The LSE Legal Advice Centre: A Student’s Perspective

Legal education is an incredibly valuable opportunity, especially for those of us drawn to questions of justice and fairness. When I applied to law school, I recall writing extensively about my interest in the principles that drive the law and the potential to build a legal system where individuals did not fall through the cracks for lack of resources. I hoped that, through further education, I would have the chance to explore these ideas in a more meaningful and practical way.  For students who share these motivations, the LSE Legal Advice Centre offers much more than practical experience—it provides unexpected insight into the very questions that may have led you to study law and challenges you to critically examine the efficacy of the legal system that serves us today.

At the LSE Legal Advice Centre, I volunteered as a Student Advisor within the family law branch of the clinic, where I had the opportunity to interview clients, conduct legal research and draft letters of advice under the supervision of a practising family lawyer. With all of my previous experience in law grounded in academic study, I expected client interviews to be a completely new challenge. However, I was incredibly surprised to discover skills I would come to require for legal research and writing in practice were vastly different from those I had developed in my undergraduate degree. Translating legal knowledge into clear, actionable advice required a shift in approach that I hadn’t anticipated.

Over the course of our training sessions, I became familiar with the preferred tools of a practising family lawyer, such as our case management software and practitioner texts. Unlike the often dense and detailed legal reasoning I was used to in lengthy judgments and probing academic articles, research in practice required the consultation of practitioner texts, such as ‘The Red Book’ and ‘Butterworths Family Law Service’, which were deliberately concise, accessible and geared toward immediate problem-solving, reflecting a recurring theme of law in practice. I came to appreciate the importance of adapting the style of legal research and writing I was familiar with, which aimed to analyse, critique or develop legal arguments, into a more client-focused approach which recognised the practical reality of a specific legal problem and aimed to provide clear and actionable guidance for individuals uncertain of their rights and in need of reliable advice for their immediate next steps.

My first case was a parental alienation case, which concerned a client who had been deprived of seeing their child and was deeply concerned about both the potential loss of their legal rights and their relationship with their child. This client was understandably discouraged, having made several previous attempts to navigate the legal process in order to connect with their child, but each effort had been unsuccessful. At the time, I recall carefully listening to their story and offering reassurance. However, I was struck by the extent to which systemic failings in the legal process had enabled a sequence of events which prevented them from exercising their rightful claim to see their child on multiple occasions.

After conducting our initial research, my partner and I consulted our supervising lawyer to discuss the steps our client could take to legally protect their relationship with their child. In our letter of advice, we explained their legal options and our recommended next steps in clear and simple language. Although there was something deeply rewarding in being able to provide advice, knowing that it had the potential to make a real difference to their situation, this experience reinforced the importance of making legal services accessible and reliable, particularly for individuals who might otherwise feel disappointed by and excluded from the legal system.

The experience of volunteering at the LSE Legal Advice Centre was enriching in many ways and offered me insight into the multidimensional nature of law in practice. Interviewing clients helped me appreciate the importance of empathy when engaging with clients who felt uncertain and vulnerable in the face of complex legal and practical challenges. Drafting letters of advice taught me to balance legal accuracy with accessibility, allowed me to recognise the value of clarity and precision in communication and sharpened my ability to distil complex legal frameworks into clear, actionable advice. Working closely with my partner and supervising lawyer on research encouraged me to view problem-solving as a collaborative effort where mutual support and accountability enabled greater confidence in the quality and accuracy of the produced work. In these ways, engaging with the law in practice has deepened my appreciation for the impact of law in everyday life and has helped me understand the effort and responsibility involved in providing legal aid that is undertaken voluntarily by individuals within the legal community dedicated to plugging the gap in access to justice. My experiences in the clinic and with the individuals whom I have had the opportunity to provide advice to and work alongside have strengthened my convictions that it is vital that individuals, regardless of background, should be able to access a legal system that is not only technically proficient but also attentive to the human realities behind each case but until then, collaborative efforts such as the LSE Legal Advice Centre provide an immensely valuable opportunity to actively contribute to bridging the access to justice gap.