The University of Strathclyde Law Clinic enjoyed a successful night at the eighth annual Herald Society Awards with the Clinic’s Executive Committee winning the “Team of the Year” Award.

The award ceremony was held this past Wednesday (2 November 2016) at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glasgow. Co-Student Directors Jacob Hay and Fergus Lawrie represented the Clinic at the ceremony alongside Diane Inglis, who was nominated for the Unsung Hero Award.

Beating out some stiff competition, the Executive Committee won the award for its work over the past year. The Executive Committee is formed of staff members and student volunteers who are responsible for matters such as recruitment, training, IT, publicity, Clinic development and external relations. The Committee also consists of elected members who take the lead on policy making and ad hoc tasks to ensure that the Clinic meets its objectives.

Commenting after the award ceremony, Law Clinic Director Donald Nicolson said:

It is enormously gratifying that the Clinic’s Executive Committee has been recognised at these prestigious awards. It would be impossible for the Law Clinic to serve so many clients, provide some many community services, involve so many students and be so successful without the Executive Committee. Staff members go well beyond their supervisory duties to help run the Clinic and oversee services not involving case work. But it is the dedication and hard work of the student members which is truly amazing and worthy of recognition. Many of the initiatives which have made the Clinic so successful have come from the students. They put in the time over and above their studies and other Clinic work equivalent to three full staff members and are on hand at all hours to assist me. Indeed, winning this award demonstrates that their hard work is not only appreciated by me and their Clinic colleagues, but also the wider community.

While our Administrator, Diane Inglis, didn’t win in her category of Unsung Hero, she was up against very tough and very impressive competition. In truth, recognition of the Executive Committee is in no small way recognition of her work: as she is at the heart of almost everything the Clinic does. We all owe her a debt of gratitude.

In addition to our annual exchange with the University of Miami Health Rights Clinic, two of our advisors went above and beyond and organised their own visits to volunteer at the Clinic this summer. Below, they share their experience. 

Julia Poole:  During my two weeks volunteering at the Health Rights Clinic, I was assigned 2 cases: one dealing with naturalisation (the process of acquiring US citizenship) while the other involved helping my client to obtain her Disability Public Benefits.

As the clinic is focused on health and rights, most cases (including immigration ones) have some medical aspect. For example, the Public Benefits case was specifically concerning my client’s disability and getting her disability legally recognised by the State and thus eligible for financial support.  The whole governmental system seemed unhelpful and I felt the Health Rights Clinic was the equivalent of Legal Aid. I worked on cases and situations I never would have been involved with in Scotland.

As well tackling my own cases, I attended a Veteran’s Drop-in Advice Clinic (similar to our Initial Advice Clinics within the context of a Veteran Project).  This experience gave me a real insight into how those leaving the armed forces can struggle in adjusting to civilian life.

Overall, I thought this an amazing experience. I met some amazing people and worked on two very different cases. The Health Rights Clinic is doing an amazing job and if given the opportunity, I would go back in a heartbeat.

Antonia Welsh:  I was assigned 3 cases; all with background stories themselves that really hit hard and involved medical problems that I have never before confronted. Two of my clients were diagnosed with AIDS and the third had been forced into child prostitution.  One of my clients was in prison so I was speaking to the prison on a daily basis and after a few days, they knew it was a Scottish girl on the phone hounding them for records. Another client had come over the US-Mexican border using a human smuggler.

These cases saw me tackling problems that are rare in our Clinic.   Two of my clients did not speak any English, and after arranging a home visit with one of my clients, a fellow advisor had to come with me to help translate.

I was also involved in naturalization cases which involved putting together a packet that would be their application for US Citizenship. The forms were anything but straight forward to understand and the sheer volume of paperwork and their complexity made me realise why people need a lawyer to help them find their way through the maze. I felt that I had really achieved something by completing the packets.

