Supervised throughout by a qualified lawyer, students working at the King’s Legal Clinic interview clients, analyse their problem, research the issues and then send the clients written advice.
Working for the Legal Clinic is helping students gain a range of skills that differ from those they develop in lecture theatres and classrooms, while the experience of working on real-life problems is of critical value to their future employability. The students’ work can either be credited as part of their degree course or it is carried out as an extracurricular activity.
Because many of the cases students encounter will involve people at the sharp end of political and legal decisions, involvement in the King’s Legal Clinic requires them to think critically about how laws are made, who makes them, and what can be done where well-intentioned policy results in bad law.
The Legal Clinic has been able to draw on a network of London partners to help supervise the students. The initiative is working with law firms, barristers, advice agencies and community organisations across London, taking referrals and, in some instances, making them.