University students are categorized into many groups: some are theory-inclined and others prefer a practical approach; there are the dreamers and there are doers – I have the pleasure of presiding a student society of dreamers who do. Pro Bono Society members utilize their education as an essential means of making a lasting and meaningful difference.
The King’s College London Pro Bono Society was established in 2007 to provide legal advice and support services to vulnerable members of the community whilst enhancing students’ experience of law in the real world. In our ten years of existence, we have grown to encompass eight skills-based projects and were named the UK’s ‘Best Student Society for Pro Bono Activities’ in the 2017 LawCareers.Net Awards.
We believe that empowering students, with opportunity and skills-training, to realize their potential as changemakers is key to inculcating a spirit of service in the future generation of lawyers. Our award-winning work ranges from providing support to capital defense lawyers in the United States to mentorship of sixth-form students who aspire to go to law school.
Our approach to pro bono work addresses the different stages of opportunity, those being: introduction, immersion and impact. Let’s take the example of our mediation project*: we select and train students, with the help of a local barrister chambers, to become Accredited Civil & Commercial Mediators. In terms of immersion, we then offer our accredited mediators opportunities to participate in mediation seminars and external mediation competitions. Thirdly, regarding impact, our accredited mediators then provide dispute resolution services to the wider public through our very own King’s Mediation Clinic. The benefits of pro bono work are therefore largely two-fold: we prepare students to excel in their future careers, but just as importantly, we help to ensure that an ethos of service to the wider community underpins the educational experience at King’s.
Martin Luther King Jr. is known to have said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We must recognise the privilege that we enjoy at King’s, and in doing so, make it our responsibility to help provide access to legal advice and representation to the poorest and most vulnerable in society.
If you are interested in joining the Pro Bono Society, please become a member via https://www.kclsu.org/organisation/ProBono/ and apply for one or more of the opportunities offered by our Projects. More information can be found on our website: www.kclprobono.org.uk.
*The Mediation Project, as part of the KCL Pro Bono Society, offers students of all disciplines the opportunity to become Civil and Commercial Mediators. The Mediation Training is a week-long intensive course run by the Society of Mediators at 218 Strand, which is nationally and internationally recognised by all the relevant authorities. The next training week will be in December 2017, and another will follow in February 2018. Applications for these training weeks open approximately one month before the start date.
We offer a select number of scholarships to students who can demonstrate exceptional motivation to become a mediator. We also expect scholarship recipients to volunteer as student mediators for the King’s Legal Clinic, through which we provide mediation services to the wider public.
For more information, please contact kclmediation@gmail.com
Written by Alice Munnelly, Final year Law with European Legal Studies student and President of the King’s College London Pro Bono Society