Open Justice Centre blog

In this guest blog post Professor Suzanne Rab reflects on the opportunities for the practice of EU law for academics and practitioners in the UK and in the wake of the UK’s departure from the EU on 31 January 2020.

Having relished the academic experience of my OU LLB and with the finish line in sight, I was keen to get stuck into some practical ‘lawyering’.  Justice in Action (W360) offered an array of exciting pro bono activities.  Regrettably, practicalities limited my involvement to the online environment, but the innovative course allowed for this and I selected the Open Justice Mediation Project.

I embarked on W360 with a naive view. I had no idea of the political reliance on pro bono and no foresight regarding the profession’s obligations or the diversity of work involved.

My understanding of the value of pro bono legal work has developed in light of my work for the Freedom Law Clinic (FLC) in relation to social justice, personal enrichment, and professional aspirations.

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.

Extract 1. 8^th/02/ 2019

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.