Applications for 2023-24 Law Clinic membership are now open!

The Essex Law Clinic is now open for applications for membership for the new academic year. After a very successful year, we are looking to again expand numbers, while at the same time ensuring that members have the commitment to client service that our clients deserve.

As a result, all who want to become Clinic volunteers (see below for entry to the clinical module) will have to apply via written application. In addition, if you are successful in your application, you will first spend a year as “Bronze” Members being trained and engaging in non-client face working (such as various public legal education projects, law reform, and legal campaigning) to demonstrate that you have what it takes to undertake client work as a “Silver” Member.

Given that it is too late for those in the final year of an Essex undergraduate law degree to be trained as Silvers to take on cases, we are not accepting applications from final year students (even if this is only their second year at Essex). The only exception to this are students who are at Essex as part of the Law Degree Transfer Programme or on a postgraduate degree course and already have a law degree. Such students may be allowed to move directly into being a Silver Member depending on your performance during an interview. If you are in this position and wish to apply for 'direct entry', instructions can be found below. The form, deadline and outcome date are the same but please include ‘Direct entry Clinic application’ in the subject line of the e-mail.

If you are interested in becoming a Law Clinic volunteer, please fill in this application form and return it to elawclinic@essex.ac.uk before 9am (BST) on Monday 23 October 2023. Should you have any issues with your application, please email elawclinic@essex.ac.uk.

Early applications are viewed as evidence of your organisational skills and enthusiasm which we are looking for in our members.

For successful applicants, there will be a compulsory induction training on 1 November 2023.

In addition to applying to join the Law Clinic as a volunteer, those in their second year may register to take LW 250 – Legal Advice Casework. If you register, you will then be contacted with details about the application process to the Clinic, (which is similar as above but with an earlier deadline – applications for membership, which is required for registration, must be made by 15 September 2023).

Finally, please note that the above information about applying to the Law Clinic does not apply to existing Clinic members. However, if you are in your final year and you are already a Clinic member, you might want to build on your clinical experience by enrolling on LW352 Legal Ethics and Justice in order to explore issues of ethics and justice which arise in clinical cases and in legal practice.

For more information on volunteering in the Essex Law Clinic, visit our website.

Best Wishes,
Donald Nicholson
Essex Law Clinic Director