This summer Warwick LinC in conjunction with collaborating organisations is offering  six part-time paid internship opportunities with Central England Law Centre, Law for Life: The Foundation for Public Legal Education, and the Legal Action Group.

How to apply 

To apply you will need to submit a single document (ideally a pdf) for each internship you wish to be considered for, containing:  

• A short CV  
• A covering letter (no more than 500 words) explaining what you believe you can contribute to the internship and what you hope to learn from the experience. 
• Each of the internship applications require you to complete a short task. Please see the information related to each internship for details of the required task. You will also need to include this as part of the single document file.   

Deadline to apply: Please submit your application/s to: WarwickLinC@warwick.ac.uk before 5pm on Tuesday 7 May 2024.  

Candidates selected for interview will be informed by 13 May 2024. Interviews will take place the week commencing 20 May 2024.

If you have any questions about these opportunities, please email: Rosie Narayan, Widening Participation Officer: warwickLinC@warwick.ac.uk

Please note: LinC Interns will be expected to submit a short reflective piece of writing by the end of September summarising their internship experience.  

Strategic Social Justice Internship - Central England Law Centre x 1 internship

The Role

The Strategic Social Justice Clinic (SSJC) is a joint initiative between Central England Law Centre (CELC) and Warwick LinC. It specialises in using public law and other rights-based strategies to address systemic disadvantage and achieve effective change.

Over the past year students have worked with CELC’s public law specialists on varied projects: ‘DWP Decision Making for PIP (Disability Benefit)’, ‘Social Housing Conditions Damp and Mould’, ‘Social Services Supporrt Levels for Vulnerable Children’ and ‘Priority Need for Homeless Refugees’. CELC is keen to imbed and build on work produced as part of these projects to maximise use of research/resources produced in its work both internally and externally.

As well as furthering work on previous projects, CELC is continually developing ideas for potential future projects for SSJC students to work on.

The Intern will: (i) work with CELC on tasks to imbed and disseminate work from previous SSJC projects, (ii) help in the preparation or forthcoming projects (conduct background research, gather resources and compile data relevant to potential future projects), (iii) continue CELC’s work to scope out forthcoming local and national social welfare policy-influencing opportunities where SSJC work might be used (e.g. reviews of international treaties, shadow report timetables, select committee investigations, scrutiny committee meetings, consultations), (iv) and produce an initial draft response for CELC on any open calls for evidence/consultations where information/resources from SSJC projects are relevant. The Intern will be supervised by CELC’s Rights in Community Strategy and Strategic Social Justice Clinic Lead.

Internship details

8-week opportunity offering 18 hours per week. Dates: 8 July 2024 - 30 August 2024.

This internship will be working remotely. This is a paid internship at an hourly rate of £12.93/hr plus £1.56/hr holiday pay.

Interviews to be held: Week commencing 20 May. Date to be confirmed.

We’re looking for someone with:

• Good research skills
• Good verbal communication skills
• Ability to identify relevant information
• Ability to communicate clearly and accurately in writing
• Understanding of the fundamental public law principles
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively

Application Task

CELC is keen to make use of research and resources developed in SSJC Projects to progress our policy-influencing work on priority issues.

One of the tasks the intern will be working on during the internship is to scope out and write a plan plotting forthcoming local and national social welfare policy-influencing opportunities such as:

• reviews of international treaties and shadow report timetables
• UK government select committee investigations
• local authority scrutiny committee meetings
• consultations
• forums/networks

Draft a note not exceeding a maximum of 500 words explaining: (i) how you would go about researching these policy-influencing opportunities and (ii) what information a spreadsheet/table/chart plotting these might include.

We realise that you may not know anything about policy-influencing work. We are not expecting you to undertake any detailed research. We don’t expect you to spend more than 1-2 hours completing the task. 

