Northumbria hosts student-led legal conference

A leading pro bono law clinic recently welcomed students from across the UK and shared its expertise on clinical legal education and social justice.

Students from Northumbria University recently hosted their first ever Student Law Office student-led conference.

Organised ‘by students, for students’, the event welcomed undergraduates from a number of universities including York, Sheffield Hallam, Sunderland, Teeside and Kent.

A series of presentations and interactive sessions provided students with the opportunity to network and to learn more about the importance of social justice and pro bono skills in practice.

Guest speaker at the event was barrister Antoine Tinnion of Trinity Barristers who spoke about his experiences and took part in a question and answer session.

Ana Speed, trainee solicitor at Northumbria’s Student Law Office, was involved in promotion for the event. 

She said: “We wanted to organise a student-led conference ‘by students for students’. There are a lot of opportunities for lecturers and academics to get together and discuss issues that matter, but students from law courses across the UK don’t often get the chance to speak to each other; to network and to talk to their peers from other universities about their courses and their learning.”

Vicky Pridmore, a student on the MLaw Exempting course at Northumbria, worked with fellow students to provide careers advice and guidance on skills development,

She said: “The students from the SLO also provided delegates with first-hand experience of fourth year study, where we deal with real clients, and were able to answer any questions.”

Presentations on the day included a session delivered by SLO students on the concept of clinic and pro bono, coaching on interactive interviewing skills and an interactive exercise on a real-life case study.

Carol Boothby, director of the Student Law Office, said: “The conference presented students with a fantastic opportunity to talk to each other about their experiences of studying law.

“Networking is a very important concept and something that feeds directly into law study. We’re delighted that the event was such as success and we hope to host it again next year.”