York Law Society Pro Bono
The York Law Society is dedicated to actively promoting and facilitating pro bono opportunities for students. These volunteering roles not only help students develop their legal skills and gain valuable experience, but also provide significant benefits to both the local community and national charities, regardless of whether they operate within the legal or non-legal sectors.
Emanuel Rodrigues Ferreira
Pro Bono Officer
In house & University Projects
In the upcoming year, we are committed to continuing initiatives and collaboration working with the Baroness Hale Law Clinic here at the University. These will include progammes such as the York Justice Programme, Street Law Programme and Freedom Law Clinic.
York Justice Programme
Our exclusive program, curated by our Pro-Bono officer, presents students with a invaluable opportunity to contribute to their community whilst acquiring essential skills crucial for a prosperous legal profession. Through this program, students will have the opportunity to collaborate with a diverse range of organizations across Yorkshire. Our goal is to inspire York Law School students to participate in training sessions offered by charitable organizations. Among the notable organizations included are:
CAY – Citizens Advice York
YCC - York Community Consulting
Independent Domestic Abuse Services (IDAS)
Environmental Law Foundation
‘Support Though the Court’
Freedom Law Clinic
The Freedom Law Clinic 6 week programme offers students with pro bono experiences and Clinical Legal Education. Through this programme, students will have a unique and unparalelled access to criminal appeal cases, providing vital assistance to clients who lack the means to afford legal representation and may otherwise be denied access to justice.
Law Students for climate accountability
In the forthcoming year, we are excited to commence our partnership with the organisation Law Students For Climate Accountability. This is a student led organisation which is dedicating to holding major law firms accountable for their impact on climate change.
This collaboration marks an important movement of our society’s intention to become more sustainable in our activities. As part of the executives vision, we intend to increase our ESG practices and sustainability initiatives.
Together with Law Students For Climate Accountability and our knowledgeable pro-bono officer, we hope to organise on campus events, which will serve as a platform for education opportunities, volunteering work and fundraising campaigns. The resources provided by these events will raise awareness about climate change, sustainability and how this intersects with the legal industry. We will actively promote this initiative across our social media pages to ensure maximum participation amongst our members and contribution towards positive environmental outcomes.
The Pledge
We would like to extend a warm invite to all law firms to sign the pledge to Law Students For Climate Accountability. This will welcome firms engage with our campaign and the York Law Society’s partnership.
By signing the pledge, law firms will demonstrate a commitment to taking a concrete action towards addressing climate change concerns and actively participating in sustainability initiatives.
If you are interested, the pledge can be signed via the link: https://www.ls4ca.org/take-action and remain aware with the latest developments.
External Organisations
The Pro Bono sub-society are happy to announce that we will continue to work with the Freedom Law Clinic moving into next year. In addition to this, we are proud to announce our continued partnership with Citizens Advice York!
The Baroness Hale Legal Clinic
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