Immigration and Asylum Internship- Central England Law Centre x 2 internships

The role 

The Immigration and Asylum team at the Central England Law Centre are looking for a summer intern to assist with all aspects of their work. This will include taking instructions from clients, drafting correspondence, legal and country information research and help with administrative tasks. You will have the opportunity to develop key skills, including: interview skills; communication and teamwork; drafting skills; legal research; and the ability to prioritise tasks.

Internship details 

4-week opportunity offering 24 hours* per week. Dates: 1 July 2024 – 26 July 2024.
This internship is in-person, based in the Coventry office. This a paid internship at an hourly rate of £12.93/hr plus £1.56/hr holiday pay.

Interviews to be held: Wednesday 22 May

*Please note that if you are a postgraduate student on a tier 4 student visa, you will only be able to work 20 hours a week on this internship.

We’re looking for someone with: 

• Commitment to social welfare law and human rights
• Flexibility – no two days will be the same!
• Awareness of equal opportunities and non-discriminatory practice
• Willingness to work as part of a team

Application Task

As part of the application process, please answer the questions below – the task should not take you more than 1.5 hours. Your answers should be expressed in bullet points rather than an essay.

Our client is from Nigeria and has stage 5 renal failure and is required to attend dialysis three times a week. He has made an application to remain in the United Kingdom on the basis of Article 3 of the ECHR. The Home Office has refused his application for leave to remain.

• What is the test to succeed under Article 3 ECHR in medical cases? You will need to look at the relevant case law here and Home Office guidance.
• Can you find any objective evidence to support our client's case?

Legal Action Group Internship- Legal Action Group x 2 internships

The Role

Legal Action Group (LAG) is a national charity committed to improving access to justice. LAG promotes equal access to justice as a fundamental democratic right. Justice demands both fairness of process and result. LAG seeks to represent the interests of the public, particularly the vulnerable and socially excluded, by improving legal services, the law, and the administration of justice. LAG publishes books, organises events and also publishes 10 Legal Action magazines a year.

LAG interns will assist LAG staff with managing our databases, helping to plan and run events, and other operational duties. LAG has a small team and therefore the intern will have a level of responsibility and independence. There will also be opportunities to attend various events and meet prominent figures in the legal sector. LAG is looking for a self-starter who can offer their initiative and creative thinking, to help us deliver projects that support the access to justice community.

Internship details:

7-week opportunity offering 18 hours per week. Dates: 5 August 2024 - 20 September 2024.

This internship is working mainly remotely with the opportunity to visit the Legal Action Group offices. This a paid internship at an hourly rate of £12.93/hr plus £1.56/hr holiday pay.

Interviews to be held: Week commencing 20 May. Date to be confirmed.

We’re looking for someone with:

• Good research skills.
• Good verbal communication skills.
• Ability to identify relevant information.  
• Ability to communicate clearly and accurately in writing.
• Understanding of the fundamental public law principles.
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively.

Application Task

As part of the application process, please answer the questions below (in a maximum of 500 words) – the task should take approximately 1.5 hours.

Your answers should be expressed in bullet points rather than an essay.

• What does social justice mean?
• What do you think are the current barriers to access to justice?

Legal Information, Research and Evaluation Internship -
Law for Life: The Foundation for Public Legal Education x 1 internship

The Role

You will have the opportunity to be involved in one or more of the tasks listed below.

Research team:

• Undertaking and assisting colleagues to undertake research into legal issues relevant to our work, including welfare benefits, family courts, housing rights and employment.
• Recording findings, keeping records and accounts of the management of projects.
• Investigating and evaluating sources of data for empirical projects.
• Utilising statistical software to support empirical studies relating to law and policy.
• Supporting statistical analyses on social science data sets and report findings.
• Compiling or updating databases and datasets when needed.
• Carrying out literature reviews.
• Reviewing and contributing to writing academic publications and other policy reports.

