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Where are we going? Edinburgh Law School’s Pro Bono & Clinical Legal Education Department

This blog is written by Aideen Byrne, Edinburgh Law School’s Pro Bono and Clinical Legal Education Assistant. This post introduces the purpose of this blog and the development and expansion of Edinburgh Law School’s Pro Bono and Clinical Legal Education Department.

 

Edinburgh Law School’s Pro Bono and Clinical Legal Education Department was established in 2019, headed by Director Rebecca Samaras. Pro bono activities and clinical legal education have been a part of Edinburgh Law School since the founding of the University of Edinburgh Free Legal Advice Centre (FLAC) in 2007 by the late Elaine Tyre, former Director of the Legal Practice Unit (now Diploma in Professional Legal Practice or ‘DPLP’) and Diploma students. Since then, thousands of clients have received legal advice and support from the DPLP student advisors who have learned how to put their substantive legal knowledge into practice under the supervision of our ever-generous volunteer solicitors. Today, we are expanding student participation in FLAC, launching our Virtual Clinic and other pro bono projects and partnerships.

We are keen to share our experiences through this blog with you. You will hear from many of those involved in our expansion and development efforts including from our newly established University of Edinburgh Pro Bono Society. It has been a difficult year for everyone, and the challenges ahead will undoubtedly increase the amount of people seeking pro bono legal advice and, facing a waning (or at least changing) job market, students will want, more than ever, to increase their knowledge and skills. It is between these two pressures that we exist.

We are living in a time of great transformation, much of it currently a forced changed. The push towards integrating technology and updating our practices, throughout legal education and practice, existed prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic but with public health concerns forcing many of us to work remotely and move our services and teaching online, this change was sped up exponentially. This pandemic has brought into stark relief the inequalities in our communities, both locally and globally.

With pro bono legal services across the world facing a tsunami of requests for assistance, what we do here matters, with both local and far-reaching results. In parallel, legal practice and the delivery of legal services today require law graduates to have a wide portfolio of skills to draw upon. Our pro bono law clinics and projects provide an experiential learning environment for students to develop their legal knowledge, data analysis, and service-focused people skills.[1]

To date, the Edinburgh Law School Pro Bono and Clinical Legal Education Department operates:

University of Edinburgh Free Legal Advice Centre

In Academic Year 2019/ 20, all 124 students studying the DPLP participated under the supervision of volunteer solicitors. We began expanding FLAC student participation beyond the DPLP to other undergraduate and postgraduate students in Edinburgh Law School. During our ‘Law in Society’ Pro Bono Fair in October 2019, students registered their interest in the Pro Bono Society, for FLAC training and our Lay Representation Service. Unfortunately, our efforts were temporarily halted due to the pandemic, but we intend to continue those efforts this academic year by facilitating training online and operating appointments, where possible, in-person and through our Virtual Clinic.

 Virtual Clinic

Our virtual clinic was piloted at the end of July 2020. Amidst the rush to bring services online, we have taken a cautious approach, balancing our pro bono work with the need for effective clinical legal education. We hope to share our experiences establishing this clinic in the IJCLE Special Edition later this year. We will draw on numerous perspectives including from our clinician, Director Rebecca Samaras, our professional staff, Aideen Byrne, and our student advisor, Rachel Greig. Publication details will be posted later this semester.

University of Edinburgh Pro Bono Society

The Pro Bono Society was established to raise awareness of our pro bono initiatives amongst the Edinburgh Law School student body. We now have a Committee from within that student body who are all motivated to promote access to justice and clinical legal learning amongst their cohort. Members of the Committee attended the JUSTICE Human Rights Conference 2020, are continuing the Student Law Clinic Climate Justice Pledge Initiative, and are currently conducting Welcome Week and other events.

Collaborations

As we expand further, we are bearing in mind that collaboration and partnership are key tenants of pro bono.

We launched the StrEEt Aware Law Clinic in January 2020 in collaboration with JustRight Scotland, StreetWork, and Shelter Scotland. We trained undergraduate and postgraduate students to assist with EU Settlement Scheme applications for EEA citizens. Unfortunately, we were unable to see any clients prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 and now this clinic is postponed until it is safe to reopen. This is particularly challenging as students would have to work in close proximity with clients in the initial stages. We will review matters throughout the year and recommence as soon as it is safe to do so.

We are currently developing our partnership with Indigo Volunteers. Indigo Volunteers connects volunteers with humanitarian projects. We are looking at how best we can provide much-needed pro bono legal support to the grass-root organisations they assist, particularly to those in the refugee camps throughout Europe, Turkey, and Lebanon. Recently we shared their campaign raising awareness for the fire that devastated the largest refugee camp in Europe, Moira, on the Greek island of Lesvos and seeking support for their volunteers working on the frontlines.

Additionally, our staff, students, alumni, and faculty are involved in a variety of ways with the Scotland-wide initiative, Probonoskills.com, which is a Scotland-wide initiative bringing a high level of training and events to law students who are providing pro bono services through University clinics and projects. It aims to provide these students with equal access to excellent training, streamline that training to relieve the clinics of some of the training burden, and hopefully, to increase the number of students volunteering in the law clinics. We are excited to share this training with our students when it launches.

We are sharing our experiences of developing and expanding these projects with you through this blog in order to raise awareness and encourage you to get involved where possible. Our aim is to highlight a variety of perspectives including our staff and students and continue to build and share best practices in pro bono and clinical legal education.

[1] Legal Geek Events, The Uncertain Decade with Mark Cohen and Richard Susskind https://www.legalgeek.co/uncertain-decade/; https://www.forbes.com/sites/markcohen1/2020/07/01/skills-and-education-for-legal-professionals-in-the-2020s/.

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