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Our Partners

Law Clinic Partners

The UEA Law Clinic has a wide range of partnerships with leading local charities such as Norfolk Community Law Service and Citizens Advice. Our partnerships benefit the University and our students, as well as serving the Norwich community. The support network of leading charities and organisations allows the students to develop and use their legal skills and knowledge to increase the community’s access to free legal advice. 

We are always happy to hear from potential partners and sponsors, whether that is an organisation that wants to work with us to provide advice, or an individual or company wanting to sponsor our work. We can provide a range of tailored opportunities and UEA’s Development Office has considerable expertise in establishing mutually beneficial partnerships.

Here are some of the things partners might consider:

  • Are you involved in charitable or pro bono legal work and in need of volunteers?
  • Are you interested in sponsoring the Law Clinic or specific activities within it?
  • Are you interested in using the clinic space (waiting room, large meeting room with computers and conference table, and two meeting rooms) for law-related activities with student observers?
  • Are you a law firm looking to build your profile with law students at a leading university?
  • Can you offer your time to develop one of our services or expand what we offer?

If this is you or your organisation, please contact Polly Morgan for a confidential discussion.

Case study

We are proudly in partnership with the UK’s largest provider of free legal advice. Citizens Advice is an award-winning charity that provides students with the opportunity to volunteer for them in a number of capacities. Our students’ involvement in the Digital Hub enables Citizens Advice to respond to a higher proportion of help-seeking enquiries than they are otherwise able to do. In return, Citizens Advice’s expertise enables students to develop knowledge and skills across a range of subject areas and undertake their nationally recognised advisor training programme – boosting local advisor capacity and boosting our students’ employability. It’s a win-win situation.

A friendly relationship between a barrister at Fenners Chambers in Cambridge keen to start a new professional service and the Law School has led to mutually beneficial relationship. Fenners are able to use the law clinic to offer early neutral evaluations and private financial dispute resolution appointments to their clients based in Norfolk, where they lack premises but have a busy practice. They have exclusive use of the space when needed, and catering can be provided. Earlham Hall’s historic Dutch knot garden provides a nearby Silent Space for reflection. In return, law students have the opportunity to work alongside solicitors and barristers using the clinic for this work. The Clinic also benefits from donations from Fenners Chambers which help to run pro bono services.

Norfolk Community Law Service (NCLS) is a leading local charity whose objectives are “to identify an unmet legal need within Norfolk”. In 2012, the UEA Law School entered into a partnership with NCLS, which cemented a mutually beneficial relationship that had grown and developed over the preceding decade. Under the partnership, around 50 UEA law students each year have the opportunity to contribute to NCLS’s specialist advice services in areas such as discrimination, domestic abuse, family law, and immigration. This has a significant real-world impact: students have recovered around £10m in benefits rewards since October 2012. This is enormously beneficial to the local community and to our student participants.