if they felt there were any circumstances which might have affected their ability to perform to the best of their abilities. I have found it useful to take academic ability into account: although it is not a reliable indicator of how “practical” someone is going to be, or how well they are going to put a client at ease in an interview situation for example, I can say that those students who perform at the higher end of the academic spectrum have in my experience been some of the best performers on the Clinic. This is not to say that I look for students with high 2.1s or Firsts only - I will basically accept anyone with a 2.2 or above, depending on the strength of their application (and it is their application which I give most weight to). I also specifically target students I know to come from a widening participation background (according to School records), and encourage them to apply. Widening participation students can sometimes lack the confidence to put themselves forward in this manner and I want to ensure they have an opportunity to work alongside solicitors (something which they might not be able to do through, for example, family contacts). There is no expectation that the students have already studied particular areas of law e.g. land law, family law, employment law. Although one student has complained that this left her at a ‘disadvantage’ when it came to the interviewing and advising element of her case, I take the view that this is a valuable learning experience in and of itself. After all, many solicitors in training will have to do seats in areas of law they have never previously studied, so in my view this says more about the attitude of the student than the way in which the Clinic is run. In the first year of operation I discovered that one student was, in the eyes of another volunteer, being rude to members of her group and to clients on the phone. I never personally witnessed this, but the concern was so great on the part of the other volunteer that I felt compelled to call the student in question in to speak to her. I had actually had

14 concerns about this very issue during the recruitment process: I had called the student in question to ask her to clarify something on her application form and found her quite difficult to hear/understand on the phone. However, as a phone interview was not part of the application process in the first year of operation, I felt at that point it would be unfair to judge her on that basis (when I was not doing so for the other candidates). For that reason, a brief telephone call is now part of the interviewing process, and students are told about this on their application form. I call shortlisted students and ask them a few things about their application form – generally not to test what they have said, but just to experience their phone manner. This goes to the heart of a general issue of concern: there is a balance to be struck between recruiting students who are almost the ‘finished product’ (in terms of their ability to interact with clients, work within a professional office environment and so on), and those who are very much ‘rough around the edges.’ This is a very tricky issue: I want my Clinic to provide an opportunity for students to develop key skills, but at the same time there is a limit to how much time I have, as the sole person responsible for the Clinic, to help the students to develop those skills. A further concern is that these students are representing the University, and the School of Law specifically, to both clients and solicitors. I cannot take the risk of unleashing a student whose social skills might require a great of refinement onto an unsuspecting, and quite possibly very nervous client: they have a right to expect as professional a service as possible. Ultimately I also need students I can trust to get on with things without spoon feeding being required, but I accept that some will require more guidance and reassurance than others. I try to ensure the students know I am always available to answer questions and I try to make sure I hide any exasperation I might be feeling when they ask me a question I have clearly answered in their comprehensive student handbook! The solicitors involved have also largely been excellent in providing feedback on interviews and advice letters in a constructive, sensitive and encouraging way. This is very much down to luck: I have been very fortunate to have solicitors with excellent people skills working with us, but you could consider some form of solicitor training if you felt this would be necessary.

Student training The students all receive two types of training: understanding the role of, and working within, the Clinic (taking about three hours, and delivered by me); and conducting interviews/writing advice letters (taking about an hour, and delivered by solicitors). In the first year of operation this training was rolled into one three hour session, but I felt this did not leave sufficient time for the students to get to grips with everything they needed to know. In the second year the sessions were therefore split into two, with the students attending the interviewing/advising session at the headquarters of Ford and Warren. Ford and Warren kindly offered to put together a training package covering the sorts of questions likely to arise within relevant areas of law and where to find out about those. This provides the students with a handy checklist of questions they should always ask in e.g. family law cases, which I think is particularly useful for those students who have not studied a particular area of law before.

15 The official launch and maintaining momentum In our first year of operation I had an official launch a few weeks after our first clients had been seen, so that the students were able to present a little about their experience to the audience (comprising Law School staff, supervising solicitors, funders, and the Pro Vice Chancellor for Learning and Teaching, who gave a speech). In my opinion having the PVC present and interested was crucial in helping to ensure that the Clinic remains on the radar of people within the University (so as to ensure support for it is ongoing). A launch is a fantastic way of getting yourself known, and making contacts to ensure you keep yourself and what you are doing in the spotlight. Following the launch the ways I have found it useful to maintain momentum are by: - Nominating the Clinic for national and University awards. The Clinic was successful in two of the three awards it was nominated for, which was very pleasing and I believe helps to lend the project further credibility. Even if you are not shortlisted for example, you can still highlight the fact your project was nominated for an award! - Making pro bono a standing item on the School Meeting agenda, thereby allowing for a monthly report on all activities. This has the dual benefit of ensuring that work which might ordinarily take place away from the public eye is kept in the spotlight, and providing the Head of School with a concise account of activities within the School. I have been told this is very useful when meeting with external partners for example. - Occasional emails detailing successes: I have sent emails to relevant people within the School/wider University detailing successes e.g. awards, client emails praising the service, as well as interim/end of year reports. This again helps to ensure that those with influence are aware of the ongoing work and development of the Clinic. - Taking up opportunities to highlight the work being done at e.g. conferences, as well as opportunities within the University. For example, the University wanted case studies of enterprising projects, so I was filmed talking about the Legal Advice Clinic. This is now part of the enterprise website,13 which I am hopeful will lead to further knowledge transfer opportunities within, and outside of, the University.

The experience thus far Overall the experience thus far has been a successful and (largely) pleasurable one. The benefits of the Clinic to the students and clients have been obvious from the feedback received, and the problems encountered have been relatively minor (certainly more minor than those I anticipated encountering before we were up and running). From my perspective the main issues encountered are the following, some of which I have already discussed:

Problems with maintaining clients This continues to be a frustrating aspect of running the Clinic. Despite a decent amount of advertising, and despite increased links with local agencies, we have not filled all of our slots

13 http://lec.leeds.ac.uk/images/new%20resources/enterprise/index.html

16 this year (and in fact, had more empty in the first term of our second year of operation than we did in our first year). We had been contacted by a large number of people – certainly more than enough to fill the slots available – but for a variety of reasons we were not able to fit them in during the first semester. There is no one single thing which can be pointed to in order to eradicate this problem. In my view it is a combination of the following factors: - Clients contacting us with problems we cannot help with i.e. problems which are in the wrong areas, or which are too complex - Clients contacting us when we are near the end of the academic year and have already filled our remaining slots - Clients not being able to wait a while for an appointment - Clients waiting too long to hear back from us as to whether we can help them. This year this has been caused by an unavoidable delay in the response from some solicitors. We never tell a prospective client they will hear from us within a designated period of time, but it is not unreasonable of them to become impatient if they have not heard from us for a few days. I would advise you come to an agreement with any external partners about how quickly they will respond to queries, and who will replace them if they are temporarily absent. The second term of 2010-11 has however been much more successful in terms of filling our slots, which I attribute largely to a change in approach to advertising. Rather than advertising at the start of each term only I have added this responsibility to the list of tasks office managers have to perform during ‘their’ week. This seems to have made a difference: we have filled all of our slots thus far this term.

Student commitment does vary I have been fortunate enough not to have any problems with students failing to attend interviews for example, or not following the rules as far as Clinic processes are concerned (at least, not doing so deliberately). I found however that, where you allow for some discretion on the part of the students as to whether to get involved with particular activities, some will commit more readily than others. For example, I did not make it explicitly clear that students were expected to attend the launch of the Clinic in the first year of operation, so one student simply did not turn up. Thankfully it was only one, but had several of them taken that approach then the solicitors, funders and so on might have been concerned about their commitment before the Clinic was properly underway. I have also given students the option of helping with advertising the Clinic in the past, and found that only a handful repeatedly put themselves forward to leaflet organisations in the local area. I think this creates an unfair burden on those who are most enthusiastic so, as mentioned above, I have now incorporated advertising into the office manager role for the week.

How to expand? There is plenty of scope for expansion e.g. to include more students; to potentially run more interviews per week (client numbers permitting); or to work with agencies in a co-ordinated referral system (as has been suggested by Advice Leeds), but the feasibility of doing so is

17 very much restricted by the fact that there is only one person overseeing the Clinic, on top of an academic workload and running another student project. My personal advice to anyone thinking of establishing a Clinic by themselves would be to strongly reconsider whether you are going to be able to do it alone. Setting it up by yourself is difficult, but running it alone, with no administrative support and on top of maintaining a variety of other responsibilities, is frankly exhausting. It is of course rewarding, and the lovely feedback received from clients and students makes it worthwhile, but they do not make up for a lack of sleep! I would suggest you consider if two of you could set it up together, so that the burden of running it (once established) is shared. It seems to me that getting that additional support once it is running, particularly if it is running successfully, could be difficult (without e.g. additional funding being sought for administrative support – something which is particularly difficult in the current economic climate). Doing it alone does give you more control, and of course you are the only one to take credit for it when it goes right, but these factors alone are, in my view, not strong enough to justify trying to do it all yourself.

Finally: The problems which arise will not be those you expect! Prior to the Clinic opening I was paranoid about the students giving out advice over the phone for example, or about students behaving unprofessionally during an interview. In my experience however the issues which have caused me the most difficulty are those which I did not even consider as a potential problem during the planning process. Most of these have stemmed from students not being adequately used to dealing with complex administrative tasks (or even simple administrative tasks, such as inputting a client’s address correctly in to the database, so that their client advice letter does not get lost in the post). I now take the view that there are no tasks too simple to explain to students during the training sessions e.g. how to get an outside line from an office phone, or how to copy other people into emails (in the first year of operation I became increasingly frustrated with a student who repeatedly left me out of emails, so I had no idea what was going on with their team. I discovered after a few weeks that she just did not know how to ‘cc’ someone into an email, and had not thought to ask me). Although this might feel patronising to some students, I would rather that than spend the year telling people what to do.

The Innocence Project14 The University of Leeds Innocence Project (UoLIP) opened in 2005 under Dr Carole McCarntney. I have been running the Project since 2009, and will shortly be handing over to Dr Colin King. I do not propose to discuss the establishment and early operation of the UoLIP because I was not involved with that stage, but information about the justifications for establishing an innocence project, and the first year of UoLIP’s operation, can be found in the end of year report, available at the following link: http://www.law.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/undergraduates/innocenceproject.pdf I will discuss broadly what the UoLIP does, how it works, and difficulties encountered during the time I have been running it. I will also discuss how such a project can, in practical terms,

14 http://www.law.leeds.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduates/extra/innocence-project.php

18 be transferred between different Directors, and what you might need to consider when doing so.

