Our Leicester Law School students are trained to give legal advice, closely supervised by qualified solicitors, in the following areas: Contract, Consumer law, Employment, Family, Housing, Probate and Wills. We also have a Windrush Compensation Project for people affected by the Windrush scandal.
What are you looking for volunteers to help with?
We are looking for legally qualified solicitors who would like to join our panel of volunteers. We host initial legal advice sessions attended by clients and typically 2 student advisers.
What will volunteers get out of this?
Volunteers will get an opportunity to educate the next generation of lawyers and advise clients on a ‘one-off’ basis without dealing with any administration. We value the efforts of pro bono lawyers who can commit to making a modest contribution each year but cannot make a commitment to a weekly or bi-weekly involvement in pro bono. We can organise your advice sessions at the University of Leicester campus or over Microsoft Teams, depending on individual preference and the coronavirus situation. We have well-established systems for administration so we hope to offer volunteer lawyers a way of volunteering without you having to put in place an administrative structure.
What will the time commitment be?
We are looking for a commitment of 6 or more hours a year. We seek a commitment from interested volunteers to be added to the rota for advice sessions, typically in your field of expertise. Volunteers will advise one client in a 60-90 minute session and will be provided with a summary of the issue at hand and any key documents obtained in advance. All of the students’ written work will be supervised by clinic solicitors, so the volunteers are only required to supervise interview sessions and ensure that the advice provided by the students does not go outside the remit of the reviewed research.
Person specification - what type of volunteers are you looking for?
We are looking for qualified solicitors (with a current practising certificate) and the expertise of one year or more.
Application process - is there any information you would like applicants to provide?
Please send your CV to the below-mentioned email address. We ask volunteers to briefly outline their professional qualifications, whether they have a current practising certificate, which firm they currently work with, the main areas of law in which they hold professional expertise and the type of cases they feel able to make a contribution to within the remits of the clinic. Please indicate the level of commitment you would feel comfortable making - and whether you would prefer to provide advice in-person at the university, or over Teams. If there are any further queries before making a commitment, please get in touch.
Is there a deadline for applications or is this an ongoing opportunity?
This is an ongoing opportunity.
What email address should enquiries and applications be sent to?
lawadviceclinic@leicester.ac.uk