Law graduate Gary Steel describes how he never took no for an answer, having left school aged 14 with no qualifications, studied law at the OU for six years while living at home, and eventually became a social welfare lawyer

Francine Ryan met up with Law alumna Caroline Clayton when she was a panellist at the AI Fringe 2025 event in London.

Each year, The Open Justice Centre celebrates the exceptional achievements of our high calibre students. Our annual awards are given to individual students or groups of students that make outstanding contributions to the projects they are involved in. Students are nominated by their tutors or project managers.

Applications for Flex Trainee are open until Sunday 10th November for anyone interested in this opportunity.

Flex Legal hire aspiring lawyers from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, put them through an intensive 'Readiness Programme', and place them in an in-house legal team to undergo QWE with their fantastic clients - such as ASOS, The Crown Estate, TrustPilot, and Diageo. On top of that, we fund the SQE prep course(s) and exams through our incredible partners at Barbri.

Do you qualify for Flex Trainee or Flex Apprentice?

Each year, The Open Justice Centre celebrates the exceptional achievements of our high calibre students. Our annual awards are given to individual students or groups of students that make outstanding contributions to the projects they are involved in. Students are nominated by their tutors or project managers. 

The Law School’s ‘Open Justice Criminal Justice Clinic’ has been shortlisted in the LawWorks and Attorney General Student Awards 2023 for ‘Best new pro bono activity’.

Each year, The Open Justice Centre celebrates the exceptional achievements of our high calibre students. Prizes were awarded by the Open Justice Centre to commend their highest achieving students in 2022.

This free short course is likely to be of particular interest to anyone considering becoming an immigration adviser.

Open Justice Directors Francine Ryan and Hugh McFaul together with Senior Lecturer in Law Stephanie Pywell contributed to a brand new BBC Ideas short film which is now available to view on the award-winning BBC Ideas website. 

The Open University had official observer status at COP26 and has taken learnings from the conference to inform the university’s wider sustainability mission and inspire students and staff to take action.