Alan Russell Catherine Evans Andy Unger London South Bank University CLINIC, CILEX & T4T Alan Russell Catherine Evans Andy Unger London South Bank University

CONTEXT A widening participation institution 25% UG law students live locally in south & east London 57% women 65% over 21 70% non-white 52% in paid employment (80% working 9 hours plus) 17% caring for at least one school age child

CONTEXT Students unlikely to have links to the legal professions Fair Access to Professional Careers, A progress report by the Independent Reviewer on Social Mobility and Child Poverty (Milburn, 2012, Cabinet Office Report)

CONTEXT University tuition fees - £9,000 PA ABS – Legal Services Act 2007 Information technology Paralegals Fewer training contracts and pupillages

CONTEXT ‘Working in the Law’ Compulsory Year 2 undergraduate Law module Professional & career skills External legal work placement opportunities

Housing & Homelessness CONTEXT Housing & Homelessness Family Debt Immigration Employment Education Welfare Benefits

CONTEXT Clustering Early intervention Impact on health and wellbeing ‘Referral fatigue’

CONTEXT Genn, H. (1999) Paths to Justice: What People Do And Think About Going To Law. Oxford: Hart Publishing; Balmer, N. (2013) Summary Findings of Wave 2 of the English and Welsh Civil and Social Justice Panel Survey, Legal Services Commission; Pleasance, P. & Balmer, N. (2014) How People Resolve ‘Legal’ Problems: Report to the Legal Services Board

CONTEXT Southwark ranked 23rd most deprived out of 326 local districts in England (DCLG 2015) Demand for SWL advice enormous Supply very limited

CONTEXT Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) 2012 £320 million savings PA Legal Help Scheme slashed Welfare benefits, debt, employment, education, immigration advice out of scope Housing and family advice severely restricted

DROP IN SOCIAL WELFARE LAW ADVICE Drop-in face to face social welfare law advice Drop-in 3 x 3 hours a week Staffed by students; supervised by university employed solicitors Minimum 12 week placement 18-20 clients a week

Reception Initial details Interview Part 1 Fact-finding Establish what client wants Research enquiry Using Advice-guide and other resources Consult supervisor Agree the content of your advice to the client Interview Part 2 Advise the client Finish the enquiry Write up an accurate case record

STUDENT PROGRESSION AT DAYTIME DROP-IN Modelling Collaborating Students taking control

EVENING SESSIONS Students shadow pro bono solicitors & barristers giving specialist legal advice in Housing Family Employment

CLIENT OUTPUTS 2000 clients helped

CLIENT OUTPUTS

CLIENT OUTPUTS

BENEFIT TO STUDENTS In at the deep end – first point of contact Translating client concerns into legally recognisable categories Developing interview skills Developing practical legal knowledge Developing understanding of client care Developing writing skills – the advice record

Drop-in Legal Advice Clinic  Director’s Manual 1st Edition

COUNTY COURT HELPDESK Lambeth County Court Helpdesk Replacing the former court office service 35 new placements since Sep 2013

CILEX CILEx accreditation embedded Civil & criminal litigation; family law; employment law; company & business law Fully qualified Legal Executive after 3 years paralegal work

CILEX Legal Executives can double qualify as solicitors by passing the LPC – no training contract required Challenge – meeting Level 6 LLB outcomes and covering packed CILEx syllabus

SRA Training for Tomorrow Threats & Opportunities

Option 1 Continuing to prescribe a limited number of pathways to qualification, the details of which we specify, which are aligned to the Statement of Solicitor Competence, Statement of Legal Knowledge and Threshold Standard.

Option 2 Rather than prescribing a limited number of pathways, authorising any training pathway developed by a training provider which enables a candidate to demonstrate they can perform the activities set out in the Statement of Solicitor Competence to the standard required in the Threshold Standard.

Option 3 Developing a centralised assessment of competence that all candidates are required to undertake prior to qualification, again aligned to the Statement of Solicitor Competence, Statement of Legal Knowledge and Threshold Standard.

Training for Yesterday The proposals ignore specialisms, IT, ABS and burgeoning new roles for lawyers

Equal Opportunities Threats A two-track or double track system and a significant rise in assessment costs - SQE Part 1 & 2 Unlimited amount of resits for those who can afford it

Equal Opportunities Threats some students will seek to minimise the costs of qualifying by taking unregulated crammer courses instead of academically rigorous alternatives to the current LLB + LPC - may be less well prepared to pass and to practice as Solicitors. Those who can afford to do so will take both.

Narrowing Student Choice Divergence between the BSB and the SRA will mean students have to decide their career routes before they have even begun the study of law

Academic Threats teaching to the SQE Part 1, will make it almost impossible to teach options or to teach and assess the wider academic and skills outcomes outlined in the QAA Subject Benchmark Statement for Law.

Quality Threats Not fit for purpose – assesses knowledge and general legal skills but not higher order, critical thinking skills or the ability to respond with unprompted complex information

Reputation Threats The Law Society and the City Law Firms amongst others have expressed concerns about damage to the international reputation of the Solicitors profession if it is perceived to no longer be a graduate profession.

Opportunities ? Hoping for Option 2

Opportunities ? Can we blend an extension of clinic and collaboration with local partners (in our case SLLS and SLAN) with new and existing courses (LLB, LLM, LPC) to take our students closer to professional qualification ?

CONTACTS alan.russell@lsbu.ac.uk evansc15@lsbu.ac.uk ungerad@lsbu.ac.uk www.lsbu.ac.uk/legaladviceclinic