Through our partnerships with universities, we want to inspire ‘future lawyers’ not only to participate in our programmes and assist our clients, but to join us in creating and sharing even more pro bono and learning experiences as an integral part of their own journey. Working alongside the clinic team, as well as junior and senior practitioners, our goal is to help students carve out their own unique pathway into law, based on merit and demonstrating a positive and lasting contribution to pro bono and access to justice.
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We create experiential and immersive legal education opportunities, allowing students to gain hands-on experience of working on complex active cases and to develop skills that will prepare them for the leap from studying to practice.
We actively want to work in partnership with universities to adapt our programmes and create bespoke and meaningful experiences in the context of your academic or extra curricular objectives, as part of a pro bono module or simply by working together to maximise your students’ engagement.
We are looking for long term relationships, so each university partner is asked to appoint two student ambassadors (annually) to help forge links with their law school, fellow students and our own network of participants. Ambassadors will also be encouraged to develop mini projects, events and clinics within our organisation and to find new ways of promoting pro bono experiences to the widest possible audience and not just amongst law students.
Our approach also promotes collaboration between students at different universities – both on cases and other projects – which, from experience, can yield extremely positive results. We also include regular free mental health-drop in sessions and resources as well as legal research workshops.
All of our programmes include appropriate supervision and where necessary work will be overseen by an authorised solicitor or barrister.
Our criminal appeals clinic is our flagship programme. Over a period of 6 or 12 weeks students will review a criminal appeals case where the client believes that they have been wrongfully convicted. Students are given a complete case file and asked to collaborate with their peers and the clinic team to identify potential grounds of appeal and help the client progress their case.
Whether it is evaluating the impact of fresh evidence or researching and drafting new legal arguments, students take responsibility for their own work and ensuring that they meet each client’s needs.
Students will meet with the clinic team remotely each week to discuss their progress, exchange ideas and allow for relevant supervision. We use a secure messaging platform to allow the case team to interact between meetings and maintain momentum.
The programme includes comprehensive learning materials dealing with the relevant aspects of criminal appeals, as well as an introduction to criminal litigation and topics that they will encounter on the LPC, SQE or bar training course.
Subject to meeting our rigorous criteria, hours worked on the 12-week programme are eligible for sign-off as QWE for the SQE.
Through our fitness to practise programme we help nurses and midwives facing proceedings by their regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Students will either be helping to prepare for a formal panel hearing or be reviewing cases where there has already been a negative panel finding and the client is considering an appeal. In most cases, the client is unable to fund legal representation or is struggling to understand their position and the options available to them.
Just like our criminal appeals programme, students will work over 6 or 12 weeks helping the client progress their case, with weekly remote meetings with the clinic team.
We have a detailed set of learning materials that guide students through the FTP process and the statutory roles of the NMC, as well as introducing them to some of the key themes within civil litigation.
Subject to meeting our rigorous criteria, hours worked on the 12-week programme are eligible for sign-off as QWE for the SQE.
Once a student has completed their programme with us, we want to create further opportunities for them to engage with us, our team and our community of law students and future lawyers.
To arrange an initial discussion please contact our programme manager for CLE, Ben Bardell
bb [at] sequentus.org