What is the Innocence Project? The Innocence Project affords selected students the opportunity to investigate possible miscarriages of justice on behalf of clients, with the ultimate aim of writing an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) on behalf of that client. Thus far we have submitted four applications to the CCRC. We have been contacted by over 450 clients. Selected students15 work in teams of five on their cases for one academic year in term-time only, but (as will be obvious from the statistics quoted above), rarely will they receive case files from their clients and submit an application to the CCRC. They spend the majority of their time in correspondence with their clients, establishing which arguments have already been exhausted at trial/appeal, and whether there are any new grounds for appeal to the CCRC. They do so under the direction of one member of staff and with assistance from a volunteering solicitor from McKay Solicitors and Advocates.16 Where the Project cannot assist a client the reasons for this are made clear to the client. The UoLIP also provides information sheets to clients wanting to know how to complain about their legal representation or the police, or wishing to know how to appeal. Generally no active work takes place on the UoLIP outside of term-time, although the Director maintains the administration. If there is a CCRC application to be finished/responded to however, the Director will do so.

Our criteria Our criteria are largely based on the CCRC’s criteria: - The applicant must have appealed unsuccessfully - The applicant must be wishing to appeal their conviction and not their sentence - The applicant must be claiming factual innocence: this is a tricky one, and one which anyone wishing to establish an innocence project needs to give serious thought to. You might wish to consider the Court of Appeal’s approach to these matters. - Applicants must not have legal representation: The project does not replace qualified legal representation, and does not hold itself out as offering the same service as a solicitor. Applicants who do not have any ongoing legal assistance are prioritised - Applicants who remain in prison are prioritised - Women and young offenders are given particular priority, as they are under- represented at the CCRC.

15 Students are selected in the same way as for the Legal Advice Clinic (above), and receive a three hour training session about how the Project works, our criteria etc. They also receive a detailed handbook.

16 http://www.mckaylaw.co.uk/Solicitors/simon.htm

19 How does it work? The Project advertises through Inside Time and we now have a relationship with their miscarriages of justice unit. This has resulted in some additional casework for our students from that unit. This year I also advertised directly with prisons and YOIs, focusing in particular on prisons holding category A/B prisoners (as they will tend to remain in prison for the foreseeable future), and those holding women/young offenders. Clients writing to the project for the first time are sent an application form to complete once they have been allocated to a particular student team. This asks them about their original trial, their appeal, and their time at the police station. It also asks for information about evidence used at their trial, their defence, and their legal representation for example. The application is considered by their team upon return and, if they meet the project’s criteria, the students will begin a process of corresponding with the client to find out further information, clarify points etc. We only correspond with clients via letter in order to ensure we have an accurate record of everything we have been told and have told them, although if we accept a client for a CCRC application then we will usually arrange a prison visit to speak to them in person. We have found that client supporters call/email us, but we try to politely discourage this (again, because we need an accurate record of information passed between the project and others). We do ask the permission of clients to correspond with their supporters via letter where necessary though. The process of corresponding with clients can be a lengthy one, and can go on over a period of more than one academic year. That is why it is particularly important for the students to save all letters they have sent to clients (copies are also made), and for all client correspondence to be retained. The students hold weekly meetings in their own teams to discuss new post, and to devise their response. They also report back to a large weekly meeting held with all the teams, the Director and the volunteering solicitor: this gives them the opportunity to discuss progress, as well as to hone their presentation skills.

What do you need to run one? Knowledge of relevant legal areas and the CCRC You will need to be familiar with the basics of Criminal Law, Evidence Law, and the workings of the CCRC – or at least, have access to someone you can approach with questions about these matters! The students are expected to take the lead in our project, but they will inevitably have questions about particular areas of law, or need direction as to which areas they should focus on.

Time As the Director your role will incorporate the following, so you will need to ensure you are given enough support time-wise: - Student recruitment - Student training - Weekly meetings

20 - Reviewing all incoming and outgoing post - Recruiting support from solicitors and other external partners - Arranging talks by external speakers (we have annual lectures from Amicus and the CCRC for example) - Dealing with any problems within the groups - Personally responding to rejected CCRC applications within the designated time- period (something which can be burdensome, particularly if the application arrives during term-time) - Dealing with any particularly difficult cases personally - Ensuring all paperwork is maintained correctly - Ensuring you are part of a network of projects, and that any fees/annual reports are attended to - Sourcing funding

Space Simply put, the students will need a space in which to hold their individual group meetings every week, and in which to store all of the correspondence received from clients. Client files will also need to be stored somewhere: these typically comprise 4-5 large boxes of materials, so you will need to consider where these can be stored in a way which ensures their confidentiality, but also allows the students access to them. Access to a secure network drive Similarly to the Legal Advice Clinic you will need to ensure you have a drive on the University system where all client correspondence, the client database, template letters/forms and so can be securely stored. Students will need access to this for the time that they are on the Project.

My experience: 2009-11 Overall leading the Project has been a positive experience and the students seem to value the opportunity they have been given. I have found it difficult to balance this large project with the Clinic and all of my teaching though and would say that the responsibility which comes with a project such as this is not to be underestimated. You are providing hope and disappointment to a large number of often desperate people - this needs to be considered when setting a project up. Do you have the time to commit to running an Innocence Project alone, or would it be helpful to do it conjunction with someone else? The students will look to you for hope and help when a case seems futile – who will you use as a support system? More so than with the Clinic, there have been problems with varying levels of student commitment on this project. This might be because the groups are larger than on the Clinic (there are five students in each), which raises the possibility of students feeling able to disengage more readily; group politics interfering with the productivity of all group members; or students not being able to co-ordinate timetables on a regular basis. The latter problem might be overcome by having smaller groups and/or trying as far as possible to ensure that

21 group members all come from the same year group (and will therefore have broadly the same lectures to attend). At present I try to ensure some variety of ages/year groups within the groups, so the students have the opportunity to work with people they might not ordinarily encounter. Feedback suggests this is appreciated, but the practical difficulty of doing so might require a change in approach. We have had difficulties with maintaining a consistent level of client interest in the project, particularly in 2010-11. I would suggest any new projects consider advertising in Inside Time, as well as direct advertising with prisons, and engaging with any local miscarriage support networks/groups. The experience has certainly taught me that one cannot be complacent as far as awareness-raising goes, and that persistent advertising is necessary across the year. Maintaining student spirits in the face of what can seem like futile cases, or an absence of client interest, is something else which needs to be considered by future directors: you will need to ensure you can sell the skills to be learned in such a situation to the students and can make clear that the work they are doing is nevertheless of value. Finally, the administrative ability of students on our project is key and, similarly to the Clinic, this is an area where they are often initially lacking (although they do praise the project for enhancing their skills in that area by the end of it). It is vital that all letters sent to clients are saved and that a comprehensive, accurate client database is maintained, so training will need to be given in that area.

Handing over projects to others I inherited the UoLIP from Carole McCartney, and will shortly be handing it over to another colleague. I will (temporarily) be doing the same with the Clinic. For what it is worth, my advice would be that you create a comprehensive list of all of the tasks which need to be performed, and when, and that you ensure you have a handover meeting. My handover meeting with Carole took four hours – far longer than I had ever anticipated, but it has proven crucial to me being able to run the UoLIP. I have nevertheless had to approach her with questions since becoming Director. I am fortunate to be able to do so, and appreciate that not everyone will have the same opportunity. For that reason, I would also recommend a period of shadowing, where the incumbent Director attends as many meetings as possible, but is not expected to take on any responsibility until the relevant, agreed time. Had I done this with Carole (as was offered), I would have felt more at ease with the project right from the start.

College of Law17 Keywords: Models of advice work; working with external partners; Streetlaw; publicity Contact (York): Lindsay Ward ([email protected])

17 For further information about pro bono at College of Law (York) see http://www.college-of- law.co.uk/Our-Centres/York/Pro-bono/

22 Lindsay Ward, Director of pro bono at the College of Law18 (York), spoke to me about the College’s national pro bono work and history.

Pro bono at the College of Law History of pro bono In 2000 a tutor at the Bloomsbury Centre received a letter from the Solicitors Pro Bono group suggesting that students could be engaged in pro bono work. He and a fellow tutor put some proposals to the Centre Director who agreed it would be good for the College to engage the students in pro bono work; the idea was very quickly accepted as an important thing at the highest level of the College (because it developed students and helped the community). Richard Grimes was then employed to oversee the development of pro bono at a national level, rolling it out to all of the College’s centres.

Staffing At each of the eight College of Law centres they have at least one person (with a practicing certificate) specifically employed to manage the pro bono programme in that centre. Some centres have more because they have more students, but the typical model is 1.5 people per centre to work on the activities.

Funding The posts are funded centrally by the College, although in the past they had external funding which added to the internal funding (i.e. it did not replace it). This came from the government-funded New Deal for Communities, which has now come to an end.

Insurance This is covered by the College centrally so that the appropriate indemnity insurance is in place for all the Centres. The College of Law insurance will always cover a firm involved in their pro bono work if necessary, but if they want to the firms can cover their work themselves. The work done with external solicitors is dependent on the individual centres. For example, at Birmingham they have external solicitors who supervise their legal advice clinic work, whereas at York Lindsay does it. It depends very much on location and the local legal provision.

Pro bono activities All of the College’s activities are non-assessed, although when students do the GDL they have to do a practice-related activity and Streetlaw is offered as one of them. This is not formally assessed, but is to the extent that the students would not be allowed to go out and do a presentation which was not up to standard.

18 http://www.college-of-law.co.uk/home/

23 Each of the eight College centres has Streetlaw and Clinic as their foundation for pro bono activities. This is for historical reasons, but also because the benefits of each are recognised. Additional activities will typically be developed on the back of staff establishing what sort of service might be needed locally, although occasionally agencies will contact them (although bear in mind that most agencies are so busy keeping on top of their workload they will not necessarily have time to do so). Students might also suggest a new activity, which staff will support where possible, but generally the centres do not develop new activities as a result of student input. This is not because they are not open to such input, but rather because the students are not with them for very long. For example, in the last few years students have come forward with suggestions which Lindsay has agreed to work with them on, only for the relevant projects to not get off the ground (primarily due to the limited input students can have). GDL students do have longer with the centres – because they will typically go on to the do LPC/BPTC – so they will encourage them more. Lindsay advises that there is a need to consistently assess and develop ongoing activities. For example, at York last year a Youth Offending Team project was trialled. Having assessed it York has decided it would be best to run the project in a slightly different way. The plan had been for the students to commit to the project for at least a year, which they had all signed up to, but then students found they were going to have to leave the area to get a job (and not necessarily a job in Law). They have therefore not all been able to fulfil their commitment, although some have asked to transfer to YOTs in other areas. They therefore decided to change the project for this year, so that the students do not have to undertake as much training (for example, the students will instead prepare information packs which can be given to young offenders). Those who know they can commit to the training and requirements to undertake work, for example students on the GDL who are staying on for the LPC, may still do the full training.

