Hi incoming 1Ls! Our names are Charlotte Baigent and Catherine Wang – Allard’s two Pro Bono Students Canada (PBSC) Coordinators for the upcoming year. Whether you came to law school with a passion for social justice or a desire to gain hands-on legal experience, PBSC has a placement to suit your interests and advance your career development!

These are the top 5 things that students who participate in PBSC placements report about their experiences! To read more about student perspectives, visit the testimonials page on our website.

1.      You get to make a real difference early on in your legal career

PBSC matches law students with public interest and community organizations that are in need of legal services. As most of our partner organizations are non-profits, they could not do their work without the dedicated support of the legal community in taking on pro bono files. PBSC student volunteers work on real legal problems, assist real clients, conduct research to support real cases in the courts and do lots of other meaningful work that makes a real difference in people’s lives.

2.      You get hands-on legal experience that you cannot get in the classroom

Cate Provan, a PBSC volunteer, said the following about her placement:

“Unlike law school, where exams are typically based on made-up fact patterns, my placement let me be a part of solving actual legal problems that affect real people. It was wonderful to feel like a contributing member of the legal community!”

3.      You get to network with real lawyers, law firms, and community organizations

As a student volunteer, you work closely with a supervising lawyer on projects that range from working weekly shifts in a legal clinic to designing workshops on various legal topics. Each PBSC volunteer is matched with one placement, which has its own supervising lawyer from the community. This means that the supervising lawyers are accessible and focused on providing tailored guidance for their student volunteers. We also partner with community organizations and some law firms who help supervise our placements and make our program possible!

4.      It is a super minimal and manageable time commitment

PBSC placements are a minimal time commitment: just 3-5 hours per week, at scheduled times, which allows you to plan your schedule accordingly. Many of our placements allow students to work from home or the library, while others have weekly clinics at the same time every week. Let us know your preference in your application and we will do our best to accommodate it!

5.      You get exposed to the most important part of the law – the human element

One PBSC volunteer, Sarah Khan, explained the impact of her placement:

“Perhaps most memorably, my placement at Atira reoriented me to a concept that had slipped away after hours spent distilling case law and statutes into digestible bullet points— the human element of law. The gravity of this human element is what makes pro bono legal service both a privilege and responsibility to carry out.”

For more information and application instructions, visit our website!

See you all in September!

Charlotte and Catherine – pbsc@allard.ubc.ca

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