Law Clinic ‘highly commended’ at prestigious pro bono awards

The Open University (OU) Law School's Open Justice Centre’s Law Clinic is toasting its success at the LawWorks Annual Pro Bono Awards on Monday night (3 December 2018).

The Law Clinic, which offers free online legal advice led by OU students working collaboratively under the supervision of qualified solicitors, was highly commended in the ‘Best new pro bono activity’ category.

More than 250 finalists and guests from across the pro bono, advice, legal aid and charity sectors attended the awards evening at the Law Society in London. David Lammy MP, a vocal and successful campaigner for social justice, delivered the annual lecture and the event was hosted by radio and television presenter, producer and writer Matthew Stadlen.

The Open Justice Centre was represented by Keren Lloyd Bright who has responsibility for the prison projects, associate lecturer Andrew Maxfield who teaches on the ‘W360: Justice in Action’ module and Law alumnus Ken Ragon-Chambers who works as a student adviser in the Law Clinic.

The category winner was St Hilda’s East Legal Advice Clinic, while Working Families’ pro bono email ticketing platform was also highly commended.

This accolade is wonderful recognition for everyone’s hard work since the Law Clinic was launched in September 2017. We were delighted to be shortlisted and then to receive this commendation in such a tough category with some great competition is fantastic news.

The Law Clinic has already seen 50 of our very own law students offer free online advice sessions, supervised by qualified solicitors, to help the general public resolve their particular legal issue. These can range from contractual disputes to clinical negligence, civil litigation to building claims, and consumer rights to small claims. This helps promote the concept of ‘Open Justice’ with the Centre going from strength to strength since it was launched a little more than two years ago.

Francine Ryan
Lecturer in Law and member of the Open Justice Centre