The Scottish Women Rights Centre (SWRC); a collaboration between the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic, JustRight Scotland and Rape Crisis Scotland has welcomed the Scottish Minister for Community Safety and Affairs, Ash Denham to the offices of JustRight Scotland and their new helpline premises.

The Scottish Government has announced the expansion of the SWRC through funding by The Scottish Legal Aid Board and the Justice Fund. This expansion will allow the SWRC to increase their capacity to provide legal and advocacy support to women who have been affected by gender-based violence. This expansion has allowed for an increase of staff and two legal surgeries to be established in Dundee and Inverness later this year.

The Director of the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic, Kate Laverty commented on the expansion stating: 

“The University of Strathclyde Law Clinic is very excited about the expansion of the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre. Through their involvement with the Centre, our volunteer law students have gained invaluable experience and developed specialised legal skills and knowledge about the experiences of women who have been affected by gender-based violence and are trying to navigate the legal system.

“Exposure to these issues at this stage in their legal careers will mean they have a much improved awareness of the difficulties faced by women which will inform their practice in future years.”

Legal Studies students from the Motherwell Campus recently visited Strathclyde University Law Clinic to get a taster of what could be in store for them upon completion of their course.

The Law Clinic, which is run by law student volunteers, provides free legal assistance to people who are unable to get help by any other means. Former NCL Law student, Karen Yuill, is a co-ordinator at the Clinic and in her third year of a law degree at the university. 

Karen met with the group to discuss her journey from college to university and to give them an insight into the work that is carried out by the Clinic. 

The visit was organised by class lecturer, Ciaran O’Neill, who said: “This was a truly fabulous opportunity for our Law students to see, first hand, the wonderful pro bono work that the Law Clinic carry out.

“This kind of opportunity gives our students an excellent insight into how theory is put into practice and the sort of opportunities that await them in the next stage of their educational journey.

“I am extremely grateful to Karen and her team for a very informative and interesting morning.”

For more information about law courses available at New College Lanarkshire, visit: https://www.nclanarkshire.ac.uk/courses/law

For more information about Strathclyde University Law Clinic, visit: https://www.lawclinic.org.uk/ 

In the run up to Christmas 2018, the Law Clinic’s Immigration Unit (IU) was invited to deliver a forum theatre session on asylum interviews to a group of third year social work students at Glasgow Caledonian University.

The IU ran two back-to-back sessions, with each session being delivered to an audience of 25 participants.

The session starts with a fictionalised asylum interview based on real law clinic cases, followed by an examination and deconstruction of the interview through audience participation. 

These interactive sessions aim to highlight the challenges faced by destitute asylum seekers when progressing their cases, and in particular, the credibility issues that hound their cases relentlessly.

The sessions were very well received. The audience quickly got into the spirit of forum theatre by raising their hands and stopping the interview when they saw an issue or problem. The braver amongst them got the chance to ‘jump in’ and re-enact the scene as they thought it ideally should have been acted out.

On Wednesday 23 January 2019, representatives from the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic attended the Strathclyde Student Union’s Welfare Week event for Student Services.

The event took place on level four of the Strathclyde Students Union in the Recharge Cafe and provided students with the opportunity to engage with representatives from the various support services available.

Alongside the Law Clinic, the event also featured the Advice Hub, Financial Services, Security, International Student Support Team, Student Accommodation and the Careers Service. The initiative has been developed by John Agbonrofo, the Vice President of Support, in order to promote the support services available to Strathclyde students.

Reflecting on the Welfare Week, John commented:

“Smile Project Strath Union Welfare Week is an outreach that provides opportunities for students to get access to the most up to date and relevant information and training to meet their needs (Personal, Academic, Housing, Employability, Finance, Legal Rights, Wellbeing, Health and, Safety).

In essence the message is, no matter the circumstance you are not alone, there are people and services that are here for you. Always remember, do not let anything take away your smile. Keep smiling 🙂 We are here to help!”

One of the volunteers representing the Law Clinic at the event, Kirstie Webb reflected:

“It was great to be able to represent the Law Clinic at the Strath Union’s inaugural welcome week. This gave us an invaluable opportunity to meet and interact with students who may not know about the Law Clinic’s work and the services we provide. Having a time where all the organisations and services are in one place is a fantastic idea that will hopefully enable students to access any information they may need.”

A dedicated group of Law Clinic volunteers took to the streets to distribute University of Strathclyde Law Clinic leaflets.

At the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic we are always aiming to support the most disadvantaged and vulnerable members of society. This includes people who do not have access to the internet. By distributing leaflets to public locations in Glasgow and the surrounding area, we hope to raise awareness of the services the Law Clinic provides in order to help those who need our service the most.

The team targeted local libraries, Councillors offices and Advice Hub’s. The locations included the Mitchell Library, Glasgow City Hall, Townhead Health Centre, the University of Strathclyde’s Advice Hub among other venues.