The Student Law Office is an multi award-winning and world leading law clinic, offering vital legal services on a regional and national level free of charge to members of the public, businesses and community groups.
Through its outreach activity, the Student Law Office acts as a catalyst in raising awareness of and providing access to justice. Each year, approximately 200 students and 25 staff contribute many thousands of hours of pro bono advice each year. The Student Law Office produces exceptional results: since 2008 the Student Law Office has dealt with over 3000 enquiries, represented more than 1000 clients and secured over £1 million on their behalf.
Northumbria University received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education for the outstanding community work of its Student Law Office. The Queen’s Anniversary Prize is the highest form of national recognition for higher and further education open to a UK academic institution, and is given in recognition of work judged to be of outstanding excellence and with positive impact.
Our students integrate learning from experience with development of academic knowledge and research skills, all of which is heightened by the live client experience in which the motivation, reality and necessity of client service creates a powerful learning environment. The excellent teaching environment in the Student Law Office has been recognised by the Higher Education Academy, with the Student Law Office winning a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE). CATE celebrates collaborative work in teaching and learning and highlights innovative practice which supports student learning.
The Policy Clinic
The Policy Clinic is the newest addition to Northumbria University’s Student Law Office. The aim of the Policy Clinic is to carry out research with the purpose of influencing policy and law reform. Depending on the supervisor and the aims of a research project, this work is doctrinal and/or empirical. The students engage in research to establish an evidence base as to whether there is a problem with the current law or not, often looking to different jurisdictions to see how their systems works and whether aspects of it can be adapted to ours, and then propose potential reforms to address the problem. The final report will be presented and/or sent to the instructing organisation and we may also publish the reports on our website or in research publications.
