Summer Students
This summer we were lucky to be able to employ nine summer students part-time to enable us to run our services over the summer break. During these months, our summer students took on case work, which for many included representation at courts and tribunals, and helped keep our project work going. In particular, our Environmental Justice Project flourished through the research work of our summer students, including Dylan Wright, who is our newly appointed EJP coordinator. This has allowed us to grow our work in this area, as well as our relationships with partner organisations and individuals. Furthermore, one of our summer students, Heather Dickson, took the role of this years’ Scottish Womens’ Rights Centre itern. You can hear about her summer in this exciting role via the following link: https://www.lawclinic.org.uk/updates/scottish-womens-rights-centre-internship
This year, the summer students were:
- Ava Ferguson
- Corey Beaton
- Dylan Wright
- Gordon Gow
- Hannah Stewart
- Heather Dickson
- Jessica Jayan
- Lauren Weetman
- Saeed Azodazad
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Alumni Fund for supporting us in helping to finance two of these very necessary roles, as well as all of our incredible summer students for their hard work and dedication.
“Spending the summer at the clinic has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I’ve been blessed to be part of such a welcoming and friendly workplace environment, where I eagerly looked forward to my days at the office. The flexible hours, along with the unlimited tea, coffee, and snacks, made the experience even more enjoyable. The supervisors were incredibly supportive and approachable, always ready to offer guidance and share their expertise. I was also fortunate to be allocated to a wide variety of cases, each offering a unique learning opportunity. One of the highlights was having the opportunity to represent my first SSSC hearing alongside my best friend, a responsibility we stepped into at the last minute—an experience that wouldn’t have been possible if I weren’t a summer student. If I’m lucky enough, I hope to have the privilege of returning to the clinic next year to continue this incredible journey.”
Jessica Jayan, Training Co-ordinator and Summer Student
Retirement of our Clinical Director
We sadly said goodbye to our Clinical Director, Kathleen Laverty, this summer as she embarks on her retirement. We celebrated by hosting an event which was exceptionally well attended and included family, student advisors and colleagues past and present, as well as fellow practitioners from across the country. It was an evening worthy of Kate’s career.
If you would like to hear Kate’s thoughts on retirement you can do so here: https://www.lawclinic.org.uk/updates/farewell-from-our-clinic-director
We hope you will join us in wishing Kate all the best for her retirement!
The clinic continues to operate as normal under the leadership of our staff: Legal Supervisors, Gillian Melville and Kathleen Bolt, CLLB Director, Rhonda Wheate and Administrator, Diane Inglis.
Events
REACH Advocacy Training
Over the summer, we hosted a training session on a human-rights based approach towards representation by Reach Advocacy who carried out a training session on a human-rights based approach towards representation. The session was coordinated by our training team, and was attended by a number of our student advisors. You can read more about the session from Corey:
It was a pleasure to attend Wednesday’s training session, delivered by REACH Advocacy, on taking a human rights-based approach to advocacy. As a law clinic which provides legal support in areas which relate either exclusively or tangentially to the fundamental, basic rights which we are all afforded by virtue of our humanity, the importance of this kind of approach to advocacy was deeply appreciated by all in attendance. We look forward to incorporating this into our practice going forward and strengthening our relationship with REACH Advocacy to deliver a high-quality, human rights-based service for our clients.
Corey Beaton, Student Director

Visit from Lord Reed
On 24 June 2024, we had the great honour of welcoming Lord Reed, the current President of the UK Supreme Court, to the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic.
We are indebted to Lord Reed for giving his time to our organisation, and for his invaluable contributions in discussion of access to justice, and the services we provide at the clinic.
You can read more about his visit here: https://www.lawclinic.org.uk/updates/strathclyde-law-clinic-welcomes-lord-reed-an-afternoon-with-the-uk-supreme-court-president
European Network for Clinical Legal Education Conference

We are passionately committed to providing a Clinical Legal Education for our student advisors. Our students gain invaluable knowledge and experience through directly delivering legal services to our clients, whether as part of their Clinical LLB, or the standard LLB degree.
To help us achieve this, we are involved in the European Network of Clinical Legal Education. Our involvement in this network gives us the opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences with other academics, lawyers, and legal advice organisations from across Europe. This helps us not only to continuously improve the standard of our teaching and learning practices, but also the legal services provided to our clients.
This year Gillian, one of our legal supervisors attended the ENCLE annual conference and delivered a session on working with: “Students as Partners”. Her talk explored the impact of breaking down power dynamics to create a ‘partnership’ approach between teachers and students in Clinical Legal Education. If you are interested in hearing more, the abstract for Gillian’s session is below:
Students as Partners (SaP) is a growing theory of learning and education that is gaining traction with many teachers and students in higher education. At its heart is the idea that students are not merely passive consumers to whom it is the teacher’s job to impart knowledge, but rather agents of their own learning.Some studies have shown that students, when working as partners with educators, can co-create ideas and knowledge that can be applied not only to enhance their own education, but to improve current teaching/learning methods overall. Similarly, Clinical Legal Education is a progressive educational ideology and pedagogy that engages students beyond the traditional didactic teaching models, and encourages them to apply knowledge to real life situations. At Strathclyde Law Clinic, students work together on real cases in pairs, and work closely with their supervisor. This tends to result in students and staff becoming more like colleagues than teacher and student. However, despite the personal and professional benefits, there remain barriers to participation. These can be practical barriers but also emotional barriers.The concept of partnership reshapes what has been traditionally an unequal relationship between staff and students. Bovill, Cook-Sather and Felten have defined true student-faculty partnership as a “reciprocal process whereby all participants have the opportunity to contribute equally, although not necessarily in the same ways, to the learning process” (2014).This lightening talk will share some of the findings from a literature review, and will discuss power dynamics as a barrier to participation for both staff and students, and explore the potential overlap between barriers to participation in SaP with those in Clinical Legal Education
Strategy Day
In September, the law clinic’s Executive Committee got together for a Strategy Day. One of our Student Directors, Corey Beaton, provides summary of the day below:
It was a pleasure to facilitate the Law Clinic’s strategy day – its first in two years – to plan ahead for the next three years of our measured growth and sustainability of what we currently provide.
The energy and engagement from those who participated are testament to the passion and drive that we as a committee have for continuing to ensure that our capacity continues to meet with the demand for our services whilst also ensuring that we continue to develop and enhance the high-quality services that we offer to all of our clients.
These outcomes could not have been reached without our collective purpose, vision, and mission being so deeply embedded into the culture of our Clinic and embodied by all of its members in all that they do to improve access to justice for those we support. The Student Director team looks forward to presenting the outcomes of the strategy day to the Executive Committee for approval in the coming weeks.
Student Advisor Academic Successes
From internships and training contracts to marathon training and travelling, our student advisors have been busy over the summer months! That commitment to success is no better showcased that by the Law School awards Incredibly, our Student Advisors have topped every year group in the last academic year. Congratulations to all our student advisors for their hard work and exemplary academic achievements!
- Allana Williams – Top of CLLB (Year 1) and top of Year 1 overall.
- Lauren Weetman – Top of CLLB (Year 2)
- Callum Butterworth – Top of CLLB (Year 2 Graduate Entry) and top of Year 2 overall.
- Afton Cook – Top of CLLB (Year 3)
- Katy Li – Top of CLLB (Graduate Entrant Year 3) and top of Year 3 overall.
- Laura Nicol – Top of CLLB (Honours)
- Maya Bedi – Top of Honours year overall.