On Monday 14th December some of the clinic team had the chance to take part in an employment law workshop run for us on the topic of Disability Discrimination and Reasonable Adjustments in the Workplace.
Mandy Armstrong
Barry Nichol and Mandy Armstrong from the employment law team at Anderson Strathern donated the session free of charge to the law clinic and all of our advisers who took part really enjoyed the morning. Disability discrimination is an area we have had enquiries about in the past and so to be able to hear from two experienced practitioners currently working in that field on how to handle the cases was a great opportunity. Both were excellent speakers and laid out brilliantly for the team the main areas of the law, important cases and talked us through how to manage a case from start to finish.
Everyone who was in the session felt they took a lot away from it and we are extremely grateful to Barry and Mandy for giving up their time to come through from Edinburgh and speak to us.
We are constantly trying to improve our service and this will hopefully be the first of many sessions with firms and organisations to ensure the advisers in the clinic are able to take on a varied range of cases and get the desired result for our clients.
On Wednesday 9th December the team spent the day on Buchanan Street advertising our services to Glasgow’s public. It was a good opportunity for us to raise our profile in the community and showcase the services that we offer.
We have a huge resource of legal knowledge amongst our LLB students and the Law Clinic is a way for them to put what they learn on the law programme into practice. Claire McFadzean (Academic Director) says “The work of the Law Clinic aligns perfectly with our goal to be the University for the Common Good. I am very proud of our LLB students and how they positively impact our local community.” Ian Laing (Student Director) says that “our student advisers make a huge difference to people’s lives with the assistance that they provide through advising members of the public. “
Patricia Taylor (Operations Manager (The Law Clinic)) “Having a stall on Buchanan Street as Glasgow’s shops are entering their busiest period will allow us to promote the Law Clinic to a huge number of people and with recent changes in consumer law it means people may be unsure of their rights”.
Our Advisers At Work
Due to our location on the GCU campus right in the heart of Glasgow City Centre, directly opposite Buchanan Bus Station and just a short walk from Queen Street and Glasgow Central stations we are ideally placed for people requiring help.
This will be the first of many promotional events the Law Clinic undertakes. We are hoping to run a similar event elsewhere in Glasgow around spring time and make it a regular feature in our calendar.
On Monday the 26th of October, the Law Clinic Street Law team hosted a session in our moot room with sixth year pupils from schools such as All Saints RC Secondary, Springburn Academy, St Mungos Academy and St Andrews RC Secondary who are interested in undertaking a LLB degree. The pupils were spending a day shadowing first year LLB students at GCU to get insight into university life. As part of the day, the pupils took part in a speed moot session with us which allowed them to spend time preparing and participating in the moots and create an ethical argument on whether or not someone should be entitled to life saving treatment.
Arguments being formed
The pupils were split into senior appellants and respondents, junior appellants and respondents and judges. At this stage, the judges were taken into the Law Clinics office and briefed on the scenario and their role. The respondents and appellants were separated and given fifteen minutes to form arguments for the party they were defending.
Judges being being briefed
Once the fifteen minutes was up, the pupils were set up in their teams consisting of a senior and junior respondent, a senior and junior appellant and a judge. Each counsel had 6 minutes split between the junior and senior to persuade the judge in their favour. Some of the arguments put across for the appellants were; everyone should be entitled to the same treatment, right to life and for the respondents; costs of treatment, draining resources which could be used to save many more lives and that one life cannot be prioritised over another.
After the judges had heard both parties argument, they were brought to the front and asked to state who they were in favour of and on what grounds. The judges unanimously found in favour of the respondents who were acting on behalf of the NHS.
Judges delivering their verdicts
The interactive session with the school pupils was a great success with many saying it was the favourite part of their day at GCU. Rachel Campbell (Outreach Manager) was delighted that 100% of the pupils rated the experience as good or excellent.
The experience was described as excellent by a pupil from Springburn Academy who said “it gave me an insight [into] what it’s like to be a student at GCU and I’ve gained some skills from it too”. Another pupil from St Andrews RC Secondary ranked everything about the Street Law experience as excellent and commented that “being able to take part practically rather than being shown made me want to learn”.
Ian Laing (Student Director) was thrilled that all the pupils who participated would be keen to take part in Street Law again.
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