Julia and I got to attend a Drop-in Advice Clinic which was focused on helping homeless veterans. I really enjoy meeting with people and listening to their stories, understanding how they have found themselves in the position they are in and being part of a process that may be able to help support them through difficult times and offer solutions. It was eye opening to see the differences between the social welfare systems, in that there really is not the same support in place in America.  The veteran we interviewed had seen active duty in his younger years and was suffering from a number of health problems, some of which were related to his service and yet he was going to be made homeless and there was not many avenues open to him. Trying to obtain benefits in the US is a lengthy and difficult process with a number going to hearings. My client who was in prison was a young woman, with numerous mental and physical health problems and was a mother to two young children, yet at her last hearing she was denied disability benefit.

My time at the Health Rights Clinic, proved to be a crash course in American law and many of the skills that I have picked up at our law clinic came in very handy.  I feel that I have gained massively from working at the University of Miami Health Rights Clinic and being able to sample Law School in America.  For anyone that is thinking of volunteering, I could only encourage you to go as I feel learnt a lot in a very short space of time.

Students from the University of Miami Health Rights Clinic will be visiting the Law Clinic this October, in the first leg of this year’s exchange.

Friday 14 October 2016 saw this session’s intake of new student advisors complete their Initial Advisor Training. This year, we received more applications than ever before, and we took on 74 new case workers.

Over the past two weeks, our new students have been trained on how to be an effective advisor.  At the first training session, the student advisors were welcomed to the Clinic before starting to learn how effectively to interview a client.  They were then given the opportunity to practice what they had learnt by interviewing each other.

At the next session, the Law School’s Professor Charles Hennessy gave them an intensive course in legal research by setting them a problem solving question based on a real life case.

The third session involved a discussion on legal ethics lead by Professor Nicolson followed by a session on legal letter writing.

The final session acted as a ‘case simulation’, with the new advisors putting everything they had learned into practice on a mock case.

Commenting after the graduation ceremony, trainer John Stringer said:

“Our new advisors have gone through a really intensive training programme.  Despite having to take in a lot of information and learn new skills in a short space of time, our new recruits have been brilliant, never letting their enthusiasm or attention falter.”

“This year we took a different approach following the structure of a case and further incorporating our experienced student advisors into the training, with a number of them helping at our training sessions.  I think our new advisors found it beneficial to learn from their peers who are already in the role.  I also wanted the new students advisors to get used to asking their fellow advisors for help as it is something they will do in the Clinic on a regularly basis.  Just because the training is finished, does not mean the learning is and the best way for our new advisors to learn will be to work with and question our more experienced student advisors.”

Student Directors Jacob Hay and Fergus Lawrie commented:

“We are delighted to welcome our 74 new case workers, and are looking forward to working with them in the coming months. The effort they invested in each training session was outstanding, and we are confident they will be great assets to their clients.”

Professor Donald Nicolson, Law Clinic Director, remarked:

“Competition for places within the Clinic was at an all time high this year, and based on the enthusiasm with which our new intake approached the training sessions, I am confident that this will be matched with an outstanding calibre of advisors amongst our new intake. I am indebted to the staff and students who helped deliver the training this year — which I hope proved valuable and interesting for our new intake.”

This past Wednesday saw the Law Clinic hold its Annual General Meeting in the Graham Hills Building. It was attended by Clinic members old and new as well as friends of the Law Clinic and invited guests.

The AGM also saw our 2015-2016 Annual Report published. This can be accessed here.

The AGM began with Law Clinic Director Donald Nicolson giving his annual report of the Clinic over the past year.  Donaldpointed out that over the past year the Clinic has dealt with 484 cases: an increase of 26.4%.  This increase was thanks to our three general advice services: Online Enquiries, Initial Advice Clinic Enquiries and traditional “Cases”. Donald then went onto share some of prominent success stories while project supervisors gave a breakdown of their projects, and the Student Directors outlined plans for the coming year.  Following these reports, elections to the Clinic’s Executive Committee were held with Thomas Jamieson, Alice Bowman, Jordan Bird, Jenna McKinley and Luke Light all elected to the Committee.

