When I signed up for W360: Justice in Action and the pro bono activities, I was driven by selfish motives. I viewed pro bono as an easy option to gain practical experience and remedy the lack of legal work experience on my CVI chose to work at Citizen’s Advice (CAB). I thought this would be interesting, and it was. However, volunteering at CAB unexpectedly changed my whole perspective on pro bono.

Former ‘Justice in Action’ student Simon Langley writes about his experiences working in the Open Justice online clinic.

Former ‘Justice in Action’ student Paula Virlan shares some of her journal posts written when volunteering for the Personal Support Unit ( now renamed ‘Support Through Court – https://www.supportthroughcourt.org/)

In November 2018, I completed my first shadowing session with the Personal Support Unit (PSU), part of the Justice in Action module offered by the Open University. After working ten days, I can share some of the roller-coaster of experiences and how PSU is helping me grow and develop professionally.

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Former ‘Justice in Action’ student Catherine Martin writes about some of her realisations when undertaking our mediation project earlier this year.

Prior to embarking on my Open Justice mediation project, I was sceptical about lawyers’ motivations for carrying out pro bono work. I thought Pro bono lawyers fell into two categories: immigration and human rights lawyers with “a calling” and those that carried out pro bono just for career advancement. When preparing my first TMA, I wrote the following Open Justice Portfolio entry:

Former W360 ‘Justice in Action’ student Nicola Bradford writes about her experience of working on our prison project and the new insights this gave her.

Final-year OU law student Daniel Doody discusses his experience of volunteering at Citizens Advice whilst studying W360: Justice in Action

Professor Suzanne Rab OU Law Associate lecturer has been selected as one of the six finalists for the Inspirational Women in Law Awards, in the Barrister of the Year category.

Further information on the Celebrating 100 Women in Law initiative can be found here:

The award ceremony was held on the 19th November at 5pm at County Hall, Belvedere Road, SE1 7GP. 

National pro bono week  2019 provides a great opportunity to celebrate the depth and breadth of the public engagement projects developed by the Open Justice Centre. Applied technology is often at the heart of these projects.

Francine Ryan reports on her experience of being invited to address an international legal education conference celebrating 50 years of Hong Kong Law School

In October 2019 the Open Justice Centre and Middlesex University ran their second joint Student Street Law conference.  Twenty OU students worked with the same number of Middlesex students from Friday evening to Sunday tea time.