External partnerships Lindsay has experienced few problems working with external agencies at the York centre, which she puts down to have a very structured approach from the outset. She was very clear about who she wanted to work with and was able to use her experience of working in the voluntary sector to sell the opportunity to work with students to those agencies. She says that colleagues also find it beneficial to have people in the eight College centres to draw upon for experience, or even for references: if you can show something has worked in exactly the same setting with another branch of an organisation – or a similar organisation – then you are more likely to overcome any scepticism which might exist about what volunteering students can offer. Lindsay also says that the type of organisation you choose to work with is important in establishing lasting, successful projects. If you are dealing with a less structured, understaffed and underfunded organisation, you are more likely to find it difficult to develop and maintain a relationship than if you are working with an organisation with a clear management structure. Such organisations are more likely to take a streamlined approach to the recruitment and retention of students (although newer organisations might also do this very well of course). However, bear in mind that problems can still exist with more established organisations when you are reliant on only one contact, who might leave or be temporarily absent. So, being strategic and planning well will not always mean the project will run, or run smoothly!

24 Student involvement Cohort All of the students involved in pro bono are obviously at the PG level, which Lindsay said was a ‘crucial’ difference from UG level. The primary purpose of the activities being run is to get the students up and running to go into practice, either as a solicitor or as a barrister. However, she said that (similarly to UGs), their students do not always know what they want to do (for example, the area of law they want to work in), and in fact some students decide against going into practice at all. Lindsay said that Streetlaw was particularly beneficial to the GDL students because they are starting with no level of legal qualification and no experience. This activity gives them the opportunity to gain an insight into specific areas of law and to hone their group working, research and presentation skills. It also affords them the opportunity to recognise how and when to simplify the law in an understandable way. So, if you have any PG non-law students who want to get involved in pro bono, Streetlaw might be a good place to start; it is also ideal for the UGs. The Clinic experience is generally targeted more at LPC or BPTC students, because in the Clinic they are building upon others skills they already have and starting client-facing work. However, who does Clinic work is always dependent on each centre.

Recruitment Students are admitted onto the projects on a first come, first served basis. The College only selects for particular projects when the agency they are working with requires it of them (for example, to ensure the recruitment complies with their own recruitment requirements and policies). Each project is open to every student, whether they have a training contract or not, because they can still learn key skills. Lindsay gave the example of a task she sets all her students at the start of the year, which is invariably initially greeted with bemusement and laughter. She presents them with a letter and an envelope with a clear window and asks them to fold the paper so that the address fits within the envelope. When the students struggle to do this, she points out that they will be asked to do this, or something similar, when they first start work, and that they could be ridiculed if they cannot do it. It means some students realise they have to change their attitude that they will not have to know how to do what they might consider ‘menial’ tasks, because they will when they first go into practice. Lindsay finds that when students arrive their research skills and the advice they give are usually excellent, but it is the practical task of giving advice in an accessible way which can be problematic. They are not always very good at making the advice clear, or doing practical tasks like setting out a letter properly.

Advice work Projects At York, they do not often have clients going to their site. Instead, clients usually go to partner agencies who set up appointments for them and the interviews are then held on their premises (Doncaster Women’s Centre, and Castlegate Young Person’s Centre in York).

25 York has also offered an email advice service for a few years, which is extremely popular with clients and students. It is accessible to students who live away from York (who might, for example, be on the College’s two day route to qualification and are therefore not on site very often), and it helps them to develop a key practice skills (Lindsay’s personal experience from practice is that a lot of client work is done via email by solicitors now). In 2009-10 York developed an Employment Rights Line (ERL), whereby clients give details of their problem to a student over the phone and are then advised by a solicitor (by telephone) at a later stage. This is a model which has been run with success at other Centres for a number of years. If the client wants a follow-up letter this can be provided, although at some other Centres it is always provided. At York there are five solicitors from four firms working with them, who Lindsay recruited via email. She contacted all of the solicitors in York who supply employment advice and explained what the scheme would entail, how successful it had been at other centres, and told them what commitment would be expected of them if they decided to volunteer. York deals with approximately 220 clients annually, taking into account both their email advice service and their face-to-face advice work.

Student involvement Some students will only deal with one client per year, but if there is capacity then they can do more: at York they can usually satisfy demand, but the extent of student involvement might be more restricted at other centres.

Areas of law The areas of law College of Law centres can advise in are determined by the experience of the relevant supervisor and what they did in practice, as well as the agencies they might partner up with. Bloomsbury for example can offer advice in immigration and asylum areas because they a relevant supervisor is employed by the College, which many clinics cannot. Sometimes the areas advised in can be determined by need as well: for example, the Employment Rights Line was developed specifically because employment will always be an area of need.

Publicity Lindsay advocates publicity as a way of generating positive publicity for your institution and activities, but not as a long-term method of ensuring client support. For example, the ERL was launched in National Pro Bono week by a local judge, not because of an assumption it would get them clients, but because it would raise the profile of National Pro Bono week and Lindsay could invite some solicitors who might want to do some future work with them. It brought them some clients for a few weeks, but Lindsay said the link with the local CAB was for more important and useful in maintaining client interest in the long-term. Getting links with external agencies which could help to provide clients is the most important way of getting clients in Lindsay’s opinion. Some of her colleagues do advertise in the local free press for example, but the need to do that can depend on the location and relationship

26 with agencies. Some will be more cautious than others about becoming involved with students, because they are unsure of the value of them when they are not qualified.

Northumbria University Law School Keywords: Clinical legal education; assessment; legal representation; Streetlaw; student engagement Contact: Carol Boothby ([email protected])

27 Northumbria University Law School runs a four year exempting degree which incorporates both the LLB and the LPC.19 Students on this degree work within the Student Law Office (SLO) within their fourth year, alongside a limited number of students from other programs within the School. The SLO-Director, Carol Boothby, discussed the SLO and the wider pro bono activities on offer within the School.

The Student Law Office (SLO)20 Format of the SLO Initially the SLO was not integrated within the curriculum and was not assessed. Instead, it existed on a much smaller scale as a voluntary activity for students to take part in. However, it fairly quickly became integrated within the curriculum, before eventually forming part of the exempting degree. Carol speculated that this was in part motivated by a desire to find a niche within the field of legal education, which Northumbria has proven itself to be adept at. In 2010-11 there are a total of around 180 students working within the SLO, comprising year four students on the new M Law Exempting degree (who work in the SLO from September to May), as well as elective students from the LPC and BPTC courses (who work in the SLO from January/February to late May or early June). Students on the four year exempting degree take a third year module in preparation for working in the SLO21 and at present they also conduct one live client interview as part of that module. However, this approach might change due to the challenge of finding clients whose cases are suitable for an initial interview with the year three students, and who can then be fed into the SLO for further assistance from the year four students. The students are placed into firms of six at the start of their final year, with each firm working within a particular area of law (currently civil, criminal, employment, small business, family, human rights, welfare benefits, or housing) and supervised by different members of staff. The students select a first and second choice firm before embarking on their time on the SLO, so that they are allocated to an area they are most interested in.22

Supervision of the SLO The SLO is supervised entirely by in-house staff, with no external input from solicitors/barristers in that regard. The SLO has five full-time members of staff who run the SLO and its cases, in addition to around fourteen academic staff. Supervision responsibilities form part of their workload (to the tune of 50 hours per academic year, per firm). The SLO also has 2 full-time administrators, a trainee solicitor and a bursary student, all of whom are a great help in the smooth running of the office.

19 The M Law Exempting Degree http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/?view=CourseDetail&code=UUFLAW1

20 http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/law/slonew/

21http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/?view=CourseDetail&code=UUFLAW1&page=module&mod=LA0520

22 For more information about the forth year module, see http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/? view=CourseDetail&code=UUFLAW1&page=module&mod=LA0525

28 The five full-time SLO staff (four solicitor tutors and one caseworker) maintain the caseload over the summer period. New cases are not taken on during this time, but staff continue to work on existing cases (when, for example, representation might still need to be done). There can be over 200 cases which are continued during this time.

Services offered by the SLO The SLO undertakes casework on behalf of clients, which can include representation at court or tribunal. The areas of law covered include civil, criminal, small business, housing, welfare benefits, employment and human rights, with human rights including for example privacy, right to family life, prisoners, policing concerns, and disability discrimination. Clients are not means-tested, but the SLO must of course ensure that they have the expertise to advise on the issue, and that the case would be of educational benefit to the students. Where the SLO cannot assist a client they are able to offer a signposting service, using the Legal Services Commission website. Where representation is required by an accepted client the students will generally undertake the representation on behalf of a client (under appropriate supervision), unless they do not have rights of audience, or because the court would not find it appropriate (for example in family cases). However, the students will do most tribunal cases. If the students cannot represent the client themselves the SLO might still represent the client if the case would be of benefit/interest to the students. In such situations the supervisor or the SLO’s trainee solicitor might undertake it. The SLO has a former student on a two year training contact, which operates in much the same way as a ‘traditional’ training contract within a law firm. The trainees have different seats throughout their time on the SLO, they have their own caseload, and they assist in cases. This scheme is to be replaced in due course by the M Law Solicitors Full Qualification degree.23 In addition to offering face-to-face advice and representing clients the SLO runs a programme in conjunction with the homeless organisation Shelter. Complex housing cases are emailed through to the SLO and within a pre-defined period the students working in the housing firms prepare an advice letter and research report for Shelter. The SLO runs similar outreach schemes with Victim Support and Age Concern. These links were forged through a member of the SLO who is a Community Liaison Officer (she makes contact with e.g. CABS, solicitors, community groups and so on about possible collaborations between them and the SLO). The SLO’s activities are insured under the University’s general insurance policy.

Potential difficulties In Carol’s experience there can be three main difficulties experienced within a Clinic. Workload concerns are of course a perennial issue, as is the case in most other Law Schools running Clinics. Carol’s team is grateful to receive some allocation within their workload for the work they undertake, acknowledging that many colleagues in other institutions are not as fortunate. Nevertheless, planning for the diversity within different

23 http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/?view=CourseDetail&code=UUFLAW1

29 caseloads is virtually impossible within a traditional workload model. The allocation given to each member of staff is therefore the same, regardless of the potential for caseloads to differ throughout the year (for example, housing and employment might be more fast-moving compared with civil litigation or criminal cases, which might take several years to resolve). Furthermore, over the summer period there will always be something which crops up unexpectedly which cannot be accounted for in the overall workload allocation. Trying to contain Clinic activities and to combine those with other responsibilities (e.g. research responsibilities) can therefore be very difficult. In addition to this, there will almost always be an expectation that you do more each year (despite the fact the same resources remain in place). There is a tension between maintaining momentum, developing innovative programmes, and focusing on a smaller number of programmes which are done well. The second problem which can be encountered relates to the working relationships students have with others. Students within firms of six work in pairs and there can naturally be difficulties with compatibility between them. These problems can be dealt with either by the supervisor discussing the issue sensitively with the students and/or separating them, which gives the supervisor the opportunity to see them work apart. Team working skills are part of the assessment criteria, but this has to be balanced with a risk of one student jeopardising the mark of the other in this high stakes module. Another relationship to be considered is that of the student and supervisor. The relationship between students and their supervisor is a very direct one, with students receiving a large amount of ongoing feedback on their performance and working closely with their supervisor to ensure effective conduct of the cases. Where there are any difficulties students can be reluctant to raise these directly. There are however opportunities to resolve such difficulties, for example, through the Student Liaison committees (where matters can be raised on their behalf), or through discussions with Carol who can either tackle this directly, or through general feedback in the twice yearly supervisor meetings. Finally, balancing the workload of the students is a constant issue, as work in Clinic cannot be easily controlled. Feedback from students suggests that their time in Clinic greatly improves their time management skills. Clinic represents 40 per cent of their final mark, so much rests on this module, but they need to balance this with completing their project and any other electives. Some students naturally find this a challenge.

