Case work updates
April is always a slow month at the Strathclyde Law Clinic. Our clinic is almost entirely student run, which unfortunately means that April clashes with two major events: the Easter holidays and dreaded exams. With events slightly slowing down, our advisors showed no sign of stopping their case work. Here are some of things our advisors got up to this month…
- Two of our students attended a preliminary hearing on Monday.
- Two advisors achieved a good outcome for a temporary suspension order review, it will now go to a full fitness to practice hearing.
- One of our advisors has now settled an Employment Appeal Case.
- Two of our students only half a day left of a 5 day Employment Tribunal.
- Many of our advisors are working on challenging cases at the moment.
Executive Committee 2024/2025
We are excited to announce the new executive committee for 2024/25! Thank you so much to everyone who applied and interviewed, and an extra well done to those who have been appointed.
Student Directors: Natalie Marshall, Corey Beaton and Gordon Gow
Firm Co-ordinators: Adam Crainie, Afton Cook, Ava Ferguson, Nikki Munro and Anna Gren
Communications Officer: Abbie Clark
Depute Communications Officers: Allana Williams and Emma Campbell
Training Officers: Callum Butterworth and Jessica Jayan
EDI Officer: Abby MacKay
IAC Co-ordinators: Lauren Weetman and Scott Gillanders
IAC Depute Co-ordinators: Harbani Kaur Kohli
Online Co-ordinator: Hannah Stewart
Online Depute Co-ordinator: Megan Buggy
SWRC Co-ordinator: Heather Dickson
TAP Co-ordinator: Saeed Azodazad
Events
Mediation Clinic Training
An important aspect of access to justice is looking for other possible solutions for our clients. Sometimes this can involve exploring the option of mediation as a means to avoid court action if possible. In spirit of this a few of our student advisors attended a mediation training run by the Strathclyde mediation clinic on the 25th April.
This event was facilitated by Charlie Irvine, and allowed us the opportunity to watch a mediation in action. Charlie also highlighted key aspects of mediation and the differing tactics that could be used in critical moments. Both Elise Schwarz and Alan Jeffrey did an exemplary job as co-mediators, and I for one found this experience to be highly educational. This has been particularly useful for our first year Clinical LLB students who undertake advocacy and mediation seminars, and will be assessed on either advocacy or mediation during exam season.
A huge thank you must go to the parties involved, Charlie Irvine, Elise Schwarz, and Alan Jeffrey. Your demonstration was highly commendable and goes a long way in helping our student advisors provide more effective legal advice.
Upcoming SULCN Conference
This year Strathclyde Law Clinic will be hosting the annual SULCN conference! This year’s event will include a workshop on teamwork and representation, panel discussion and a key note speech by Employment Tribunal Judge David Holey.
Strathclyde Law Clinic is a member of the Scottish University Law Clinic Network (SULCN). SUCLN is an initiative that brings together and raises awareness of student law clinics in Scotland. The SULCN conference serves the purpose of strengthening links between clinics and learn lessons from one another to best serve our combined purpose of access to justice.
The conference will be held on 20th May at 2-5pm, tickets are available at the following link: https://www.trybooking.com/uk/DJBA. If you have any further questions please direct them to our SULCN Representative Holly Cherry at holly.cherry.2021@uni.strath.ac.uk.
Advisor / Alumni News
Paman Singh
It is always particularly wonderful to see how far our previous student advisors have gone, taking with them values of equality and access to justice. Paman Singh, now a solicitor advocate and principal associate at Weightmans, previously worked in the law clinic as both a student advisor and external communications officer. He is a dual accredited specialist in both discrimination and employment law, the quickest ever to achieve this accreditation. To add to his particurlarly impressive accolades, Paman has been sworn in as a Judge of the Sikh Court at the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn in England.
The Sikh Court is a new option for Alternative Dispute Resolution to help those in the Sikh community resolve disputes. This will help combat one of the chief complaints with ADR, the waiting times involved in the system.
Harbani Kohli
One of our advisors, Harbani Kohli represented Strathclyde University at the Semi Final & Final of the Principal Sheriff’s Moot hosted by the Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow. The moots were held against City of Glasgow College and Glasgow Caledonian University, judged by Sheriff Brian Mohan and Sheriff Principal Anwar. Harbani Kohli and her co-mooter won the overall moot progressing to the final stage where they won the final! Huge congratulations to Harbani for her hardwork and excellent mooting skills.
“All participating mooters had incredible arguments and I am delighted to have progressed to the Final alongside my partner. I had a fascinating conversation with the organisers and Sheriff Brian Mohan about his early days in practice and his unanticipated career as a Sheriff. It made me realise that unexpected opportunities can change the trajectory of our goals!”
Harbani Kohli
Eva Ralston
On Thursday 28th March myself and three Strathclyde Spanish Students participated in the annual spanish debate against the University of Glasgow! It was an honour to be selected to represent the University at this year’s event. The topic was on the use of AI in University and the challenges and opportunities it offers. The Strathclyde team comprised two final year students and two third year students, all with a commendable level of spanish language. It was an exciting and competitive evening, with a panel of three external judges, all of whom are at the top of the linguistic game! The debate went back and fourth between Strathclyde and Glasgow, where we argued various points of view using statistics and academia. This was following weeks and months of meetings and research, all of which extra-curricular, in between exam and assignment time! Glasgow conveyed some compelling arguments and a really high level of language but, ultimately, it was the competitive edge of team Strath that got the win! It was a really interesting event and the first time I had participated in a debate in Spanish and it undoubtedly allowed me to further develop my confidence and public speaking skills in a second-language, especially on a topic that is very relevant and somewhat controversial. I managed to include some legal points of view that definitely contribute to the win! I’m delighted that our hard work paid off and it was a lovely way to round off my final semester at University.