Students’ pro bono achievements celebrated at LawWorks & Attorney General Awards
updated on 09 May 2016
Students and law schools have been honoured for their exceptional contributions to pro bono at the 10th LawWorks & Attorney General Student Pro Bono Awards, amid warnings that pro bono cannot fully replace a properly funded legal aid system which has now been effectively destroyed by the government.
The awards highlighted the best examples of pro bono from among the 2,000 students across 70 clinics nationwide who admirably give up their time to help the poorest and most vulnerable people in society deal with legal issues and access justice. The students' achievements were celebrated at an awards ceremony at the House of Commons, hosted by the attorney general, Jeremy Wright QC. The judging panel, which included LCN senior editor, Isla Grant, chose the following winners:
- Best Contribution by a Law School – Nottingham Law School Legal Advice Centre, Nottingham Trent University.
- Best Contribution by a Team of Students – The Queen Mary Legal Advice Centre – the SPITE Project.
- Best New Student Pro Bono Activity – Dementia Law Clinic – The University of Manchester School of Law Legal Advice Centre.
- Best Contribution by an Individual Student – Fergus Lawrie, the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic.
Wright also presented Nottingham Law School’s legal advice clinic with the inaugural Access to Justice Foundation Award, while the University of Law was honoured for its efforts in the Law School Challenge to raise money for LawWorks and the Bar Pro Bono Unit.
However, the awards were also tinged with worry and sadness among many of the senior professionals in attendance, as speakers including outgoing chairman of LawWorks, Paul Newdick, spoke about how the government’s pushing back of fundamental rights and access in the name of savings means that the lawyers and firms which help ordinary people with their problems are facing the most serious crisis in their history.
Newdick also thanked students for their fantastic efforts: “On behalf of LawWorks, I am hugely grateful to all the students nominated and the Law Schools which support them. LawWorks received a number of high-calibre nominations and the diversity of projects nominated across the four categories is particularly impressive. In an unpredictable and challenging time for the legal sector and those we are trying to serve, it is reassuring to see that student pro bono is now embedded at so many UK universities and we congratulate all the shortlisted candidates and winners.”
