Our Law Clinic is expanding
The University's Law Clinic enters exciting new collaboration
The School of Law's Legal Clinic opened in January 2016 in collaborating with the Bradford and Airedale Citizen’s Advice Bureau and Law Centre (CAB) at their offices at Argus Chambers in Bradford. The clinic integrates into theservices offered by the Bureau, providing legal advice on a range of matters, which the CAB is unable to.
The school of law puts employability and clinical legal education at the heart of its teaching, but we also believe that we are a fantastic recourse for our local communities. As such, we have formed ‘Justice Bradford’ our own very unique law clinic where we seek to collaborate with local third sector agencies providing much need service to the general public. Ian Miller, Deputy Head of Law and the Law Clinic Director, explains
‘Our strapline is Delivering Education through Public Service, and we think that perfectly encapsulates precisely what we do.’
The programme has grown from strength to strength and this academic year approximately half of our final year undergraduates have taken part in the Law Clinic module. By partaking in the clinic, our students gain experience in a real world setting, learning how to interview clients; identify legal issues and write a comprehensive advice for their client.
In February this year, our Law Clinic began another exciting collaboration with CHAS@StVincents, a community support charity offering a wide range of services.
Initially, our collaboration with CHAS will be in assisting them with the provision of immigration advice under the guidance of a practicing solicitor, who is a specialist immigration adviser. Under this supervision, our students will be able to join the team of volunteers at CHAS and undergo formal training and assessment in order for them to become qualified immigration advisers themselves. In time, we plan to expand our collaboration with CHAS to include running a ‘drop-in clinic’ for general legal advice on Wednesday afternoons. We hope to have this scheme running by October 2018, in time for the opening of our new academic year.
Other schemes in the pipeline include a collaboration with Leeds Personal Support Unit (PSU) with a view to running an ‘at court’ advice service, which has the capacity to operate as a credit bearing module in its own right, and working with the University of Bradford Students' Union to provide legal advice sessions to students.
We are constantly seeking to increase the services we offer both to our students and the community of Bradford; our current collaborations are merely a start. Watch this space.