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

3. 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

4. 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)

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

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

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

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

9. 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

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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

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

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

16. CLIENT OUTPUTS
2000 clients helped

17. CLIENT OUTPUTS

18. CLIENT OUTPUTS

19. 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

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

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

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

24. 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

25. SRA Training for Tomorrow
Threats & Opportunities

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. 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.

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

30. 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

31. 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.

32. 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

33. 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.

34. 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

35. 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.

36. Opportunities ?
Hoping for Option 2

37. 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 ?

38. CONTACTS alan.russell@lsbu.ac.uk evansc15@lsbu.ac.uk