GCU Law students go the extra mile to raise money for free legal access
GCU Law students have gone the extra mile by completing a 5k charity walk for The Access To Justice Foundation.
Students from the GCU Law Clinic teamed up with law professionals across Glasgow to raise money for The Access To Justice Foundation, which aims to provide access to free legal aid to people across the UK.
At the end of September, kind-hearted GCU Law Clinic volunteers got on their walking shoes to complete a 5k Legal Walk across the city of Glasgow, spotting some historical points along the way.
LLB Law students Ananda Bruce and Emma Smith are passionate advocates of fair access to legal services and feel strongly towards fundraising for important causes, such as The Access To Justice Foundation.
Emma explained: “The Access To Justice Foundation is a UK wide charity, which aims to improve access to law services. There’s already quite a range of services that promote this; things like free law clinics, legal aid etc, and The Access To Justice Foundation helps raise money to support this.”
She added: “We all met up outside Glasgow’s Sheriff Court and we were given a map to show us all of the historical points around Glasgow – which we could see during the walk route. We walked 5k altogether. It stayed dry as well, which was good for us!”
Despite limitations, such as the pandemic, students have always found a way to fundraise for the charity. Ananda said: “We’ve been taking part in the Legal Walk for around four years now, and it’s just something we as a clinic have always wanted to do. During the pandemic, we had to adapt and virtually complete the walk together – which was a bit different!”
As well as raising money, students also have the opportunity to network with other law professionals from across Glasgow. Ananda said: “Because we’re students, it helps put ourselves out there. At The Access To Justice Legal Walk, we were the only student Law Clinic that attended, so it allowed us to stand out and network with people who work across law.
If you do it properly, you can only benefit yourself and it’s also just a great way to raise money for an important cause.”
This isn’t the only way the GCU Law Clinic are looking to raise awareness of the ways in which people can access legal advice.
Emma explained: “We want to do more for Access To Justice, so we’re going to raise awareness for Pro Bono Week which raises awareness of voluntary legal aid. We’re currently brainstorming ideas of what we could do, so we will hopefully have more details of that soon.”
Ananda added: “We’re also planning to start our in-person pop-up Law Clinic again for the first time since before the pandemic, so that’s exciting! We both started our course in 2020, so unfortunately we haven’t had the chance to ever experience the pop-up clinics. This will be our first chance to do it so we’re looking forward to it.”
Nearing the end of their degrees, Emma and Ananda want to highlight the need to promote accessibility issues within the legal profession and why causes like the The Access To Justice Foundation are so important. Emma said “I think sometimes students can be a bit caught uo in their studies and reaching the end goal of getting a job, especially in law.
It’s important to realise that there’s wider issues within the legal profession and we have the responsibility to use our knowledge towards a good cause. Free legal aid is essential in making sure that law is accessible to all, and we want to be promoting that as much as possible.”
Ananda added: “Although we can offer free advice at the GCU Law Clinic, we’re limited to what we can do. That’s why it’s so important to raise awareness of how people can access free legal services and be aware of how The Access To Justice Foundation can help them.”
Find out more about the work that the GCU Law Clinic does on their website.
By Rachael McAlonan
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