Advance High Quality Thinking

Accredited Volunteer Training and Placement Scheme

Grant: £21,000
June 20, 2018

Expanding relationships with universities to provide volunteer and training programmes and so increase the provision and quality of free social welfare legal advice, and to embed a commitment to pro bono and a knowledge of social welfare law into mainstream legal education.

Taking Advantage of Digital

Grant: £50,000
June 21, 2017

The Unit will improve its digital provision, and transform its working practices, enabling it to fulfil its dual commitment to increase access to justice for those with unmet legal needs, and advance the practice skills, experience and knowledge of law students and professionals in the early stages of their careers. Our vision is “Streamlining and growing free representation and advocacy experience through seamless, intuitive and effective processes and systems, in secure, supported spaces.”

Using the “cloud” and associated digital tools, the Unit will make better use of its situation (i.e. increasing number of cases) and resources (i.e. staff, advice agencies and volunteers) to achieve the organisations objectives (which are coextensive with those of the Foundation).

The project will simplify and speed-up administrative processes for staff, improve accessibility and efficiency for volunteers and allow the creation of new educational and training content. Central to this is FRUweb – a network of simple, connected, secure, supported spaces where people, platforms and paper meet to enable clients, agencies, volunteers and staff, which provides interfaces and enables Hubs for each key stakeholder group.

This funding will support the project through a phased approach.

Safer Renting

Grant: £21,978
June 21, 2017

An innovative project to tackle homelessness and support vulnerable private renters by:

• Improving and sharing knowledge around the effective legal approaches to tackling criminal landlords and protecting tenants’ rights.
• Addressing the skills-shortage crisis and gap in provision in homelessness prevention and access to justice for tenants.

Funding will cover development and initial delivery costs of a specialist training programme in landlord/tenant and housing law and housing enforcement.

Outcomes for tenants:

• Safeguard health and wellbeing
• Provided with knowledge of their rights to support informed housing choices, protection from exploitation and build resilience.
• Homelessness prevention

Pro Bono Community

Grant: £30,000
November 9, 2016

This project is for continued support to provide specialist training equipping law students, trainees and lawyers with the skills and expertise to become effective volunteers and placing them in Law Centres and advice agencies. By training volunteers and providing them with volunteering placements it is aimed to increase the amount and improve the quality of free legal advice in the areas of law most likely to affect those in poverty or need.

Development of e learning and digital resources

Grant: £12,000
June 22, 2016

The appointment of a consultant to work with FRU to design and cost an IT strategy.

StartEd

Grant: £25,000
November 10, 2015

StartEd is an innovative project that provides law students with unique new skills and “commercial awareness” to adequately equip them for jobs of the future. It brings together leading law firms, fast growth small business and LPC law students so that law students can learn about real world practical issues faced by new businesses and entrepreneurs.

The project has been pioneering in this space, as acknowledged previously by the UK Intellectual Property Office and Praxis Unico. It is now the largest start up law group in the UK - and run purely pro bono by student volunteers with law faculty support.

The Legal Education Foundation previously funded an expansion of this project at Liverpool John Moores University. Using the deliverables and best practices developed, it is now planned to expand this project further to 2 UK LPC universities; and build a sustainable model for future growth.

Advancing the JUSTICE Student Network

Grant: £20,000
November 10, 2015

Advancing the JUSTICE Student Network (JSN) will build upon the initial success of developing the JUSTICE Student Human Rights Network microsite and increased engagement with the student community. While much of initial objectives of the project (supported by the LEF) have been achieved there is still much to develop.

This project is multi-faceted in its objectives, intending to equip students with a practical understanding of how lawyers can work to strengthen the justice system and the rights of individuals within it. It is also designed to encourage contact between students and practitioners. This experience cannot be obtained from normal academic or vocational programmes. By drawing upon our unique history, experience and membership, a comprehensive JSN website will make a valuable contribution to legal education.

The site will contain a selection of unique resources designed to support academic legal education and to encourage interest in public interest law. Additionally, a key aspect of this project is the hiring of a JSN Fellow to carry out the work. The fellow will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the JSN, organising events, liaising with students and practitioners and coordinating the new ‘A Day in the Life of Justice’ initiative.

Improving knowledge sharing on asylum support law and ensuring quality advice and representation

Grant: £70,040
July 1, 2015

To use new technological methods to disseminate our expertise and knowledge promoting the education of asylum support law, whilst also ensuring the quality of our free legal representation at the Asylum support Tribunal.

Statelessness Training & Awareness Project

Grant: £96,898
July 1, 2015

Raising awareness of the statelessness determination procedure for legal representatives, community organisations, and members of the public through training.

Continued support

Grant: £48,000
April 1, 2015

Fully funded by LEF, this new charity was set up in 2013 by trainee lawyers David Dowling and Oliver Hyams. Their mixed experiences volunteering led them to identify the need for a structured training programme that provides Law Centres and other advice agencies with volunteer law students, trainees and qualified lawyers who possess the knowledge and skills to help meet the demand for pro bono advice.