Publicity Those working within the SLO have been very successful in promoting the Office internally and externally. It is of course helpful if someone senior within the University supports and promotes the work being done, alongside publicity pieces being secured in local media. Such pieces are helpful not only for promoting the work done by the University, but also in recognising the work done by the partners within the SLO and the School more widely e.g. in support pro bono activities, judging competitions, and providing scholarships. However, University press offices can sometimes seem reluctant to pursue publicity where there is no chance of national recognition.

Other pro bono activities

30 There is a Student Volunteering Group (managed by the SLO staff), which is developing. There are supposed to be a range of student-led activities (largely led by third year undergraduate students), but it can be difficult to ensure students take the initiative and are able to ensure momentum. However this year the group have formed links with the local CAB and now have the opportunity to train as gateway advisors. A further activity which is run by the SLO staff is Streetlaw. GDL students can choose to undertake this on a voluntary basis. Whilst the development of such activities is obviously to be welcomed (in providing pro bono opportunities for students who would not usually work on the SLO for example), it does mean the staff within the SLO have another task to manage and direct. Although in theory Streetlaw could be largely student-led, at Northumbria the experience has been that there are very differing levels of commitment on the part of the students towards the activity, with quite a large drop-out rate. This can of course cause problems when it comes to presentations (with those potentially being done by a smaller number of students than anticipated), and with maintaining the confidence of the community organisations who are the recipients of those presentations (although it should be noted that they do receive positive feedback). One way Carol suggested of dealing with that would be to create a contract with the students, with successful completion or non-attendance being noted on their academic file.

Queen Mary, University London

31 Keywords: Establishing and maintaining a Clinic; working with external partners; publicity; student-led activities; Streetlaw; international pro bono Contact: Julie Pinborough ([email protected]) Queen Mary, University London (QMU) has operated a Legal Advice Centre24 since 2006, in addition to offering numerous other (student-led) pro bono activities for their undergraduate students. The Centre’s Director, Julie Pinborough, explained to me how their pro bono schemes started and developed, and also detailed some of the problems she and the department have overcome with their activities.

Pro Bono at QMU The early history of pro bono at QMU The Queen Mary Student Pro Bono Group (QMSPBG) was set up at QMU in 2004 by Julie along with fellow mature student Damian Masters. Having researched the American market they decided that doing so was in the interests of the students, the University and the local area (they had identified a gap in the provision of advice in their area). Initially the department was understandably cautious: given the relatively short time the students are at the university, they were concerned about the potential for continuity with the project. Julie and her partner approached one firm – Clifford Chance – with the opportunity to become involved with student placements (the first scheme they planned to open out to students). They did so by way of a business plan, explaining how the project would be structured, how it would be presented to the University and to students, and where funding was needed. Once Clifford Chance agreed to be involved then it became easier for the department to be supportive - having the prestige of such a big name attached to them was clearly desirable. Clifford Chance also offered funding, which was used for travel costs and PR materials for example. After that point they were able to attract Allan and Overy and Simmons and Simmons, and gradually increased their activity. This was partly due to their existing relationship with Clifford Chance, but also due to the fact there was nothing similar in London at that time – QMU was offering a novel opportunity to the firms. The long-term aim was to establish a Clinic, but Julie and her partner started off with placements in firms (which they still run, under the umbrella of the Student Pro Bono Group), and then started to offer Streetlaw opportunities to undergraduate students in 2005. When they started out they had eighty undergraduate Law student members, all of whom had to be placed with firms.

The Queen Mary Student Pro Bono Group Over time the QMSPBG has developed into a more formal organisation, including a committee structure; a handbook; clear rules regarding activities (for example if students fail to attend a meeting they are given one warning; if they receive a second they are off the project); a mission statement for both the group and each pro bono activity; and a constitution. These provide a very clear structure and purpose, both to the group and to the activities they run and might wish to run in the future.

24 http://www.advicecentre.law.qmul.ac.uk/index.html

32 At the start of each academic year interviews are held with first years who are selected to be part of the QMSPBG committee. One of those students will then go on to become the president, again via an interview process. There are no elections to committee positions within QMSPBG: all students get their roles via an application and interview, which are conducted by students. This does raise the possibility of potential complaints by students that the process has not been transparent or fair, so the interviewing students are instructed to be careful in maintaining records of those interviews, so that they can point to them if a disgruntled student should ever complain about not getting a position. The president of the QMSPBG is always a final year student, and the vice-president is always a student in their penultimate year. There is an expectation that the vice-president will go on to become the president the following year, although if there is a performance issue for example then under the constitution the vice-president can be voted off the committee. There are sub-committees for different pro bono activities within the QMSPBG and generally they self-manage very well. On average staff only have to step in to resolve difficulties once per year. Students who do not want to hold a committee role, but who would like to take part in pro bono activities, have to pay £10 to become members of QMSPBG. These funds can then be used to, for example, pay for any travel costs associated with the pro bono activities they undertake. The QMSPBG does not receive funding from the department, but it does receive departmental support in other ways (for example with photocopying materials). The QMSPBG operates in isolation from the student Law Society and from the Student Union: from its inception Julie was concerned to ensure that the President had control over the group’s finances, given that they are aware of where the priorities for development were.

Pro bono activities offered within the Faculty A huge range of activities is offered, including the Legal Advice Centre (run by the Faculty), Streetlaw, Legal Advice Placements, and working with NGOs (Lawyers Without Borders and Advocates for International Aid). At the start of each project the students receive a list of skills they should develop/enhance during their time on that project. This is helpful not only to the students but also for the organisers, who have to focus on what it is they are intending to achieve with each project. Pro bono opportunities at QMU remain open to undergraduate students only: Julie takes the view that the current pro bono activities are inherently undergraduate focused, providing an experience which is very much aimed at an undergraduate level, and that to allow postgraduate students to take part could result in conflicting aims and objectives. For example, part of their mission statement concerns teaching students about the basic ethics of being a lawyer – Julie stated that in order to do this effectively the students have to be taught at quite a simple level, which might be difficult to do with postgraduates. Recently, the intention of the QMSPBG has been to pull back from some activities, rather than to continue to expand. Initially, the QMSPBG thought quantity was of importance, whereas now they are taking the opposite approach and focusing on quality. For example, they used to do a breakfast run and clothing run at the White Chapel homeless shelter, but they found that students were not learning key legal skills. Instead, they have adopted the shelter as the charity which benefits from their annual Easter fair and they hold mini advice sessions there.

33 Difficulties Julie mentioned two projects in particular which have caused some difficulties in the past: - Streetlaw: sometimes this project can struggle, depending on who is on the relevant committee. It can be difficult for students to manage a group of students that size, although the numbers do vary year on year. Typically they have 5-6 groups of students who are each assigned a topic to write a presentation about and who then have to present each others presentations at schools etc. You have to be prepared to cast the net wide to get organisations on board – they might for example only receive replies from 5 out of every 20 schools they approach.

- International pro bono: this is a project Julie is still trying to get off the ground. They started with a twinning idea with a University in Tanzania, but the partnership fell apart just when they had everything in place (including funding). The same thing happened with a twinning with the University of Zambia. Such problems can be caused by contacts leaving for example – there can be plenty of enthusiasm from both sides, but if one contact leaves there is always the possibility of the partnership not being able to continue. This is of course a likely problem in the context of any type of pro bono work, the success of which often rests on the commitment of one or two key people.

The Legal Advice Centre The Centre opened in 2006 (Julie was put in post to establish and manage it upon graduating from her degree programme), with departmental funding to the tune of £25000 and some external funding from the firms involved. This has to cover all operational costs, excluding a full-time assistant for Julie. The full-time assistant post is on a fixed term contract, to be reviewed in 2011. The Centre receives approximately two thousand client enquiries every year, with around two hundred clients receiving advice. The Centre has between eighty and one hundred solicitors involved, with all of the Centre’s work supervised by them. The Centre started with Reeds Smith25 and Field Fisher Waterhouse26. In their third year Mischon de Reya27 came on board for PinkLaw. In 2009-10 a small high street firm also came on board, Nabas Legal, 28 along with Allen and Overy.29 There are now five firms involved with the Centre. The firms are, for all intents and purposes, working for the Centre when they are supervising – they are not, for example, introduced as being from a particular firm.

25 http://www.reedsmith.com/

26 http://www.ffw.com/

27 http://www.mishcon.com/

28 http://www.nabaslegal.com/

29 http://www.allenovery.com/AOWEB/Home/AllenOveryHome.aspx?prefLangID=410

34 The Centre offers sessions two evenings per week in the following areas of law:  Landlord and tenant disputes  Freehold and leasehold disputes  Employment issues  Consumer transactions  Private contracts  Civil partnerships  Cohabitation  Immigration  Protection of LGBT Rights  Business law for LGBT community  Intellectual property law  Medical negligence  Personal injury  Torts

The interviews and advice letters are all supervised by the relevant firm, but the letters are signed off by Julie and are sent out on QMU headed paper. QMU are happy to fit in with whatever makes the firm comfortable in their partnership: for example, some firms will only send solicitors who are three years PQE, others are happy to send paralegals and still others will send partners. Some will perform a conflict of interest check; others will not do so.

Student involvement in the Legal Advice Centre Approximately eighty students advise clients through the Centre. In addition to these, there is a team of five first years and three second years who assist with administration. The first years are selected via an application process and an interview, with transparent criteria by which they are to be judged made available to them (as well as a job description). The advisors are selected via an application form. Staff from QMU and a lawyer from Allen and Overy review the applications using a traffic light system: - green: like - orange: unsure - red: dislike Once they have each rated the applications they compare answers. Those students with three greens for example are automatically selected. The students involved are not currently assessed, although the possibility of doing so is being considered. Potentially they would allow thirty students of the eighty to be assessed, taking it as a third year option.

Specific clinics Pink Law: this was established by tapping into gay and lesbian networks e.g. BLAGG.30 This clinic assists LGBT clients who might need advice specific to their particular situation, for example concerning the end of a civil partnership. Julie explained that these groups will not necessarily require different advice to anyone else, but that they appreciate going

30 http://www.blagg.org/Bar_Lesbian_and_Gay_Group/Blagg_home.html

35 somewhere where they know their sexuality will not have to be explained and will not be an issue. At the time when they started the only other similar clinic was in Manchester, so QMU realised they could fill a gap in the market in London. They considered the areas of law which might be of most interest, and settled on employment discrimination, family and immigration. This is now the lead project in terms of interest, although it is not without its difficulties. The primary problem faced by Julie is how to advertise it. The Centre has links with Stonewall for example, and they can advertise in clubs and bars aimed at the gay community, but the difficulty comes with reaching what Julie refers to as potential clients who are ‘non-scene’ – those who do not go to gay clubs/bars, do not read gay magazines and generally do not engage with the gay scene at all. Julie feels they are the people who are probably most in need of their services (because, for example, they are of an age where they are more likely to be finding their civil partnerships coming to an end), but reaching them can be difficult. The Centre is now targeting unions and large employers such as universities, the police service, ambulance service and so on. They did previously pay £1000 for an advert in a magazine, but found that it did not work. Last year G3 magazine31 advertised the service for free and have run three articles on them – this has proven to be much more successful.