Following on from the election, the AGM then moved on to the night’s award ceremony.  The nominees for awards were all nominated by their fellow students. The first award of the night was “Best Newcomer” which was won by second year Graduate Entrant Nathan McHardy while Scott Jenkins won “Best Project Worker”.  The award for “Best Advisor” was shared between Ben Brown and Scott O’Connor.  The “Best Case” award was won by Andrew Harding and Hannah Grace for their sterling work on an employment case.  The Amanda Benstock Award for Compassion was won by Alice Bowman, while Stacey Martin won the Effie Shaw Award for Dedication.  Miranda Hughes won the Best Court/Tribunal Advocate.  The final award of the night went to Jennifer Rowlinson who won the award for her overall contribution to the Law Clinic over the past year.

Following the AGM, Director Donald Nicolson said:

“The AGM is a chance to celebrate our past successes as well as look forward to our future and the last year has been a year of massive success.  We have increased our membership to almost 300 members while we have been recognised at a variety of national awards and won a few as well.  Most importantly it has been a year of success when it comes to winning for our clients.  We had a case success rate of 85% which is truly remarkable.  We  want to build upon this record and improve it, which I am confident we will do over the next year.”

Donald added:

“I congratulate everyone that won an award and everyone that was nominated.  As these awards are based on students nominating one another, those who won and nominated are really thought of highly by their peers who work with them on a daily basis in the Clinic.”

Monday 10 October 2016 saw nine student advisors from the Law Clinic take part in the 2016 Glasgow Legal Walk organised by the Access to Justice Foundation.

Beginning at the High Court, our 9 walkers (one narrowly missing the opportunity to be part of the photo), as well as teams from law firms across Glasgow, walked ten kilometres around the city, taking in such sights as Glasgow Green and the Clyde. Despite the odd wrong turn, our intrepid walkers completed the walk in just under two hours.

The Access to Justice Foundation aims to improve access to justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. It raises funds throughout the year through a number of different events with the next one being a national Great Legal Quiz. The Foundation then distributes funds to organisations that support those who need legal help but cannot afford it. At the time of the writing, the Walk as whole had raised almost £900 and the Access to Justice Foundation are hoping that this number will increase to over £1,000 with donations still being submitted.

Fundraising Officer Andrew Harding said:

This is a great event as it allows different law clinics and firms to interact with one another and get to know each while at the same time raising funds for a great cause. The Access to Justice Foundation is very supportive of our Clinic so I welcome the fact that we were able to support it.

A big thank you to everyone that represented the Law Clinic during the walk and an even bigger thank you to everyone who has donated so far. Although the walk is over, we are still seeking donations, so anyone wishing to donate can do so by visiting our online page.

The Law Clinic recently wished a fond farewell to a long-time project supervisor Barbara Coll, who supervised the Clinic’s Immigration Unit since its establishment in 2014. 

Below Barbara talks about her time in the Clinic and members of the Clinic pay tribute to her work. 

The Immigration Unit is funded by the Destitute Asylum Seekers Support (DASS) Project to work with destitute asylum seekers who have been unsuccessful in their initial asylum claims. The aim of the project is to support these extremely vulnerable and often highly traumatised individuals to gather new evidence to support fresh applications for asylum.

By the time the Immigration Unit becomes involved in cases, our clients have already been refused asylum by the Home Office and at appeal and are generally no longer entitled to any form of support. They are often homeless, sleeping in night shelters or moving from place to place. They survive on charity and their lives are very chaotic. This commonly has very negative consequences for their mental and physical health and their sense of dignity has often been shattered by their experiences of ill-treatment in their country of origin and, unfortunately, their experiences of going through the asylum process in the UK. We generally find that clients do not fully understand what has happened in their cases so we take the time to explain this to them and to explore with them potential forms of new evidence in support of their cases. If there is potential for new evidence, we assist them in collecting and preparing new evidence before handing the case over to solicitors to prepare fresh applications for asylum to the Home Office. This process is often extremely time consuming. For example, in one of our cases, the process took in the region of 80 hours. Solicitors simply would not be paid for working that number of hours on an individual case by the Scottish Legal Aid Board and so the Law Clinic can play an important role in assisting refugees to achieve justice.

