The Student Law Clinic at Dundee University opened its doors on 31 January 2011 in the first of two main phases of activity. The Law Clinic is a new initiative embarked upon by a very enthusiastic and energetic student body in September 2010. We believe the project has to be driven by students if it is to be sustainable, so the widespread support on and off campus is most encouraging. We are a city campus and the city has a very substantial unmet legal need with only one Law Centre and one CAB serving a city of 145,000 people.
Our main aim was to establish an advice and representation clinic, including a McKenzie friend service, to provide a free service to the public which serves as a major clinical skills training base open to all law students. We have been actively networking and received considerable encouragement from other advice agencies, the city council, the University and Dundee University Students Association. The latter have provided the Clinic with suitable accommodation on campus that enabled us to open in January 2011. The Council have offered to assist us to run surgeries from some of their premises. The initial focus has been on advice-giving, and we are now offering a representation and McKenzie friend service. We undertake regular training with support from law school staff and guest speakers.
Our workload covers a very wide range of legal queries but is predominantly landlord & tenant, debt, consumer, small claims, employment, and welfare problems.
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