Law for the Arts: Julie and a lecturer in the University discussed how they might be innovative with the clinic, and decided to organise a clinic which provides advice to people within the art world. They advertise in, for example, art industry magazines. This is insured by the University.

31 http://g3mag.co.uk/g3mag/

36 Manchester University Keywords: Clinic; Clinic assessment; Clinic training; Clinic publicity; Streetlaw Contact: Dinah Crystal ([email protected]) The School of Law at the University of Manchester runs two Legal Advice Centres and a Streetlaw project. Dinah Crystal OBE established the first Centre in 2000, with the second opening off-campus in late 2009. She spent some time describing each of these projects to me and explaining how they run.

Legal Advice Centres The History of Clinical work at Manchester In 2000 the first Legal Advice Centre was opened by Manchester University’s School of Law within the University’s shopping precinct. The Solicitors Pro Bono Group (as it was then known, now of course LawWorks), was looking for a University to be a pilot project for a University Legal Advice Centre. At the same time, there was a feeling that the students were good academically, but that they could benefit from developing skills which could be of use to them when embarking on careers post-graduation. Dinah produced a business plan which she used when approaching the Vice-Chancellor to ask for support in opening a Centre. One of her arguments was that if a doctor or a dentist was undertaking undergraduate training then they would be expected to do some practical work at that level – she wanted Law undergraduates to have the same opportunity. She also highlighted that the Centre would:

 offer a benefit to the community  work with local lawyers  be beneficial to the University in terms of marketing  ‘open the University out’ to the community  benefit the students educationally

Dinah was given University funds to cover the set-up costs of establishing the Centre.32 The University also paid for – and still do pay for – standard office costs such as postage and stationary. Initially the Centre operated with an administrator from the College of Law who worked one day per week, but now there is a full-time administrator employed by the University. The Centre initially opened in one area of the University’s shopping precinct, but the volunteering students now also have access to an additional dedicated research area containing 12-14 computers. The reasoning behind having the Centre away from the Law school was to ensure the clients felt like it was the ‘real thing’ as much as possible. Having said that, Dinah is of the opinion that clients are willing to put up with slight inadequacies because they know the Centre is student-led and because they often have nowhere else to go.

32 http://www.law.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/services/legaladvicecentre/

37 Since October 2009 School has also operated a second Centre, which is based off-campus in The Settlement in East Manchester (please see below).

How the campus-based Centre works The Centre is open to anyone – students and non-students – although of course the Centre will not advise those taking action against the University. Every year 300-400 clients contact the Centre: this figure includes those who are interviewed and those who are referred to other agencies. The Centre uses the referral system through the Legal Services Commission and will typically give two or three suggestions to those they cannot assist. The Centre offers an appointment-only service during daily afternoon sessions and usually only offers a written advice service. Interviews at the campus-based Centre are supervised by forty local lawyers (both solicitors and barristers), who also liaise with the students post- interview about the client’s advice letter. The students generally have two weeks post- interview to complete the advice letter. However, if for example the supervising solicitor spots something problematic during the interview which means advice has to be given there and then (for example because the client’s case might be out of time if they wait two weeks for the letter, or if someone comes with a housing issue which turns out to involve a domestic violence matter), then this can be given. The Centre can also write third party letters on behalf of clients. The Centre generally will not represent clients, although Dinah’s deputy (a barrister and staff member), will sometimes represent them if for example it would be a good learning experience for the students. They can also instruct barristers on a pro bono basis. The advice letters are signed off by Dinah, who is insured by the University. In addition to receiving this type of support from the legal profession, Clifford Chance33 and Barlow, Lyde and Gilbert34 provide financial support to the Centre and assist with the student training day (please see below). In common with Julie at QMU, Dinah suggests being flexible with how you work with solicitors: some will only want to supervise particular areas of law for example. The Centre therefore runs one-off specialised clinics in specific areas of law (including family, employment and occasionally housing) a few times per term (the exact number depends on client demand and the availability of lawyers with relevant expertise).

Student involvement in the campus-based Centre Every year up to 300 undergraduate and postgraduate students volunteer at this Centre, which represents approximately a third of the School’s population. Only second and third year students can generally be involved with advising clients and their work does not form part of an accredited module. However, up to thirty first years can also take a Centre- focused option within their Legal Methods and Systems module, which they do within the first semester of their studies. Following a training session with Dinah and her deputy the students are allowed to work within the Centre in the usual way. As part of their assessment on that module participants are required to submit a piece of coursework which addresses

33 http://www.cliffordchance.com/home.html

34 http://www.blg.co.uk/

38 what pro bono work consists of and the role the Centre plays in providing legal advice to the community. Volunteering students do not have to enter an application process to be part of the Centre (Dinah takes the view that if they are good enough to enter the University’s Law School, they should be good enough for the Centre), but they do have to attend the six hour training session in freshers week. This training day is run by Dinah, the two sponsor firms referred to previously, and the College of Law. The students are not trained in the specific areas of law dealt with by the Centre (the students are expected to go away and learn about the area of law a client comes to them with), but instead go through the handbook which contains all of the Centre processes and procedures. The students are also provided with checklists for all of the activities they have to complete when working within the Centre, in order to guide them. However, Dinah takes the view that the students should not be entirely spoon-fed: they develop by having to do things themselves and finding out/researching things for themselves.

Publicity for the campus-based Centre Leaflets are sent out at the start of every semester to hospitals, courts and local CABs (with whom they have a referral agreement). An email is also sent around everyone in the University at the start of term.

The off-campus Centre35 Dinah was approached by the Manchester Settlement to start a Centre at their site in East Manchester. The area has a 45 per cent illiteracy rate with a great deal of second and third generation unemployment. Many of those living in the have no contact with Manchester city centre (despite the proximity to the area). The University was supportive of the idea of establishing a second Centre because of the success of the first Centre and because the settlement where the second Centre is based used to be a university establishment to help development in the area. The Centre operates over summer, with a drop-in service being provided by solicitors. From October onwards students work within the Centre, performing the same advising role as within the campus-based Centre. This Centre undertakes more welfare law than the on-campus Centre, which is a reflection of the area in which it is based.

Streetlaw Society This used to be known as the Student Pro Bono Society before the strategic decision was taken to focus on one project and do that really well, rather than to try and run a lot of projects (and in the process perhaps not run each as well as one might like): it was simply advisable to do less, better. This means that Streetlaw and the Centres are permanent, and problems with the running of them are reduced over time. Second and third year undergraduate students run the Streetlaw Society (overseen by Dinah). It is student-led because it was started by them: the students wanted to co-ordinate this activity for first years, because they thought it would have been valuable for them at that

35 http://www.law.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/services/legaladvicecentre/

39 stage of their University career. The Society has a committee, with a chair, and with individuals responsible for each Streetlaw project e.g. Streetlaw in schools. The students are elected by way of a voting system, having explained on one side of A4 why they want to be the Streetlaw secretary for a specific programme. As is standard with most Streetlaw activities, the students prepare presentations on particular areas of law which they then present to various groups, including school children (they have an established relationship with two or three schools); youth offending institutions; and people at the off-campus Centre. These presentations are checked by appropriate staff members prior to delivery. There have been problems with Streetlaw, although these usually have not come from the students. For example, the students reported that some schools were repeatedly changing the plan as to when the students would be going in to present to their pupils, so Dinah instructed the students to ensure the schools were aware that they also had their own commitments to attend to. The need for CRB checks is also time-consuming, which can leave students disappointed when they do not come through in time to allow for presentations to be delivered.

40 University of Hull

Keywords: Establishing and maintain a Clinic; clinical legal education; Streetlaw

Contact: Frank Dignan ([email protected])

The Legal Advice Centre at Hull opened in February 2010, initially staffed by students working on a voluntary basis. In September 2010 the Centre re-opened following the summer break, this time as part of the curriculum within the Law School. There are three tutors who primarily work on the Centre: one of these, Frank Dignan, discussed the establishment and running of the Centre with me, as well as the Streetlaw activities provided within the School.

Legal Advice Centre36

The establishment of the Centre and the pilot

The motivation for establishing the Centre came from the School itself, which wanted to encourage engagement with the community and demonstrate community impact with their activities. There has therefore been a great deal of support for the Centre from within the School, not only from management but also from staff who work on the Centre directly and those who provide ad hoc support as and when necessary.

Frank was specifically employed in January 2009 to develop and run the Centre, coming in as a practitioner. He also does some teaching, but his main role lies in running the Centre. He estimates that he has around half the contact time to most people working within the School, spending 3-4 days per week on the Centre. Frank’s role involves taking some calls from clients (although there is further administrative support for this provided by the students and a member of the Law School’s administrative staff); overseeing the work done by the students; liaising with, and establishing relationships with, external agencies across Hull and East Riding; as well as organising the student training.

A pilot of the Centre operated from February 2010 to May 2010 and during that time the Centre saw 75 clients. Although the pilot was successful in attracting and advising clients, there were some difficulties:

 Frank said it was not specified clearly enough what sort of service the Centre would be offering which meant that clients and students were not always entirely sure of the Centre’s remit. The need to have clear objectives and limits from the start and to communicate these to all interested parties is a clear lesson to learn from this.

 The pilot period offered a drop-in service, which occasionally resulted in hectic Wednesday afternoons (when the service is offered), particularly when the service was advertised in a local paper. For this reason the service is now always appointment-only: Frank said it was better to manage demand and to make the service more predictable that way.

36 http://www2.hull.ac.uk/fass/law/legal-advice-centre.aspx

41 Areas of law

The Centre offers an advice-only service. The Centre will advise in the most common areas of law seen within Clinics e.g. housing and debt, and avoids offering more in-depth advice in some areas. In employment cases for example they will offer generalist advice, but are aware of the fact that deadlines are so crucial in this area of law and that cases have the potential to drag on for some time. They will steer clear of care proceedings and immigration cases too, because of the complexity and length of such cases. An additional factor in avoiding such cases is the concern with the potentially disastrous implications for the client e.g. their removal from the country.

Student role and training

The students provide administrative support to the Centre (by, for example, taking calls from potential clients and booking them in), as well as interviewing clients, researching their problem and writing the advice letters.

