YORK LAW SCHOOL
Streetlaw[1] programme
Handbook
Edition 2010 – 2011
Contents
1 Welcome to York Law School and its clinical programme. Pages 4-7
2 More about Clinical Legal Education. 8-10
2.1 How will I learn from the experience? 8
2.2 What knowledge and skills will I use? 9
2.3 What standard will I be expected to achieve? 10
2.4 How will I know that I am doing things right? 10
3 The Streetlaw clinic. 10-16
3.1 Streetlaw in action. 12
3.2 Taking part. 13
3.3 What about Streetlaw at York Law School? 13
3.4 What are the learning outcomes in a Streetlaw clinic? 15
4 Your participation. 16-22
4.1 How will Streetlaw work? 16
4.2 Typical timetable for your Streetlaw group. 17
4.3 What will the issues be and how will they be identified/ 18
4.4 What if the issues raised involve areas of law that I know nothing about? 19
4.5 What if the issues addressed by, or raised at, the Streetlaw sessions are sensitive or controversial? 19
4.6 What records will I have to keep? 20
4.7 What about photocopying, processing and printing? 20
4.8 How will I be contacted? 20
4.9 What happens if my course work comes into conflict with my pro bono commitments? 21
4.10 Do the Law Society’s rules of confidentiality apply to my work in the Clinic? 21
4.11 Are we allowed to receive any money or other gift from anyone we work with on Streetlaw? 22
4.12 Can conflicts of interest arise and if so what do I do? 22
4.13 What if there are complaints? 22
5 Working with community groups. 23
6 Who are the staff on the Streetlaw team? 23
Getting the message across. 24-25
Contents continued.
7 What does an effective presentation look like? 26-27
8 A working example. 27-31
8.1 An example from the USA. 27-31
9 Methods. 32-43
9.1 Brainstorming. 32-33
9.2 The P.R.E.S. method. 33-34
9.3 Think, Pair, Share. 34-35
9.4 Small group work. 35-37
9.5 Round robin. 37-38
9.6 Case studies. 38-40
9.7 Take a stand. 40-41
9.8 Role-play and Simulation. 41-43
A final word. 43
Appendix A
Please see York Law School Clinic Handbook
Appendix B
Student Self-Evaluation form.
1. Welcome to York Law School and its clinical programme
Why pro bono? We believe that as lawyers, we have a responsibility to meet the needs of members of the communty who require access to legal services. Some may pay privately for such help, others may qualify for publicly funded assistance. Many however rely on the personal commitment of lawyers to ensuring that needs are met regardless of ability to pay.
Many lawyers meet this professional expectation by giving some of their time to clients and community groups on a voluntary basis. More recently, attempts have been made to co-ordinate this activity through the work of organisations in the not for profit sector – notably LawWorks (formerly the Solicitors’ Pro Bono Group) and the Bar Pro Bono Unit. The creation of the Community Legal Services scheme has also provided opportunities for structured pro bono development.
The University is in a position to contribute to this pro bono movement through a range of activities including advice Clinics, representation units and legal literacy programmes. These initiatives are designed to provide a free service to members of the public alongside (and complementing) other existing provision.
And Clinical Education? Whilst the University is keen to promote services for the public benefit, involving students in pro bono work provides a powerful education. Through such hands-on approaches to study students markedly develop their knowledge, skills and professionalism.
In other words, pro bono work and clinical education are mutually complementary – everyone benefits.
York Law School is running a range of pro bono and clinical schemes. A Legal Advice Clinic will shortly operate, at the University; along with an extensive placement scheme. All our clinical work carried out at the University is supervised by professionally qualified staff.
Access to law however, does not just depend on a lawyer’s help in individual cases. In order to understand rights and responsibilities people must be legally literate. To address this aspect of pro bono and clinical work, the University has set up a Streetlaw programme. This has been running for 2 years under the direction of a student-led committe and the clinical programme at YLS is now building on this development. Under this scheme undergraduate and postgraduate law students supported by their tutors, work with community groups to identify legal concerns. The students then research the relevant material and present their findings to the partner groups in a user-friendly form. Through discussion, role-play and other inter-active methods the students and the community group members both learn about the law.
This programme has been successfully piloted in schools, prisons and community Clinics and with a variety of other interested groups including tenants, claimants, patients, single parents and volunteers with not for profit organisations.
In all opf our clinical work we aim to conform to the appropriate professional standards and follows, as far as possible, common procedures. This not only helps to maintain quality but ensures that the student experience is equivalent. In addition, the clinical programmes at the University has to meet our internal quality requirements.
This Handbook will guide you through the experience of working and learning on the Streetlaw programme. It describes the ground rules of Street law, the professional standards applicable and the role of clinical education as part of your studies or in your role as tutor. It also gives you a guide to working with the community and material on different teaching and learning strategies, including presentational skills.
Separate Handbooks cover the Clinic in general and the specialst activities in particular. If you are interested in any of these activities please contact the address below.
We hope that you will find this Handbook useful. You are advised to have it to hand at all times you are involved in the University’s clinical work. Any comments you wish to make on the content of this Handbook, or the pro bono and clinical programmes in general, are welcome.