Legal information team:

• Reviewing information categories and making recommendations for the Advicenow website in line with our inclusion criteria.
• Reviewing the information available from a particular provider against Advicenow’s inclusion criteria and making recommendations for the Advicenow website.
• Producing a checklist summarising a legal process.
• Contributing to the development of a new Advicenow guide as a panel member.
• Developing a new ‘know-how’ including top tips and possible solutions in collaboration with a member of the Advicenow team.
• Administrative tasks, for example, searching for email addresses for contacts or working through Google analytics looking at ‘no results’ searches.
• Updating of the Advicenow Information Service and Help Directory.
• Editing and publishing material onto the Advicenow and Law for Life websites using the content management system.
• Creating social media posts
• Monitoring or researching changes in the law.
• Monitoring Google analytics and/or other evaluation processes.

Internship details:

12-week opportunity offering 18 hours per week. Dates: 24 June 2024 – 13 September 2024.

This internship is working mainly remotely with the opportunity to visit the Law for Life offices. This a paid internship at an hourly rate of £12.93/hr plus £1.56/hr holiday pay.

Interviews to be held: Week commencing 20 May. Date to be confirmed.

We’re looking for:

Shortlisted candidates will meet all of the essential criteria, and are likely to meet several, if not all, of the desirable criteria below.

Essential

• Student on Warwick Law School degree course.
• Knowledge and interest in the broad range of legal and rights issues affecting the UK public.
• Enthusiasm for the development of information to increase public knowledge and understanding of the law and rights.
• Excellent writing skills in plain English, including the ability to pay close attention to detail and to summarise complex information and communicate clearly to a wide audience.
• Strong IT skills, including a thorough working knowledge of Microsoft Office software, especially Excel, and an ability or willingness to update websites.
• A self-motivated and flexible approach to working independently within a small team.
• Good organisational skills, including ability to organise workload, take responsibility for particular areas of work, work on own initiative and meet agreed deadlines.
• Good verbal communication skills, including a pleasant and friendly telephone manner.
• An understanding of the difficulties faced by disadvantaged people and communities in achieving access to the law and justice.
• An understanding of equal opportunities issues and a commitment to equal opportunities in all aspects of your work.

Desirable

• Experience of the not-for-profit advice or community sector.
• Attendance on the PLE Module at WLS.
• Experience of using specialist research software such as Endnote, SPSS and Nvivo.
• Experience in conducting interviews.
• Experience of report writing.
• Experience in qualitative analysis.
• Familiarity with Access databases, ideally including design/development as well as use.
• Experience of advice or information giving.
• Experience of updating and editing website content.
• An ability to administrate, manage and regularly update social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter with the intention of increasing Advicenow and Law for Life’s reach.

Application Task

As a key part of our research and evaluation process, Law for Life needs to obtain feedback from the people we help through the range of services we provide. This is not just about their satisfaction with Law for Life and the specific service they’ve used, but also to help us evaluate whether we have helped them to achieve better outcomes in their legal issue and if that has helped them improve their legal capabilities.

As part of the application process, please answer the questions below – the task should take approximately 1.5 hours (including time to look at the Law for Life website: www.lawforlife.org.uk).

Your answers should be expressed in bullet points rather than an essay (1 or 2 sides of A4. Maximum of 2 pages). Draw upon any knowledge and experience you have of using research skills in a community setting.

Task: You are designing a short service user feedback survey of people using one of our Advicenow guides (you can choose which one - https://www.advicenow.org.uk/advicenow-guides). This would be situated at the end of the guide and would be online. There is already a link at the end of all Advicenow guides for people to complete detailed feedback surveys but these are generic to all our guides. What we are hoping to do is to ask people to complete a much shorter survey (max 5-6 questions) that is specific to particular guides and encourages more people to respond and provide us with valuable information about how the guide has helped them

• What do you need to take into consideration when designing this survey?
• What audience do you think this should be aimed at and how will that affect the questions you ask?
• What sort of questions are most effective in online surveys?
• What challenges are you likely to face in obtaining feedback from Law for Life service users in this way?
• Please tell us about any experience you have to date that you think would help you in obtaining feedback from service users. (This can include experience from within or outside your degree course.)