Solicitors firms, Trading Standards, the CAB, the City Council, and academic staff with expertise in certain areas all contribute to the training of the students in specific areas of law e.g. employment law and welfare rights. During this compulsory training the students are advised about which areas of law and which particular issues might commonly arise within the Centre context, and the standards of work expected of them within a professional practice (e.g. confidentiality, dress, and avoiding conflicts of interest). Training sessions run in the first two weeks of term, and throughout the first semester.

Centre processes and supervision

The Centre is open every Wednesday from 1-5pm, which means eight slots are provided for. Teams of five students are allocated to the Centre once every two weeks, filling either the 1- 3pm or the 3-5pm slot. They can potentially deal with up to four cases in each slot. There is one interview room, with the possibility of using Frank’s own office should interviews substantially over-run. The Centre also has a waiting room and a general office.

Clients are asked about the general area of law their problem concerns e.g. property law at the time of their appointment being made, but they do not necessarily provide a comprehensive overview of the problem prior to attending the interview. This means the situation can arise where when clients turn up their problem is much bigger or more complex than anticipated, resulting in a situation where the Centre cannot necessarily help. In that situation the Centre can contact other agencies to get advice from them: for example, during the pilot stage the Centre asked the local CAB for advice on a complex bankruptcy case.

In all cases clients are asked to bring any relevant documents with them to the interview.

The students generally do not offer face-to-face advice, unless it is blindingly obvious advice (Frank offered the example of someone coming to them with an order to appear in court due

42 to non-payment of council tax, in which case the students would advise the client they had to attend the court date). Instead, advice is generally provided in writing following the interview (once the students have conducted research into the area). Where advice has been provided face-to-face it is followed up afterwards in writing. During the interview there is generally no supervisor present in the room unless it is a complex matter for example, or if the students have a difficult client. Supervisors can also ‘pop in’ to offer moral support and help to extract information if it seems the client might be withholding something. The Centre does not have any external supervisors (for example external solicitors), although of course they do work with external partners to provide student training. Two of the three tutors working on the Centre have practising certificates.

Relationships with other agencies

From the outset Frank made contact with relevant agencies in the region and made clear that the Centre would not be a competitor to those advice services already in operation, but was instead primarily an educational project which wanted to be part of a wider advice network. The fact the number of clients they deal with is comparatively small to those dealt with by the CAB and the CLAN in the local area for example bears this out. The Centre therefore has a very positive relationship with agencies in the region and this relationship can be a two-way process of assistance. For example, when the CAB were bidding for the right to manage legal advice services in the local area, an academic from Hull with experience in this area assisted them with the bid.

Where the Centre cannot advise someone they will always signpost them/refer them to other agencies. This can have educational benefits for the students, requiring them as it does to diagnose what the issue concerns and who is best-placed to advise.

Insurance

The Centre is now part of the curriculum, so is covered by the University’s indemnity insurance – it is regarded as drawn from the payment of tuition fees (although the University did also cover the insurance costs when the Centre was in its pilot phase, because the Centre still enhanced the student experience).

Integration within the curriculum

Following the pilot phase of the Centre in 2009-10, a new Clinic module was offered to 24 third year students in 2010-11 (although approval was in place for up to 36 students to be on the course). Interested students had to complete an application form and they received 47 applications for those 24 places. Those who had volunteered on the Centre in its pilot phase were prioritised.

The module is assessed by way of two pieces of work:

43  A learning journal/log which documents their cases, what they have done and their experiences of (and reflections on) those activities. The students have fortnightly tutorials with one of the three module tutors to discuss these journals. This element of the assessment is worth 50 per cent of the final mark.

 A 2000 word case study about one of the cases they have been involved with. Students have to reflect on the case and the law applied within it, considering whether the law adequately provided for that particular situation (because real life legal problems will not always confirm to what the law might envisage). They should also consider whether recourse to the law was the best way of resolving this particular problem. This element is also worth 50 per cent of the final mark.

The assessments are marked by the three tutors on the programme, which Frank says is possible because in-depth knowledge of the areas of law considered is not required. They are not really assessing the students’ knowledge of the law, but rather the application of it in that particular context. Having said that, Frank said that if there was a particularly complex directive under discussion for example then he could seek the advice of an appropriate colleague. The students are not assessed on the more practical elements of their work within the Centre, for example their interviewing skills. The possibility of doing so was considered, along with filming the students conducting the interviews, but it was decided against doing so (primarily for fear of over-assessing the students).

The assignments will be moderated internally as with other modules, with samples of assessed work then being sent to external examiners. The intention is to seek moderators at other institutions offering similar modules (so as to ensure the external moderators have experience of this type of assessment and module, being as it is something which is not a ‘traditional’ form of teaching and assessment).

Publicity

Frank has made great use of the local media (for example BBC Look North, BBC Humberside, and the local newspaper), and was successful in gaining a great deal of attention for the Centre’s launch through the decision to have the local MP, Alan Johnson (then Home Secretary) as the keynote speaker at the event. Happily, this then resulted in a referral from Alan Johnson’s office, after one of his constituents contacted him with a problem about a travel company.

The Centre also gains attention through leafleting, but in Frank’s opinion the local press in particular has been an invaluable way of keeping the Centre in the public eye (thereby also benefiting the University). He said the appeal of the local press cannot be underestimated, particularly in a community such as Hull which could be seen as more ‘cut off’ than other places. The local press can be a very useful source of information to people living there, and of course people who might particularly need the services of the Centre might not themselves have access to the internet (and might therefore rely on the local print press for information).

44 Streetlaw

Hull has a student-led Pro Bono Society which provides Streetlaw presentations to local prisons, schools and church groups for example. In prisons for example the group will discuss the rights of prisoners to have access to their children; the support which is available to them upon leaving prison; and their rights in terms of housing provision upon release for example. It is information which is typically freely available from other sources, but which the prisoners might not be aware of. Presentations are vetted by Frank. Where a member of staff is not attending the actual presentation the students are sent out with strict instructions not to offer any off the cuff advice, or to give anything which could resemble legal advice.

Of course, some Streetlaw clients can be difficult: Frank cited the example of one prisoner last year who was ‘awkward’ during the presentation, but stated that the other prisoners brought him into line! One prisoner said the presentation had been very useful for providing him with a number he could use to try and get access to his children, and another thanked Frank for ‘remembering that we are still part of the human race.’

Frank and the students have developed a good relationship with HMP Hull (following initial contact by the students with the prison’s educational officer), and the prison would like the Centre students to start offering advice within the confines of the prison itself. However, Frank wants the Centre on campus to well-established and operating well before branching out.

45 University of Brescia, Italy37 Keywords: Clinic legal education and work; Italy Contact: Fabio Ravelli ([email protected]) The following questions were answered via email by the Clinic’s Director, Fabio Ravelli.

Legal education and pro bono work in Italy How do students qualify to be lawyers in Italy? After getting the law degree (following five years of study), students must go through a two year legal training programme under the supervision of a qualified lawyer (“avvocato”). Then they have to pass a state exam (a very tough one).

How, if at all, are students are expected to gain practical legal experience in Italy? Students normally gain practical legal experience through “stages” which can take place at private companies, trade unions, public bodies and so on. Some of these practical experiences give credits (e.g. stages linked to the final dissertation); some do not.

How much pro bono work is performed by Italian lawyers? Is there a ‘culture’ of performing work on a pro bono basis? Very little. Pro bono work is not typical of our tradition. On the other hand, we have a good state programme providing legal representation for poor people.

What funding opportunities, if any, exist in Italy for clinical legal education programmes? There are non-specific opportunities (i.e. not specifically addressed to legal clinics). We have to figure out how to have access to funding opportunities designed to support social activities (e.g. funding from private foundations).

Is there any pro bono work going on in other Italian Law schools? Very little.

Is there any support for clinical legal education in Italy? Not yet. Clinical legal education is something completely new in Italy.

37 http://www.unibs.it/on-line/jus/Home.html

46 Are there any support networks, like LawWorks, for people wanting to start clinics in Italy? No.

The establishment of, and motivation for, the Clinic What was your motivation for establishing a Clinic? The Brescia Legal Clinic pursues the following aims:  on the one hand, complementing the theoretical approach to studying Law and traditional Law classes with a different way of learning the law based on a learning- by-doing methodology;  on the other hand, showing the students that law shares not only a “technical” dimension but also a “social” one. Therefore the activity carried out within the Legal Clinic should benefit individuals, associations and communities which need legal advice and excellent quality representation in the fields of protection of fundamental rights, housing, education, environment, immigration and so on.

When did you start planning to open the Clinic and when did it actually open? The idea of establishing a legal clinic dates back to Summer 2008. In October 2008 a group of teachers and students from Yale Law School came to Brescia to explain to us how a legal clinic works. On that occasion we organized a seminar for both teachers and students where we started thinking about the idea of importing the legal clinic model. In March 2009 we presented a project that was approved by the Faculty Council. In October 2009 we went to USA to study different models of legal clinic. We visited Yale Law School, NYU, CUNY and University of Connecticut. In February 2010 the legal clinic course started. “Legal Clinic” is now an elective subject, giving students 6 credits

Did you receive support from the School and University in starting the Clinic? Yes. Both the Faculty and the Department of Legal Science were very supportive. A few months after the idea of establishing a legal clinic had first been put forward, the Faculty Council (our governing body) formally introduced the Legal Clinic Course into the curriculum. The Department of Legal Science provided the money needed to organise seminars and exchange programmes with US and UK clinicians who could help us understand the problems raised by starting a new legal clinic.

Who started the Clinic? The Clinic was promoted by a group of professors willing to experiment with new teaching methodologies: Marzia Barbera (Labour Law), Patrizia De Cesari (International and EU Law), Fabio Addis and Valerio Pescatore (Civil Law), Cristina Amato (Comparative Law), Mario Mistretta (Family Law), Luca Masera (criminal Law), Giuseppe Finocchiaro (Civil Procedure).

47 How did you decide which areas of law to specialise in? One of the aims of our legal clinic is to teach the students that law shares not only a “technical” dimension but also a “social” one. Having this in mind, we chose a pragmatic approach focusing on cases – related to sensitive legal areas such as fundamental rights, housing, education, work, immigration and so on – that could be handled by the professors involved in the project, depending on their specialization.

Operation of the Clinic Which areas of law do you help people with? The Brescia Legal Clinic is characterized by a multidisciplinary approach involving different legal fields: Civil Law, Criminal Law, Labour law, International and EU Law, Comparative Law, Family Law, Anti-discrimination Law. These are some cases recently handled in the clinic:  one labour law case was about an unfair dismissal;  one consumer law case was about the alleged fraud committed by a bank (a very important one in Italy). In short, it was about a bond lending which turned out to be a swindle  one civil law case was about medical malpractice;  another civil law case was a family law case and was about a separation on ground of the husband's fault;  another family law case was about the modification of the terms and conditions of a divorce settlement reached by two Algerian people living in Italy. This case raised some problems in terms of co-ordination between Italian and Algerian legislation;  two criminal law cases were about immigration issues.

Do you offer representation to clients? Our legal clinic provides both advice and representation.

