Pro Bono 2012 | Starting them young

Nottingham Law School places great importance on both undergraduate and postgraduate students taking part in pro bono work during their legal education. As well as including pro bono elements in the curriculum, a fully-equipped, purpose-built Pro Bono Centre within the school includes a workspace - which allows teams of graduate students to work together in a confidential environment on live cases - interview rooms and a supervisor’s office.

Nottingham Law School’s Legal Advice Clinic opened in 2006 and each year students participate in law clinic activities, providing initial legal advice and a referral service to both the local community and Nottingham Trent University staff and students.

Education and service

Law students, supervised by qualified lawyers, are available to offer advice and assistance on a wide range of legal problems, including employment law, consumer issues, contracts, housing and welfare benefits. For some clients it has provided assistance beyond initial advice, including preparation for employment tribunals and negotiating settlements. The aim of the clinic is to provide reliable, high quality legal advice and information to individuals in need, while at the same time providing practical experience for students.

As part of the Clinic, and in collaboration with the London-based charity Free Representation Unit (FRU), students also represent clients at Employment Tribunals with often excellent results. Students have won a number of cases and recovered substantial compensation in a number of cases. Taking part in FRU means that the students receive extra training in providing legal advice, case preparation and advocacy in tribunal cases.

Behind bars

Nottingham Law School also runs an Innocence Project (part of the Innocence Network UK) which investigates alleged miscarriages of justice and is staffed by both undergraduate and postgraduate students. The students are currently working on six cases of alleged wrongful convictions, re-examining the evidence and looking for new lines of enquiry to refer back to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Students can participate in the Streetlaw™ programme by providing sessions on human rights and careers advice to local 16-18 year old school and college students. Nottingham Law School students have also devised and delivered programmes in prisons; the law school’s award-winning “Bars in their Eyes” project continues to give guidance on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and how it can be used to secure employment for those leaving prison.

The law school has also taken steps to enable its students to undertake pro bono work abroad. Over the past two years, ten students from Nottingham Law School have, with support from Alumni funding, travelled to Kerala, southern India, to work with human rights NGO Jananeethi. The law school also has close links with the charity Amicus-alj and has worked with the charity to enable its students to work on death row cases in the US.

These schemes are important in enabling students to develop practical legal skills, foster the ethos of pro bono early in their careers and gain valuable experience in preparation for their profession, as well as giving them the opportunity to put something back into the wider community.

These projects benefit society by providing free practical support, legal advice and information to people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access legal support.