Because the services we offer are for real clients we owe a professional obligation to them, The University, your supervisors and you are responsible for the quality of those services. The University carries professional indemnity insurance in case any of us makes a mistake. However we must ensure that we do all we can to deliver a professional service. We will do all we can to make sure this happens. You too must play your part by:
· following, to the letter, the procedures set out in this handbook
· turning up, on time, for every meeting – whether that is with your client, your ‘firm’ members or your tutor
· taking part in the end of case evaluation
We take this so seriously that if you do not behave in the appropriate professional manner we reserve the right to remove you from the case in which case you would not qualify for the certificate of satisfactory completion. If there are major failures of professional responsibility, for example failing, without reasonable excuse, to attend a meeting or breaching client confidentiality, we may have to inform your personal tutor which might affect any reference he or she may be asked to give.
If you feel that you cannot commit to this standard please do not take part in our pro bono work.
Such a stern warning is necessary to make the nature and importance of our work clear. Having said that, in my experience, failings on the part of our student advisors are very rare. In most instances the student performance is exemplary and both you and us are proud of the service we are able to give.
If you do, thank you for joining our team.
Best wishes
Richard Grimes
Director of Clinical Programmes
York Law School
University of York
October 2010
2. More about Clinical Legal Education
At the heart of Streetlaw is the opportunity to learn through experience. Taking an active role in your learning by putting theory into practice and then reflecting on that experience, through discussion and analysis, is sometimes called clinical education. Doctors, nurses, engineers and linguists use this hands-on approach to study, so why not lawyers? York Law School believes that clinical legal education makes sense for everyone concerned. It provides a highly effective teaching methodology. It produces skilled and confident lawyers and can provide an important public service.
Whether you are involved in Streetlaw, working in the Legal Advice Clinic or taking part in our placement clinic, there is an opportunity for you to enhance your learning. The clinic is therefore a vehicle through which experience can be gained and learning enhanced.
2.1 How will I learn from the experience?
There are three principal ways in which you should learn and benefit from a clinical experience:
· working on real cases with real people – this involves identifying issues, conducting research, solving problems and applying knowledge and skills
· discussion with colleagues and tutors – inbuilt into all our clinical programmes are opportunities to assess what has happened and why. Preparatory meetings will be held before you begin your clinical work. There will be regular meetings during the conduct of your case with teaching staff and other student members of the clinic team
· evaluating your experiences – whilst discussion forms an important part of your learning, we ask you undertake an evaluation of your experience at the end of your case or time doing pro bono work with the University. This stage is intended to encourage you to reflect on the overall experience and to make the most of the learning experience.
Although the University aims to provide a useful service, the rationale of clinical education is to aid your learning. Self-evaluation is a vital part of this process. We will therefore ask you to do two things after you have worked on your case presentation:
first, complete a self-evaluation form. This asks you to think about what you achieved, what you could have done better and what, with the benefit of hindsight, you might have done differently. The form will also help the tutor write future references for you
secondly, attend a meeting, each term, with other participants, and future participants, to discuss in general terms your involvement. Learning from the experience of others is as important as reflecting on your own work.
2.2 What knowledge and skills will I use?
To a certain extent, the answer to this will depend on the issue or case you are working on. If, for example, you are working with a client group on problems they are having with their rented flats, you may have to look at a range of laws covering the relationship of landlord and tenant. If, on the other hand, you are making a presentation on prisoners’ rights, you may be dealing with a whole host of laws, none the least being the provisions of the Human Rights Act. In any event certain key issues will arise regardless of the detail of the case or issue you are working on. You may have to do any or all of the following:
Ø Conduct interviews
Ø Analyse complex factual situations
Ø Conduct legal research
Ø Draft documents (including letters that can be readily understood by your client!)
Ø Solve problems (in a practically appropriate way)
Ø Work effectively as a team
Ø Maintain a file
Ø Manage your time
Ø Develop your presentation skills
You may soon come to realise that it is not just what the law says that matters (presupposing that you have correctly identified the legal issues and accurately reasearched the position). The options open to the client and the relative merits of particular courses of action (including the cost and risk implications) need to be appreciated and explained. The solution or preferred option may not be based solely on the clients’ legal ‘rights’ or ‘responsibilities’. Solutions are what work for the people concerned. But you do need to understand the legal framework to know what is possible.
In addition, you should become familiar with the ethical and professional issues relevant to legal practice.
2.3 What standard will I be expected to achieve?
We owe a duty to provide a competent and professional service to all groups and clients we work with or advise. Where we offer a service to the public as solicitors we are subject to the professional rules and disciplinary procedures of The Law Society. This applies both to the Legal Advice Clinic and the placement clinics. In our Streetlaw programme we owe a duty to the groups we work with to ensure that what we present and discuss is legally and procedurally accurate (as well as being understandable!).
All work that you do as a student will therefore be supervised by professionally qualified staff. We expect high standards of work from everyone involved in our pro bono and clinical efforts but we aim to offer similarly high standards of support and feedback. The University also carries professional indemnity insurance to protect everyone concerned, in the unikely event of things going awry.