One of the most positive movements for change in law teaching has been the increasing involvement of students and their universities in providing free or reduced-cost legal services to those who cannot afford to pay. This is rather unattractively called pro bono work and is usually part of a clinical programme. In some universities it is an examined option, in others students do the work voluntarily.
Such is its popularity that recent research by the Solicitors Pro Bono Group (SPBG) has calculated that 60% of all law schools will be providing free legal services through their students within the near future. Only 12% of the law schools that answered the SPBG questionnaire either failed to answer the question or indicated they would not consider pro bono work.
Since offering this kind of experience is increasingly popular with law schools, we should ask why they are planning to move their legal education in this direction.
It seems likely that pressure for change is coming from many different sources. Firstly, students paying for courses look carefully at what they are offered in return for their fees. They appear to have increasing power to instigate change in the ever-increasing number of law schools. Anecdotal evidence from institutions offering professional training for barristers and solicitors indicates that students value highly institutes that offer them the opportunity to do clinical work. Clinical programmes at law schools that offer clinical work all record that they are heavily oversubscribed.
Secondly, the final employers of law students are now questioning the quality of their students' training. They demand, among other things, that their trainees and newly qualified lawyers should have learnt key legal skills before they start work. Particularly valued are skills such as factual analysis, problem solving, legal research and communicating with clients. These skills can be taught at law schools but, more importantly, can only realistically be practiced by the students when they are supervised working at a legal clinic.
Thirdly, law schools have had to look again at their funding, course content and teaching methods. This has led them to look to practices in the rest of the world. In the US, a pro bono programme is a mandatory requirement for all legal courses registered with the American Bar Association. In parts of Australia all law students are also assessed on their pro bono work.
Why is a clinical programme beneficial to law schools and their students? The obvious answer is that all the research carried out around the world suggests that law students involved in pro bono work do well in terms of their performance.
In particular, the law schools in the SPBG survey that offered a clinical programme indicated that they thought the most important benefits were skills' development and their students' increased understanding of professional and ethical issues. Extending their students' legal knowledge and helping their personal development were considered the next two important reasons. Less important were the integration of theory and practice and the students' intellectual development. These answers, it should be stressed, were given by the students' tutors, not the students.
Students have given a variety of reasons as to why the clinical experience was important, but they have not been asked to put their reasons in any particular order. However, they have said that they did pro bono work because it enhanced their career prospects; helped with coursework; eased their social conscience; made the studying more interesting; gave them something to talk about at interviews; and gave them confidence and a sense of achievement.
At the Inns of Court School of Law (ICSL) it was found during a pilot project last year that the clinical programme was oversubscribed. Because they believed in the significant benefits of clinical work, the senior management decided that every one of the 1,000 trainee barristers and solicitors at the ICSL should be offered the chance to do clinical work. The students now have a choice of three options.
One: they can work in the legal advice clinic. Students in pairs interview a client and give written legal advice three weeks later. The interview with the client is unsupervised, but a qualified member of staff helps the students and approves the written advice.
Two: students who choose this option do not meet and interview their clients. They look at the material that the client sends in, contact the client if necessary, and prepare written legal advice. Students could be advising a client on the right of a landlord to forfeit a business lease and the likely quantum in a personal injury case.
Three: students can do voluntary work for one of the ICSL's legal partners. Twenty-two significant legal charities have agreed to train the students in return for the students giving up some of their time to work with their chosen organisation. These charities include law centres, specialist and general legal advice centres and major legal pressure groups. These are the charities that are recognised for their expertise in areas such as human rights, defending death row prisoners, coroners' courts, racial discrimination, HIV and Aids, housing, prisoners, European law, and the disabled.
The good news is that prizes are on offer to encourage students. At the ICSL there is now a yearly prize of £100. This money has been donated by the parents of a young barrister who studied at the ICSL and practised in Gray's Inn. Tragically she died of cancer soon after she took up a tenancy.
Another prize of £500 has been offered jointly by the SPBG and Clyde & Co, a City firm of solicitors. This is a competition open to all law students all over the country with the object of creating an original pro bono project. Another £500 is going to be given to the partnership agency that works with the winning student team. Runners up will get £250. Applications, please, to SPBG, 1 Pudding Lane, London EC3R 8AB by 31 December, 2000 – think what a prize would look like on your CV!
Adele Cox is a solicitor and lecturer at the Inns of Court School of Law. She specialises in setting up pro bono clinics.