First and foremost, I have enjoyed working along with very committed Law Clinic students to assist an extremely vulnerable and marginalised client group. Asylum seekers are often vilified by the press and are not treated with respect by many of those with whom they come into contact during the asylum process. I have enjoyed being part of a project that is dedicated to treating asylum seekers with respect and restoring their sense of dignity. Through our project, asylum seekers are informed, in a way they can understand, of why they have been refused asylum and what evidence is needed in order that they can be recognized as refugees. At the very least, they are then able to make more informed decisions about their future which is crucial for all human beings.

I am returning to humanitarian work abroad. I am hoping to work with Syrian refugees and will be based near the Turkish/Syrian border.

The Law Clinic’s new Immigration Supervisor, Gillian Melville, remarked:

Barbara has been instrumental in developing the Clinic’s immigration unit and has supervised the project since its inception. The immigration unit has had many referrals and has been of great benefit to those who previously lacked an understanding of the status of their immigration cases, as well as providing guidance and support to those able to submit a fresh claim for asylum .Barbara is completely dedicated and passionate about the work she does, and we have all learnt from her drive and professionalism, not to mention her wealth of expertise in the field of immigration and asylum. It is commendable that Barbara is taking her expertise back to the field to continue her humanitarian work in the Middle East, where she will  be living and working in high conflict areas. We wish Barbara well for the future, and thank her for everything that she has brought to the clinic in the past two years.

Donald Nicolson, Law Clinic Director, added:

In a very short time, Barbara has made a huge impact. In two years, she took the idea of providing assistance to one of the most vulnerable groups in society and made it a reality. In doing so, she overcame many obstacles including having to retrain and  to deal with numerous other organisations. But what shone through in everything she did was her care for her clients and commitment to ensuring them the best possible service. In this way, she leaves a priceless legacy, not just in terms of a thriving Immigration Unit capable of serving many refugees in the future, but also  in the example provided to the students she trained and worked alongside. Hopefully many of these students will go on to follow in her footsteps and ensure that Barbara has an even more enduring impact on service to those most in need.

Miranda Hughes, a student advisor who worked in the Immigration Unit over the summer: 

It has been truly inspirational to work so closely with Barbara over the past few months. It is rare to meet somebody so passionate about what they do and I truly believe this will have a profound effect on how I approach my work in the future. The Immigration Unit is a testament to her expertise and commitment to change and I wish her all the best for the future.

The Law Clinic has been shortlisted for two awards at the Herald Society Awards 2016.  The Executive Committee has been shortlisted for the Herald Society Team of the Year Award while administrator Diane Inglis has been shortlisted for the Unsung Hero Award.

The Executive Committee is formed of staff members and student volunteers who are responsible for matters such as recruitment, training, IT, publicity, Clinic development and external relations. The Committee also consists of elected members who take the lead on policy making and ad hoc tasks to ensure that the Clinic meets its objectives.

Diane Inglis, the Clinic’s Administrator, fields all incoming contact to the Law Clinic, and also acts as a go-to for the students and the staff of the Clinic for the majority of the day-to-day issues in the Clinic.

The Herald Society Awards were launched in 2008 to celebrate and recognise the vital work taking place in the public and voluntary sector.  This year’s award ceremony is taking place on Wednesday 2 November at the Crowne Plaza, Glasgow.

Professor Donald Nicolson, Law Clinic Director, remarked:

“I owe a huge debt to the Executive Committee students. It is their endless enthusiasm, commitment, and sense of responsibility which enables the Clinic to play such an important role in redressing access to justice and allows me to juggle being Director with my academic responsibilities.

The students put in hours equivalent to that of a number of paid administrators to ensure that the Clinic operates effectively on a day to day basis, and they do so in a very reliable and highly professional manner. When a task is undertaken by Executive Committee members, I can always be confident that it will be done efficiently and timeously.”

On Diane’s nomination, Professor Nicolson said:

“Diane has brought a new level of professionalism by ensuring that the Clinic runs more smoothly than ever before. Diane has a brilliant manner with the public and is able to reassure and pacify very stressed clients whom she treats with dignity and respect. Diane has also proved to be an invaluable source of support to students, cheerfully sorting out their problems and providing a shoulder to cry on when things do not go well. She epitomises selfless service to the community.”

