Policy Clinic as a method to engage students with law reform and social justice: Experiences from Northumbria Law School’s Student Law Office

Northumbria Law School’s Student Law Office (SLO) has been providing pro-bono legal advice for over 20 years. Work in the SLO provides an opportunity for students to develop practical legal skills alongside their theoretical legal education. Recently, the SLO has incorporated a policy clinic into its curriculum. In the policy clinic, students conduct empirical legal research for external organisations, with the ultimate aim of influencing law reform. This innovative teaching method aims to engage students with impactful research and develop valuable skills together with a social justice ethos. Instructions are received from a variety of organisations, some of which represent vulnerable groups of people, such as police working with victims of domestic abuse. The work focuses on areas of the law in need of reform and is designed to influence debates. Students, under supervision, submit research ethics applications, interview participants, analyse data, and then write reports to be submitted to the instructing organisations as well as relevant official bodies. During this process, students are exposed to current legal issues of concern and gain an appreciation of how to influence and help develop policies encouraging positive changes in society.

The policy clinic was incorporated into the already-established SLO at Northumbria. However, law schools that do not have a clinic may find a policy clinic an ideal teaching approach to provide students with practical experience and an awareness of current legal issues, without needing to employ professionally qualified staff. Those who teach in the policy clinic do not need to be solicitors or barristers but will have experience in academic research, thus affording an opportunity for all members of staff in a law school to supervise students in a clinic. This chapter will outline how the Northumbria policy clinic operates and discuss the benefits to students, the law school, staff, and the wider community.