 
The Staffordshire University legal advice
clinic, or SULAC
is an advice clinic where Staffordshire
University law students
supervised by legal practitioners
including
members of the law school staff, provide a
free legal advice service
to members of the public on a variety of
legal issues.
The clinic is modeled on life in a solicitor's office
giving students the opportunity to dip
their toe in the water
to find out what legal practice is
really all about.
I think in today's society it's an amazing
opportunity
to gain skills that you can put forward
into your work life, for the rest of your
life, and I think
law is an amazing subject to do that with
we've seen the University invest in our futures
and we apply these skills not only in the
class, or in exams
or coursework, but we can apply them to
real life scenarios, so it's an amazing opportunity.
Students, it seems to me, will have a number of benefits. The first is that they will have an
opportunity to apply the knowledge that they've acquired in
the classroom to a practical legal situation.
This is important.
No client ever comes in to see
a solicitor to ask them about a contractual
problem.
They come in to tell you about that
problem and then you have to decide what
area of law applies.
They will also improve skills
such as drafting because that will be dealing with
the preparation of an attendance note for
example,
or indeed the letter of advice. They'll also
have to do research because
the advice that they have to give will
have to reflect the law as it currently
stands.
A point that would be checked obviously
by their supervising solicitor.
They will also learn to work as part of a team
because they'll be working
in groups of threes with all of the steps they will be doing and they will also have to operate professionally.
The point is that lots of clients trying to be very
emotional when they come in
and the students will need to be able to
detach themselves emotionally
from the client, but still provide them with
support.
The benefits to the clients seem to me to be
fairly obvious, the first is
the opportunity to get free legal advice
which is all too rare these days.
But SULAC will also be advising in
a areas of law where it is either going
to be very difficult to obtain advice in
private sector
and will also be targeting clients who
wouldn't be able to afford
to pay for solicitors to advise them. And the
final benefit is that of course the work,
because it is signed up off by qualified solicitors,
the client will be comfortable in knowing that the quality
of the advice is good.
 