On the 7th and 8th September, Jennifer Rowlinson and Rebecca Menzies attended the Inaugural UK and Ireland Street Law Best Practices Conference at the University of Birmingham.   Below they share their experiences of the conference.

Jennifer Rowlinson: As the former Schools Project Manager I wanted to attend the conference to discover ways that we could better develop our Street Law programmes. I am pleased to say that I returned from the conference with a number of ideas that the conference helped develop best practice.

Rebecca Menzies: As the manager of the Prisons Project, as well as a member of the Schools Project, I wanted to attend the conference to discover ways to develop the Prisons Project and engaging both the offenders and pupils. I came home from the conference with lots of ideas of how to develop our current Street Law based programmes.

Day 1

Jennifer Rowlinson: In the first session of the day we heard a number of presentations about street law in the community. The presentations included “Street Law in Schools” by Francis Ridout and “Street Law in Prisons” by Freda Grealy.

I found the section on “Street Law and Litigants in Person” of particular interest. In Birmingham University, students provide presentations in the Employment Tribunal on a weekly basis to unrepresented litigants. From my own experiences in the Law Clinic, I have seen a number of cases which have been referred to us by employment judges because claimants are unable to understand the process.

The second half of the day focused on skills development. During the first session, Richard Grimes, John Lunney and Renata Burdova provided presentations on sample Street Law sessions: delivery, pedagogy and method. This highlighted how we need to go back to basics when creating new Street Law presentations.

In the final session of the day, Efrain Marimon and Melinda Cooperman presented the “Evidence Showdown: Teaching Strategies for Mock Trials”.  I enjoyed this session because it showcased the different methods you can use to facilitate interaction. You can start off with something as simple as a video and before you know it you have created a live trial.

Rebecca Menzies: From the morning sessions, it was clear that I was oblivious to the number of ways Street Law can be used in the community. I had simply linked Street Law to our two projects but the morning sessions opened my eyes to a number of other ways it can be used to benefit the community.

I found the section on “Street Law and Litigants in Person” by Linden Thomas of particular interest.  This session highlighted the need to have learning objectives for each talk and then to have an evaluation process for all parties involved to ensure these learning objectives are being met.

Day 2

Jennifer Rowlinson:  At the end of day 1, we were given a topic from which we were to create our own Street Law programme.  From seeing only five presentations, it was interesting to see the different methods of Street Law. I particularly enjoyed the programme on Consumer Rights as this is an area covered in the Schools Project. After each programme, the other groups provided feedback and we were able to speak of further ways we could improve the session.

During the second session, John Lunney, Richard Grimes and Sarah Morse presented sessions on “Building Street Law into the Curriculum”.  Once again, I learned about the importance of developing a good training programme which not only creates better presentations but creates better advisors. John Lunney pointed out that the Street Law sessions should be based on audience interaction, allowing students to be more like facilitators and less like lectures.

In the final session, BPP University provided a presentation on “Troubleshooting: Overcoming Practical Problems in your Street Law Programmes”.  It was interesting to see how a number of the issues we face also happen on other Street Law programmes. This session allowed us to discuss possible solutions.

Rebecca Menzies: I really enjoyed the short sample Street Law presentations. It was interesting to see the wide range of techniques which could be used to engage the audience and stimulate conversations.

The session on incorporating Street Law into the curriculum, and the session by Efrian and Melinda, highlighted to me the advantages of training the students more competently than we currently do. It highlighted that our training programmes for prisons and schools need more of a focus on the fundamentals of Street Law, ensuring our students go into the community with the correct skills.

Final Thoughts

Jennifer Rowlinson: Upon reflection, the Street Law conference has taught me about the importance of training and feedback if we want to progress with our Street Law programmes.

Rebecca Menzies:  Looking back at the conference, I definitely achieved my goal of seeking new ways for us to develop our Street Law programmes. It opened my eyes to the number of community groups who could benefit from Street Law and the wide variety of ways in which it can be used.