How many staff work on the Clinic? Are they academic staff, or administrative staff? The people involved in the clinic can be classified as follows:  eight professors;  seven lawyers;  approximately ten tutors (Ph.D students, lecturers, fixed-term contract researchers) The number of people involved might not seem consistent with the small number of cases handled. However it should be considered that none of these people work on the clinic on a full-time basis. The clinical activity is added to the ordinary work activity (teaching and research). Moreover we cannot rely on any administrative staff to be specifically in charge of

48 the bureaucratic/administrative aspects of running a legal clinic. So, professors and tutors are responsible for most of this work.

Do you have external lawyers working on the Clinic? If so, how did you gain their support? Yes. In our system we do not have such a figure as the “clinical professor” (both teacher and lawyer). Most of our staff consists of full-time professors. Therefore we had to rely on the support of some external lawyers. With regard to the selection criteria, we decided to involve lawyers who had already collaborated in some ways with the Faculty (for example, as contract professors) so as to interact with people well aware of the problems concerned with teaching.

Where is the Clinic based? Our clinic is based in the Faculty buildings. However, a number of activities are performed outside the Faculty:  some activities are carried out in the Faculty (e.g. classes, seminars, simulations, discussion of the theoretical aspects of the case, research activity);  some other activities, especially interviewing clients and in general all those activities affecting clients' privacy, are carried out in the lawyer's office  finally, some activities take place in court. Although only the lawyer is in charge of representing the client – therefore only the lawyer can speak before the judge – our students (with the judge's permission) are allowed to attend the hearings.

Do you have any other pro bono opportunities for students at your School? If not, why did you start with a Clinic? No. We started with the clinic because we think the teaching method adopted in the clinic is very fit for the purpose of making changes in our way of teaching. Moreover the students were very interested in the learning opportunities offered by the legal clinic.

What are your plans for the future of the Clinic? How would you like to see it change in the future? Do you anticipate any problems with maintaining the Clinic in years to come? At the moment it is hard to say. We are willing to carry on the programme but, as discussed below, we might have some problems with funding. Therefore what we have to do now is to consolidate our position. After strengthening the legal clinic we will be able to expand the programme.

Student involvement How many students work on the Clinic?

49 Since we are at the very beginning of our clinical experience, we decided to admit no more than 15-20 students.

Are all of the students Law students? What level of study are they at (e.g. undergraduate? Postgraduate?) In our system we do not have such a clear distinction between undergraduate/postgraduate, as our course is taught on a 5- year basis. The students admitted to the legal clinic are in their 4th or 5th year. We chose to admit experienced students.

How are the students selected to take part? If the students are interested in taking “Legal Clinic”, they have to apply for it. If the number of applicants does not exceed the fixed threshold (15-20) all of them are admitted. Otherwise they are selected taking into account several meritocratic criteria: number of credits gained in the previous years; average marks attained in the previous years; attendance at international seminars organised by the Faculty; and knowledge of English.

What role do the students perform within the Clinic? The students cannot formally represent the client. Under the Italian civil (and criminal) procedure code only the lawyer is responsible for the defence. That means that (1) the students cannot speak before the court and (2) all the claims, briefs, appeals and other acts must be approved and signed by the lawyer in charge of the defence. Although the students do not play a formal role in the trial, under the lawyer's supervision they interview the client and give a significant contribution in drafting the acts relevant to the proceedings. They do research and write memos. The teachers organise some “rounds” where students can talk about the cases they are dealing with and exchange ideas.

Who supervises the work of the students? The students work in small groups (2-3 people). Each group is supervised by a professor and a lawyer. Depending on the complexity of the case other tutors (e.g. Ph.D. students) may be asked to help, but basically the supervision activity is jointly carried out by the professor and the lawyer.

Funding How is the Clinic funded? So far the Clinic activity has been financially supported by the Faculty and the Department of Legal Science (in other words, public funding). At the moment one of the main problems we have to face is that the Government has been cutting our funding (our University is a public one). Given the increasing scarcity of resources at our disposal for implementing the Legal Clinic project, we are planning to establish a non-profit association with the purpose of supporting our activities not only “culturally” but also “financially.” Our regulations make it

50 difficult to raise money going through the Faculty procedures. On the contrary, an external private entity, being subject to more flexible rules, should give us more chances in this respect.

Insurance What are the insurance requirements for Clinics in Italy? There are no specific requirements. However:  all study-related activity performed by the students is covered by the insurance provided by the University, regardless of where that activity takes place (inside or outside the Faculty buildings);  with regard to the professional liability to the client and the other parties that might be involved in the case, lawyers are covered by their own professional insurance. Being the individual lawyer in charge of the defence, the Law School do not need to get a specific insurance.

Publicity Has the Clinic received a lot of publicity within the School, University and city? If so, how have you achieved this? We organized several seminars within the Faculty which were open to teachers and students. Several foreign scholars were invited to give their contribution: Jim Silk, Bob Solomon and Camille Carey (Yale), Paula Galowitz (NYU), Steve Zeidman (CUNY), Jon Bauer (University of Connecticut), Kevin Kerrigan (Northumbria University). We also organized several meetings with small groups of students who were interested in taking the “legal clinic” course and asked for more information. We are planning similar initiatives for Autumn 2010, too. With regard to the city we contacted local newspapers and TV.

How do you advertise your service to the public? At the moment because our clinic is a very small (and experimental) one, we prefer not to advertise our service to the public. However we have some connections with a few associations (e.g. trade unions) that provide us with the cases. Other cases are provided directly by the lawyers who collaborate with the clinic (on the condition that the cases meet the requirements fixed by the teachers).

Difficulties What problems did you face in establishing the Clinic?

51 Since we were novices, the first problem was to understand how a legal clinic could be organised. In particular, we had to answer a number of questions: How can a legal clinic course properly fit into a traditional curriculum? In terms of efficiency is there an ideal numerical ratio between teachers and students? What substantial features should a case have in order to be taken into consideration within a clinical program? What criteria should be adopted to choose the cases to be dealt with? How many students normally work on a single case? How many hours a week does each professor normally devote to meetings with the students involved in clinics? Does the activity performed by students within the clinic program have a predetermined duration? As well as organizational problems we had to face some problems in terms of methodology. Italian legal courses are based on a theoretical approach. Therefore we had to answer these questions: Is there any space left for the traditional theoretical approach within a legal clinic course? Is there an ideal balance between theoretical and practical activity? To what extent do we have to change our way of teaching and our attitude towards students? In order to find the answers we were looking for, we organized an exchange programme involving US scholars from Yale Law School, NYU, CUNY and UNICONN Law School. Another problem was the feeling of mistrust that some people (students, teachers, the local Bar Association) had at the beginning of this new experience. A possible reason for such a feeling was the lack of knowledge of what a legal clinic is about. We faced this problem trying to explain, whenever we could, the real potential of the legal clinic method. The biggest problem was (and still is) the scarcity of resources that we can use for the clinic. Public universities normally rely on state funding. Sadly, given the difficult national economic situation, the Government has recently decided to cut our funding. That is why we are looking for new solutions (e.g. having access to private funding).

What problems have you faced since opening the Clinic? The lack of money remains a problem. With regards to the contents of the course, it is sometimes difficult to find cases which are fit for purpose. We decided that the cases taken on by the clinic should have two features: being significant for the teaching goals we would like to reach (i.e. cases that help students empower their legal reasoning); as well as not being too complex and long-lasting, given that the course covers only one semester.

52 Rhodes University, South Africa Keywords: Clinical legal education; South Africa Contact: Mutsa Mangezi ([email protected]) The following questions were answered via email by Mutsa Mangezi and a team at the Rhode University Legal Aid Clinic.38

Legal education and pro bono work in South Africa How do students qualify to be lawyers in South Africa? SA has a split legal profession: attorneys and advocates. Further information can be found at the relevant websites: Attorneys: www.lssa.org.za Advocates: http://www.sabar.co.za

Is there widespread support for clinical legal education in South Africa? Yes, both faculties and the organised attorneys (solicitors) profession are increasingly accepting the importance of clinical legal education. It has been a long battle in SA to gain recognition especially amongst academics, many of whom still seem to believe that the responsibility for teaching practical legal skills lies with the profession and not the faculties.

Are there other ways – aside from Clinics – in which students are expected to gain practical legal experience in South Africa? A small number of faculties have “Street Law’ programmes, in which students are taught facilitation skills and then go out and conduct workshops in schools and for community groups. There are also student-run organisations, which are engaged in legal activism and community projects

38 http://www.ru.ac.za/lawclinic/

53 Are there any support networks, such as LawWorks, for people wanting to start clinics in South Africa? In SA clinics have formed an umbrella body, the Association of University Legal Aid Institutions (AULAI).39 This provides support to clinics and clinicians, in the form of arranging skills workshops, clinical legal education conferences and also attracts funding for national projects.

History and funding of the Clinic How and why did the Clinic first open? It was opened by the faculty in order to provide practical training to law students

Is it now funded entirely through private donations? The University contributes approximately 10% towards the budget

Do you have any tips for people thinking of raising money to support their pro bono work? How do you go about doing so for example? In South Africa it is difficult but important to find funders who are interested in access to justice projects. During the past decade the main funders have been international foundations. It is however strategically unsound to rely entirely on foreign funders. We are presently investigating cooperation agreements with the national legal aid scheme as well as major corporations doing business in our region.

Assistance offered Which areas of law do you help people with? Most of the matters we deal with are of a civil nature, such as family law: divorce, maintenance, children, custody issues, damages claims, contract, wills, deceased’s estates, land evictions, and social grant issues. We do however deal with some criminal matters as an educational exercise.

How did you decide which areas of law to specialise in? The Law Society of South Africa has discretion as to what kinds of matters can be handled by law clinics. The Cape Law Society (our Provincial branch of the Law Society) has determined that law clinics can handle all matters save for conveyancing matters and third party claims. The reason for this is that these matters require the operation of a trust account. Since law clinics do not collect fees from clients, we do not have trust accounts.

39 http://www.aulai.co.za/

54 This is the primary basis for the restriction. Apart from that external restriction, the remaining restrictions are set internally. The factors that can influence an internal decision to specialise are funding, need and capacity. Some years ago, the law clinic obtained finding to run a specialist family law unit. As such we specialised in family law for a period of three years. The clinic will also take on a specialisation where there is capacity to do so. In 2007, the previous Director undertook a Masters that looked at the impact of interest rates in credit agreements on the poor and indigent. As a result of his work and research efforts, the law clinic developed expertise in dealing with credit agreements.

Do you offer representation to clients? We offer both representation and advice.

Do you have a selection process for clients, and if so how does it work? Clients seeking legal assistance must first undergo a Means Test. The test sets a threshold sounding in money. The clinic is not permitted to assist clients who earn more than R1750.00 (unmarried) and R2500 (joint income of married couple). As such the service is provided for the very poor and indigent. The calculation is formulated by looking at the client’s gross income together with any additional income. The value of any assets such as immoveable property, investments and savings is also added to this figure and adjusted according to the consumer price index. This then gives the asset value of the client. Provision is made for certain allowable deductions such as group life insurance, tax, rent that the client pays etc. The deductions are then subtracted from the asset value to give a total. The total is then compared to the means test threshold and only clients not exceeding the threshold can be assisted. The Director does however retain discretion as to who the clinic can help. The discretion is exercised by considering human rights factors, the complexity of the matter and the educational value of the case.

