Strathclyde Law Clinic Committee Win National LawWorks & Attorney General Student Pro-Bono Award

Louisa Doole, Hannah Cosgrove, Annabell Fowles & Nur Hemsi Collecting the Award on Behalf of the Law Clinic

We are delighted to announce that the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic have once again been successful at the LawWorks and Attorney General Student Awards 2012. The Clinic’s Executive Committee have been the proud recipients of the Best Contribution by a Team of Students Award.

The committee is made of twelve appointed and seven elected students. It currently meets monthly along with the Clinic Director and the supervisors to decide on Clinic policy and direction, and debate ethical issues raised by cases. In this role, it has played a crucial role in upholding and modelling to others the Clinic’s core volunteer and social justice ethos.

The appointed office holders on the Committee are particularly important in ensuring that the Clinic runs effectively and efficiently. Such work includes:

• helping with the allocation and monitoring of cases, and mentoring student advisors (Case Managers);
• organising induction training and around ten additional training sessions a year, as well as attendance at outside sessions (Training Officer);
• maintenance of our award-winning case management system, mailing lists, and the website (IT Officer);
• Producing external and internal publicity and maintaining external relations (Communications Officer);
• Fund-raising (Funding Officer).

Most importantly, the Student Director and her Deputy oversee all Clinic activities, including the various Clinic projects, represent the Clinic to the outside world, and help maintain Clinic morale through social events.

A very conservative estimate suggests that these students volunteer around 7000 hours annually. This saves the time (and salary costs) of the Clinic Director and having to employ four more paid staff to maintain current Clinic activities. As a result, the Law Clinic runs at cost of less than a third of the average law clinic affiliated to LawWorks.

This award builds on previous successes at the LawWorks awards ceremony, which have seen the Law Clinic shortlisted on various occasions, winning Best Law School in 2009 and Best Contribution by an Individual Student, Alasdair Stewart, in 2011.

Current Student Director, Hannah Cosgrove, said, “We are absolutely delighted that our efforts have been recognised nationally. The standard of competition is always high, with other universities such as BPP Law School, King’s College London, Cardiff Law School and Bristol Law School offering equally notable services. The University of Strathclyde Law Clinic’s Committee is the driving force behind its continued success and high level of service, and we know this will continue on for years to come.”