News Archive

Volunteers in law – University of Reading

The contribution of University of Reading law students to community mediation and to working as trained volunteers with local Citizens Advice Bureaux is being recognised at the University's School of Law on 22 October.

Eighteen first year law students have completed a six month training programme to become Pro Bono, or volunteer, community mediators. A number of other law students have completed training to become volunteer Citizen Advice Bureau (CAB) advisors.

The presentations will take place as part of the Law School's Pro Bono Fair, an event attended by outside organisations such as Resolve and CAB to encourage new law students to get involved in putting something back into the local community through their developing professional expertise.

Dr Samia Bano, of the School of Law, said: "We have a very active Pro Bono programme in the School of Law. We support and encourage our many students who give up their time to train to offer volunteer mediation and legal advice. We work very closely with a number of organisations such as Resolve and CAB and are very proud that so many of our students commit to the lengthy training courses and provide such a professional service as volunteers once they are qualified."

The School of Law also offers up to 15 places for students to train as CAB advisors. Students commit to attend weekly evening training seminars over six months, attend fortnightly familiarisation visits at CAB and devote at least 100 hours to advising CAB clients.

Rachel Horton of the School of Law, said: "The 13 students who trained as advisors with CAB last year made a tremendous commitment, dedicating a considerable amount of their free time to the training. They have found the experience very rewarding as they get experience of assuming professional responsibility for clients at an early stage. Their help has also been of huge benefit to sections of the community with little recourse to legal help."

Judith Scott, Chair of Wokingham and District CAB, said: "Our partnership with the University of Reading's School of Law has been developing since 2006. Once trained, the students become invaluable advisers on the rota, helping us to meet the demands of the ever-increasing numbers of clients. "

Community mediation is commonly used to avoid the cost and expense of going through the civil court system and to avert the need for the adversarial system of dispute resolution. The Resolve Training Course₁ trains students to develop a set of skills, knowledge and personal qualities to carry out all aspects of mediation, from noise nuisance to anti-social behaviour, boundary disputes or neighbour complaints. The students have been able to develop their advocacy and communication skills and gain a NOCN qualification in mediation.

Margaret Haines, Service Manager of Resolve, said: "The students really enjoyed the course and gained a lot from it - they learnt plenty of things and will have these skills for the rest of their lives. The next step is that they will start shadowing real cases and learn how to apply the skills in real-life situations. We hope they will join our mediator team for the rest of their time here in Reading. We need young people to come forward to help the community - so many cases involve young people anyway and it is good to have young people on the helping, mediator side."

Over 80 students in the School of Law volunteer in a range of projects locally. Many of them get involved in Streetlaw, a Law School project involving students going to schools and similar organisations to bring aspects of law and the legal system into the community through plays, group exercises and presentations.

Laura Cobb, second year law student said: "Since participating in Resolve's mediation training, my ability to communicate appropriately, listen, empathize and understand difficult personal problems has vastly improved. Such good, yet simple techniques are crucial when trying to help determined clients resolve what may be an emotional and ongoing dispute and really do determine whether your clients will reach an agreement or turn to litigation. From a legal perspective in particular, mediation provides not only a good insight into the alternatives to litigation, but how and why disputes arise in the first place, which is fundamental for any lawyer to understand."

On the Pro Bono Open Day on 22 October, a number of organisations will be present to invite law students to get involved as volunteers, including CAB,

Resolve Mediation, Streetlaw (a University of Reading run project), Amicus (a national death penalty charity) Reading and Wokingham Young Offenders Team, Reading University Amnesty Group, Masiv (a Reading University Students Union scheme for non academic accreditation of voluntary work) and Peer Support (a University Scheme)

ENDS

Further information from Alex Brannen, Media Relations Manager, University of Reading, on 0118 378 7388

Notes to editors:

The Pro Bono Fair takes place at the School of Law, Foxhill House, Whiteknights Campus, from 1:30 – 3:30 pm on 22 October. Presentations to students will take place at 2pm.