Legal Clinic for Students
A powerful learning experience
Unlike other areas of study, the Clinic provides a unique learning experience by working with ‘live’ clients who have real problems or issues, some of which you and your Clinic Student Law Firm members may not have previously encountered before. Clients may be individuals who require advice, or organisations who are seeking more general advice including advice on law reform. The Clinic provides advice on a range of different areas of law including housing, family and employment.
In the course of working in the Clinic, you will develop a range of key skills including interviewing, factual analysis, legal research, drafting advice letters, detailed case management, office and administrative abilities, time management, teamwork and liaising with student colleagues and York Law School staff.
Following the same process as adopted for your foundation subjects (and some options) at York Law School, in the Clinic, participants will be organised into Student Law Firms comprising 5-6 students. Each Student Law Firm can expect to work on at least 2 cases during the term of study, depending on the degree of complexity and nature of the cases. All student work is supervised by the Clinic Solicitor or other suitably qualified members of staff.
Students who take the Clinic as an assessed elective module in their third year find it tremendously useful as a way to further develop the skills they build through our problem-based learning approach:
“The chance to work on real cases and learn practically how to write for clients was hugely beneficial to me. Learning from working lawyers about how to communicate with clients and how to improve my legal writing really helped my confidence in this area.”
“The client interaction felt very beneficial, I felt that this was a great experience to have. It made the process very real and motivated me. The opportunities for letter drafting has been great, I have learnt a lot about the drafting process and the importance of clarifying the facts following a client interview.”
“I loved the practical element of it, it was one of the main reasons why I took the module in the first place, it was good to see what we learnt in Legal Skills and Advanced Skills actually be applied in real life.”
“The redrafting of letters has been very useful and has taught me lots about the differences between academic writing at university and the more practical writing of solicitors.”
For more information please contact: law-clinic@york.ac.uk