Pro Bono

Pro Bono means "for the public good" and is a fantastic opportunity for you to participate in real, supervised case work and legal clinical education. We encourage our students to get real-life legal practice alongside their studies as we believe Pro Bono helps you to develop a range of transferable skills whilst helping the community.

You will have the chance to volunteer to work with a variety of organisations and advice clinics through our Pro Bono Unit and the Careers, Student Development & Outreach, which will enhance your CV and career prospects. We provide opportunities to participate in Pro Bono for all of our students from undergraduate (LLB) to postgraduate (GE LLB, GDL, LPC, BPTC and LLM).

The ability to do a variety of activities at differing levels of commitment is unique to the law school - you can contribute varying amounts of your time depending on how much you wish to commit yourself to the wide range of projects on offer.

We undertake numerous traditional activities like advice clinics as well as more innovative initiatives such as those available to our employment law students.We also offer Pro Bono as an integral part of the assessment process on our BPTC thorough three of our options (Free Representation Unit, Social Security and Domestic Violence (NCDV)). We are even able to offer international internships (in South Africa) and have also entered into strong partnerships with legal NGO's such as the London Innocence Project.

Each year, we organise The City Law School Pro Bono Fair, to coincide with National Pro Bono Week. The fair usually takes place in November and we invite 25-30 community organisations to a fair who are looking for volunteers so that students can sign up with them if they wish and learn more about those specific NGOs. In the past the invitees have included Disability Law Service, Victim Support, Advocates for International Development, Howard League for Penal Reform, Justice, Terrence Higgins Trust, Chinese Information and Advice Centre, Aire Centre, Holborn CAB, and Battersea Law Centre.

We have no doubt that by being able to undertake serious clinical legal education through the pro bono unit you will enhance your professional skills.

We offer a whole range of Pro Bono opportunities, including:

• Free Legal Advice Service (free, confidential and independent legal advice to the local community)
• Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) (clinical negligence)
• Advice clinics (advice on all areas of common law and employment law)
• Blackfriars Settlement Clinic (one-off advice on housing, employment, debt and small claims)
• City University London Student Union Service (advice and representation for City University students before internal bodies)
• City University Volunteering (volunteering opportunities available through City University’s central volunteering system)
• Free Representation Unit (Employment & Social Security)
• Grenfell Tower Fire (working on its aftermath)
• Greenwich Housing Rights (phone advice line and duty advice scheme at county court)
• Haringey Migrant Support Centre(Immigration and Asylum)
• Immigration and Asylum Pro Bono Scheme(reception and case management at advice centre)
• Centre for Criminal Appeals (working on criminal appeal cases)
• National Centre for Domestic Violence (injunctive relief)
• Pakistan Death Row Legal Research(working remotely carrying out legal research on cases referred by Reprieve)
• Pro Bono Community (taking an option module in 3^rd Year LL.B involving a placement in a law/advice centre)
• Schools Consent Project(Street law around sexual offences)
• School Exclusion Project (working with Matrix Chambers to provide advice to parents on child exclusion cases)
• South African Ubuntu Internship Programme (international internship)
• South African Women's Legal Centre (international internship)
• Start-Ed (advice on company law, contract law and intellectual property matters for small businesses and start-ups)
• Street Law(delivery of  legal seminars to schools and community groups)
• Union Law (industrial relations)
• Vocalise(teaching presentational skills in prisons)

If you are currently studying at The City Law School, please contact Director of Pro Bono Services Sarwan Singh, to find out how you can apply to one of the above opportunities: s.singh@city.ac.uk.

We have a dedicated pro bono room where students have access to personal computers, photocopying and printing facilities and telephones.