Your website mentions some outreach work – what does this consist of? How do you help clients in this way, and who do your clients tend to be? The Clinic occasionally undertakes some community engagement work. The clients are taken from community forums such as churches and societies, prisons and farms.

Do you refer cases to any other advice agencies? If so, how did you establish and maintain a relationship with those agencies? We refer some matters to organisations that we work closely with. For instance where we are aware that a particular organisation specialises in an area, or we do not deal with a matter, we will refer it. The relationships have been formed and refined over time because we work in similar fields, namely access to justice and human rights.

55 Staffing of the Clinic What roles do staff perform within the Clinic? Administrative staff support the work of the attorneys such as dealing with post, the serving and filing of legal documents and photo copying. In addition, they also administer the reception of the clients including arranging appointments, telephone calls and so on. Two of the thirteen professional staff members are also academic staff from the university. These two are involved in the lecture programme and the co-ordination of clinical legal education.

Are all the staff involved only with the Clinics, or do they have other roles to perform e.g. teaching roles? Some of the staff members are involved in teaching students in courses other than the clinical law courses at the university. In addition, professional staff members are required to do some community engagement work in the form of holding human rights awareness seminars, community workshops and involvements in other community projects. Selected staff members are involved in an advice office project, which is designed to give legal support to small scale advice offices based in rural and indigent communities across the province.

Do you have external lawyers working on the Clinic? No. However, we have informal agreements with local advocates (barristers) who act in our High Court matters on a pro bono basis.

Student input How many students work on the Clinic? A class of students in divided into two, with one half working in the first semester of study and the other half working in the second semester of study. Over one semester, there will be approximately 40 students who are registered for the Legal Practice course working in the clinic. Additionally, approximately 10 students are appointed as volunteers. Thus the total of student working in the clinic in a semester is 50.

Are all of the students Law students? All the students working in the clinic are registered for a law degree at the university. They are either in their penultimate year of study (third or fourth academic year) or in their final year of study (fourth or fifth academic year). Most, although not all, of these students are undertaking the law degree as a post graduate course. (A postgraduate law degree in South Africa is optional, but in most cases students elect to follow this route).

56 All students in their penultimate year of study undergo a Legal Practice course, a compulsory component of which is to work in the law clinic. They are assessed within the Clinic by means of two tests, two written assignments, one practical exercise and continuous evaluation of their client files. Final year students are free to work in the law clinic on a voluntary basis and on application.

Have you had any difficulties with students not pulling their weight for example because it is compulsory? If so, how have you dealt with such problems? Students will often start the course with gusto, then as the semester runs their performance declines and they take less interest in their matters. Where a student does not perform satisfactorily, there are several routes that can be followed. As a general rule, the matter is brought to the attention of the supervising attorney who then arranges a meeting with the student to discuss their performance. If the performance does not improve, the matter is brought to the attention of the Director. Where there is still no improvement, it is open to us to withdraw their duly performed certificate which means the students loses their right to continue with the course. The student would thus have to redo the course in the next semester. In order to facilitate the learning process in students, course assessment is designed to keep the students learning through ongoing assessment, as well as the use of diverse assessment methods.

What role do the students perform within the Clinic? The work of the students involves consulting with clients, drafting letters and court documents, conducting research and managing their own client files under the close supervision of a supervising attorney.

Who supervises the work of the students? The work of the students is supervised by two attorneys, one candidate attorney, the clinic director and the Clinical Legal Education coordinator. There are thus five supervisors for a total of approximately 40-45 students.

Do you have any other pro bono opportunities for students at your School? Students at the Rhodes University Law faculty have formed the Legal Activist Society, which is engaged in community projects, including Street Law. RULAC assists in training students as facilitators.

Publicity How do you advertise your service to the public? Services are advertised primarily through the distribution of leaflets and flyers. We also work very closely with partner organisations such as social work bodies, Child Welfare, other legal

57 aid institutions and the court. In that way, officials working with the partner organisations are also able to advertise out services.

The future/advice What are your plans for the future of the Clinic? How would you like to see it change in the future? Do you anticipate any problems with maintaining the Clinic in years to come? With international funding for outreach projects bound to come to an end in three years time, the Clinic may have to abandon its back-up legal service programme with some 50 paralegal advice offices in the Eastern Cape Province. It may also possibly become more involved in training paralegals.

What advice would you give to someone wishing to develop a legal advice clinic, or other pro bono service?  Proper training of staff in office management, fundraising, case management, basic client interviewing skills  If the advice office is community-based, it should have a Constitution providing for structures and systems which support transparency and accountability  A sound referral system in place whereby cases requiring attorneys services are referred to law clinics or private law firms providing pro bono services

What advice would you give to someone wishing to expand upon an existing clinic, perhaps to develop a similar range of activities to those offered at Rhodes? The advice office programme of RULAC had to be carefully planned and other stakeholders consulted and structures formed to provide for representation of advice offices on some decision-making bodies

What advice would you give to someone thinking of establishing a Clinic away from campus – what are the practical difficulties in doing so for example? The satellite clinic should form an integral part of the organisation, and be represented on the clinic’s management structure. A careful cost analysis should precede any decision to open up a satellite clinic, to ensure that it does not constitute an unnecessary drain on the organisation’s resources

58 Advice and tips Each Director was asked to provide some tips for people who might just be starting to develop pro bono projects within their institution. I have also drawn some of the key points from the reports above which might be of value

Starting out  Two Directors (Julie at QMU and Dinah at Manchester) made use of a business plan at the time of starting their projects. Formalising the process in this manner can enhance your credibility and ensure that everyone is clear what the plan is.  Time was a factor which cropped up again and again during my interviews with Directors. Be aware of how time-consuming projects are likely to be and try to plan accordingly. If you are hoping to ensure your work is recognised within your School’s workload allocation, try to draw upon the experience of others is establishing how long certain activities take. I would personally advise against taking on any project without first agreeing that time will be allocated to you for both establishing and running it (a common misconception seems to be that Clinics for example ‘run themselves’ once they are established).  Only do something if you are going to try and do it as well as you can because of the difficulties of running schemes.  Seek advice on specific issues which you need consider in some detail e.g. confidentiality, data storing, insurance, assessment. Several interviewees said it was possible to start projects up without reinventing the wheel. LawWorks can of course offer a lot of advice in this regard and can refer you to people happy to share their experiences.  If you are establishing a Clinic, consider what level and the extent of advice you are going to give within a Clinic, and bear in mind the extra work and staff required in running a full caseload  Consider focusing on activities with a specific end-point e.g. Streetlaw or one-off advice sessions, in order to reduce ongoing caseload work (while still providing an educational benefit to the students and clients).

59  When deciding which activities to run, be aware of the fact that you might not always have the same staffing levels e.g. if staff leave temporarily and are not replaced, you want to ensure you are not left with too many projects to continue with.  Be clear about who you want to offer the project to as a learning opportunity e.g. just UGs or only PGs?  Lindsay at York said you need to be realistic about what the service is you are providing and why you are providing it – meeting educational needs is the main aim of the College followed by supporting the needs of the community. You should therefore go right back to basics when considering starting something and ask yourselves ‘why are we doing it?’  Students can be trusted with responsibility – but staff support will still be required. If you are a student, get your academics on board, otherwise you will be limited in terms of what you can achieve  Walk before you run: start small, and build up. Always start with something manageable – do not aim to work with lots of agencies and do lots of schemes. Working with external parties

 At the start of any partnership be clear about what each of your expectations are. QMU for example explain what they can do for a firm considering becoming involved with their Centre, and what the firm can do for them. Firms want to know exactly what they are committing to – be direct about this.  Frank at Hull advocated trying to engage with other service providers in your area from the start: if it works as a relationship then they will help you an awful lot and you can help them. Do not see yourself as in opposition to them, nor as an independent service – fit in with what others are doing. Similarly, Lindsay at York advocated ensuring you are not replicating/duplicating services, and making clear you are not going to ‘take over’ or shift people providing an existing service out of the way.  Understand however that it may take years to build up networks and contacts. Much of Julie’s (QMU) time is now spent developing and maintaining such contacts, and Northumbria have a member of staff whose remit includes developing them.  Lindsay at York emphasised that you need to be able to sell the idea of working with students and the value they can bring when trying to establish projects – you always have to be able to look at it from the agency’s perspective. This is particularly important in the current climate, given the uncertainty over funding and legal aid provision.  Lindsay also emphasised that there is a need to be politically astute. Be very aware of advice services in your area, what their constraints are and what difficulties they are facing. Even if you are the supervising solicitor and you do not need to partner up with anyone, think about the impact your clinic will have on the wider legal community and how they will feel about it. Be aware that there can sometimes be some local hostility to new advice services. For example, there can be an assumption that we are trying to get students giving legal advice in place of qualified solicitors.  Tap into your alumni and pre-existing contacts – both firms involved with the Clinic at Leeds are there because of a prior connection to the University. Julie at QMU also works with alumni on their Clinic, and Fabio at Brescia tapped into pre-existing links with solicitors to recruit supervisors.

Sustaining your work

60  Julie at QMU stated that one thing to consider when starting Clinics is that as you expand the costs can increase in some areas e.g. thanking supervisors for their involvement, or holding supervisor of the year awards to solicitors from each firm. Costs to be considered including for example professional membership fees to the likes of FRU (where applicable), stationary, office equipment and so on (some of which will obviously decrease after initial set-up). This can also be true of pro bono projects other than Clinics e.g. if your Streetlaw programme expands then you might find your travel costs increase.  If you are going to run a Clinic, you need a member of staff who is prepared to take your Clinic on for continuity. Indeed, in running any pro bono project there is a need for staff oversight as a minimum: if it is purely student-led Dinah at Manchester argues it rarely works because of the handover from one year to next.  Always evaluate what you are doing and do not rest on your laurels. Accept that some years projects will not run as well as in previous years, even if you are running them in the same way (and perhaps with advanced assistance provided to the students). Evaluate as you go, and consider how you can improve things for next year.

The benefits

 Working within the Clinic brings a great deal of responsibility which is always there, perhaps to a greater extent than exists within other academic-related activities (particularly, again, if you are running a full caseload). However, Carol at Northumbria reported that working with students in this form of teaching and learning is extremely rewarding. You have the opportunity to see them develop in skills and maturity, and many keep in contact long after they have left the clinic.  Dinah at Manchester suggested there is a good learning experience in lots of potentially unexpected ways for the students e.g. dealing with difficult clients, finding that solicitors do not always respond to you.  Overall running pro bono projects is immensely rewarding, but also challenging. Be realistic about what you can achieve with the time you have and also consider which projects it would be best to focus on – not only from the perspective of the students and community, but also from your own perspective. Which will you enjoy most?