The Legal Advice Clinic in its first full year has been an excellent and well used service for the local community, while at the same time offering practical real world legal experience to our exceptional undergraduate students.
Between September and May, the Clinic team conducted 192 face-to-face client interviews and provided advice on debt, benefits, housing, relationship breakdown and other legal issues. Working under the supervision of Clinic Directors Alan Russell and Dr John Russell, law student volunteers were able to resolve nearly two thirds of the enquiries in the drop-in advice sessions, while another quarter were referred to the Clinic's specialist evening advice sessions with local volunteer solicitors.
The scheme has been so successful that the creators have been asked to prepare an operational manual for the Higher Education Academy to allow other Universities to develop their own drop-in clinics. Given its success it's no surprise that the Legal Advice Clinic plans to expand in the next academic year. From September 2013 the clinic will offer a third weekly daytime drop in session to service users and provide a further 33 LSBU Law students with the opportunity to act as Clinic Volunteers.
Congratulations to the Legal Advice Clinic Directors, the Law Department at LSBU and all others who helped to make the Clinic such a success.
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Posted: 28 June 2012
