Legal Action Group Internship

Aqsa

As a student passionate about social justice and the law, my summer internship provided a profound and rewarding experience. I had the opportunity to intern with the Legal Action Group (LAG), a dynamic organisation dedicated to promoting access to justice. This internship allowed me to engage deeply with various aspects of the legal field, develop critical skills, and contribute to meaningful projects.

I was initially involved in an outreach project aimed at securing community care lawyers to attend a conference hosted by LAG. This role required effective communication and persuasive skills, as I reached out to numerous law firms and conveyed the significance of the event. This experience not only enhanced my ability to engage with legal professionals but also deepened my understanding of the collaborative efforts required to organise successful legal events.

The primary focus of my internship was the development of the LAG Project data file, a comprehensive database of university contacts. This project aimed to promote access to justice issues among students by identifying key university staff, student unions, and law societies. The database included faculty members and administrators, crucial for fostering academic engagement with social justice topics; student unions, key entities in organising student activities and advocating for student interests; and law societies and other student societies, which are platforms for students interested in legal matters and social justice.

The main goal was to engage these contacts to increase student involvement in access to justice initiatives. By collaborating with these entities, LAG could promote events, facilitate academic discussions, and extend its reach within the academic community. This project underscored the importance of strategic networking and outreach in advancing social justice causes.

A significant aspect of the project involved devising strategies to boost student engagement. Key recommendations included leveraging social media platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram to create a vibrant online community and connect with students, providing consistent email updates on events and opportunities to keep students informed, and enhancing the website’s speed, navigation, design, interactivity, and clarity to improve user experience.

My internship with LAG was a transformative experience, providing me with a deeper understanding of the legal field’s role in promoting social justice. From meticulous data management to strategic outreach and event planning, I gained invaluable skills that will serve me well in my future career. This internship reinforced my passion for social justice law and highlighted the significant impact that dedicated legal professionals can make in their communities.

Legal Action Group Internship

Rose

I am delighted to write a few words on my experiences as a student intern with Legal Action Group (LAG) over the Summer of 2024. I am a Law and Sociology student. Through this internship I have undertaken a wide variety of tasks, and these have developed my skills in identifying and obtaining information, collating and interpreting it, and in collaborative working with my fellow intern.

Our first task was to review the information on the LAG website about the books sold by the Group and ensure that the information provided was accurate and up-to-date, crosschecking information for consistency. Having completed this task, we then helped collate information for the forthcoming LAG conference on Community Care to be held this October.

Our main task was assisting with a project to enable LAG to engage more closely with university students, and to spark their interest in issues regarding equal access to justice. We compiled a database of potential contacts from 20 different UK universities. These contacts will enable LAG to increase its reach among university students; they included university staff who teach and research in the areas of interest to LAG, student union officers, and contacts for university societies (including law societies) concerned with the issues important to LAG. By identifying what events universities have run in the past, we were able to create a resource to help identify potential future events. In particular, we looked at events that could be run at our own university. We considered LAG’s own website and its social media output, comparing it to other similar groups to identify good practice in LAG’s communication to young lawyers, and areas for further improvement.

The work we did this summer provided me with an insight into the work of LAG, and helped me further develop my own skills, which will be transferable not only to my time as a student, but also to my future career when I move into the workplace following my degree. Working alongside my fellow intern developed my collaborative working skills and made me better at communicating ideas in a clear, simple and friendly manner. I enjoyed both the freedom to come up with my own ideas, and the challenge of producing a clear and organised document for presentation to the team at LAG.

The insights given by the team have been invaluable: as I aim to become a housing solicitor, I am especially passionate about the link between law and social justice. The work of LAG is extremely relevant, and it was fascinating to understand the history of LAG and the work it does. In particular, I valued the opportunity to talk with Sue James, the CEO, who was previously a director and housing solicitor at Hammersmith & Fulham Law Centre, and to hear about that area of law and her journey from Warwick Law School.

In summary, this summer has given me valuable experience and insights which I will find useful in the future. I would recommend the experience to any other Warwick student with a passion for law and social justice.

Law for Life Internship

Kiara

Before beginning my studies at Warwick I knew that I wanted to one day use my law degree in the NGO sector, championing those who need legal protections most. This led me to volunteering at the Strategic Public Law Clinic (now the Strategic Social Justice Clinic) in my first year, taking the Public Legal Education module in my second, the Immigration and Asylum Clinic in my final year, and most recently, a summer internship with Law for Life, supported by Warwick LinC. All of these opportunities have given me an invaluable insight into the sector and spurred me on to continue my career in like-minded organisations.

My most recent opportunity with Law for Life, spanned a nine-week period. As an organisation they focus on public legal education, ensuring everyone has the knowledge, confidence and skills to secure access to justice. To this end, they produce high quality materials on certain legal matters from the right to protest, to welfare benefits and housing. This breadth of analysis is produced by a small team working with excellence to ensure their information is up to date and accessible to those who need it most. I was able to work alongside those in the Information team creating this work and helping to update some of the further resources they point people towards on different issues.

A large part of my work was within the insight and change team, who work to ensure that the projects completed by Law for Life are having an impact and deciding upon future tasks that will be undertaken. This led me to working on health justice research, considering how lack of access to sufficient welfare rights advice and assistance can have adverse effects on physical and mental health. This was not an area I had considered in great depth before this internship but it has been eye opening to read research that correlates health to external factors, often disproportionately effecting those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

This has been invaluable experience, especially seeing how such an organisation manages their finite time and resources without compromising on providing a quality service for their users. From joining team meetings to doing administration and research tasks, my time with Law for Life has also shed a light on the vital task of public legal education and what it takes to produce high quality materials which further this goal. Overall, it has been a great experience which has highly motivated me to continue in the sector, seeking access to a fairer justice system for all. I really recommend any students thinking of applying to work with Warwick LinC in any of their projects to give it a go and see how they too can learn more about the vital work happening in the legal sector, ensuring fairer access to justice.