The City Law School work in partnership with City St George’s Volunteering to bring you a rich mix of placement opportunities that help you grow in confidence, develop your legal skills, and make a real difference.
Make a habit of checking the City Volunteering page—you never know what exciting opportunity might appear next. Volunteering is good for your career (and often good for your wellbeing too!). Employers love to see students who step outside the classroom and become well-rounded, socially aware future professionals.
Many law firms now run corporate social responsibility programmes offering their own pro bono opportunities in sectors far beyond just law.
The City Law School also run the LawIRL service which is a collection of our own in-house pro bono projects, giving you the chance to gain meaningful, hands-on experience working with real clients.
Below you’ll find a snapshot of what the City Law School offers, both as part of your studies and through extracurricular activities. All students are offered training and supervision during their placements.
Students are eligible to apply for various roles within the LawIRL clinics depending on their level of study.
The City Law School has its own Community Legal Advice Centre called CityCLAC which provides members of the public with free legal advice and assistance on a range of legal issues including:
- Employment
- Family
- Housing Disrepair for social tenants
- Housing Debt for tenants
- Immigration (a clinic regulated by the IAA)
- General Civil litigation
- Small business
- Consumer
- Contractual disputes
- Small claims
CityCLAC partners with a number of high-profile law firms in their work. Student Advisers regularly work with lawyers from top 10 firms and experienced staff in the provision of legal services.
Law students are asked to apply at the beginning of each term and trained as student advisers. The student advisers work in student law firms undertaking a variety of roles typical to that of a trainee solicitor in practice, including interviewing clients, drafting advice letters, conducting legal research, taking notes in client interviews and collating evidence on the client file. Opportunities are advertised on the Moodle page at the beginning of each term and a newsletter is sent encouraging students to get involved.
Final year LLB students can also undertake the LawIRL module and apply to be placed in CityCLAC as a student adviser as a 15 credit module, where they receive training and are placed in a student law firm for a term of volunteering.
If you are a client who would like to request legal advice please see our City Community Legal Advice Centre page for more details and fill in our online enquiry form. You can also email clac@city.ac.uk or call our phone line 0207 040 5414 where you can leave a message 24 hours a day.
City Community Legal Advice Centre
City University’s own Community Legal Advice Centre (CityCLAC) provides members of the public with FREE legal advice on a range of legal issues including:
- Employment
- Family
- Housing
- Civil litigation
- Small business
- Consumer
- Contractual disputes
- Small claims
- Personal Injury
- Environmental law
It is a service run by The City Law School, where all Law students can undertake a variety of roles from observing an advice session, taking notes in client interviews, or drafting attendance notes and advice letters. They also interview clients, conduct legal research, provide referrals and run the helpline taking details from members of the public over the phone. Opportunities are advertised on the Moodle page. If you are a current student please scan the QR code for more information.
If you are a client who would like to request legal advice please see our City Community Legal Advice Centre page for more details and fill in our online enquiry form. You can also email clac@city.ac.uk or call our phone line 0207 040 5414 which is open 10-12pm and 2-4pm Monday to Thursday. You can leave a message 24 hours a day. We try to get back to clients within 48 hours depending on when you contact us.
Refugee Law Clinic
The University of London runs the Refugee Law Clinic, established in 2020, which provides pro bono legal advice to refugee clients through a Clinical Legal Education model. The clinic is an inter-collegiate initiative supported by ten University of London member institutions, each of which selects students to volunteer as caseworkers.
A small number of law students are recruited each year, and places are highly competitive. Applicants are generally expected to demonstrate a clear interest in refugee or immigration issues, whether through prior study, work experience, or lived experience.
Delivered in partnership with Clifford Chance LLP and Macfarlanes LLP, the Clinic also offers opportunities for lawyers to undertake pro bono work alongside students.
The Clinic’s core work focuses on advising and preparing fresh claims for asylum, an area identified by the Law Society as a nationwide “advice desert.”
The School Exclusion Service
The City School Exclusion Service (CITYSES) is dedicated to helping students and families navigate and contest permanent school exclusions. We offer free casework and representation in the exclusion process.
We are part of The City Law School - Law in Real Life service. In LawIRL we aim to widen access to justice and the legal profession by offering clients free legal assistance, and law students volunteering opportunities.
All work is supervised by qualified lawyers, and students receive training on the law to enable them to participate.
School exclusions work has been taking place at The City Law School for over 10 years generously supported by barristers at Matrix and 11 KBW chambers. During this period the service was known as the School Exclusions Project. We are immensely grateful for all the support we received from the chambers to enable us to do this work.
In 2024 the project was renamed the City School Exclusions Service as it is now centrally managed by The City Law School.
Members of The City Law School staff who are qualified lawyers supervise postgraduate students to assist with casework and representation of the family of the excluded child.
CitySES recruits students from the postgraduate courses once a year at the start of the first term. See the Moodle page for LawIRL which all students have automatic access to when they enrol.
Vocalise
Vocalise is an award-winning volunteer programme established by Gray’s Inn and has become the focal point of debating at City since 2010.
Students are trained to teach debating over a 12-week period. Following this period, students then go into prisons and schools to teach debating. The scheme received more publicity in an article from The Guardian article.
This opportunity is extremely beneficial for students to take part in as the training involves a lot of public speaking and debating which strengthens advocacy abilities.
To be eligible to apply to become a Vocalise mentor students must be either:
- a student studying the GDL, the Bar Course, or law as a final year undergraduate or masters student
- a current member of Gray’s Inn who has completed either the GDL or the Bar Course in the past year and not secured pupillage
Please note, you do not have to be a member of an Inn to apply for Vocalise, but if accepted, you must join an Inn to participate. Vocalise cannot send you into prisons to teach unless you are member of an Inn.
Please apply directly to Vocalise. They usually recruit mentors at the beginning of October each year.
City St George's, University of London Volunteering
One of the great advantages of studying at The City Law School is the opportunity to have access to City St George's central volunteering services. This allows students access to over 200 organisations who are looking for volunteers.
Some of these organisations are directly related to and working in the area of law. All students can volunteer and they do so by registering on the volunteering page.
You can also contact staff with any enquiries on volunteering@city.ac.uk.
Current students can access the LawIRL Moodle page and receive our newsletters advertising activities at the start of each term.
Clinical Legal education on the BVS LLM course
Students are asked to indicate their preference for a clinical project when they register for the full-time BVS LLM (Clinical Legal Education). There are a number of different options available.
Amicus
Amicus involves working on death penalty cases under the supervision of an experienced lawyer. Amicus is a small charity that helps provide representation for those facing the death penalty in the United States. Amicus believe the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on the most vulnerable in society, violating their right to due process and equal justice before the law.
Amicus aim to provide better access to justice and to raise awareness of potential abuses of defendants' rights. They are not a campaigning organisation, rather they believe they can make the greatest difference through frontline work.
For further information see the Amicus website. Expressions of interest are sent out in the Summer before the course starts and students are interviewed at the start of term.
Appeal
Appeal are a charity who work on miscarriages of justice and policy work. Appeal screen to find cases with merit and high potential impact and then dig deep to find the fresh evidence that proves a conviction is unsafe or a sentence is unfair.
Their investigation methodology is based on that deployed in high stakes death penalty cases in the US and includes closely analysing the existing case materials using cutting edge software, demanding access to new documents, interviewing witnesses, visiting to key locations, and working with pro bono experts to find the evidence needed to overturn wrongful convictions and unfair sentences.
They value results over throughput and so work on behalf of a small number of people to ensure the quality of their work. This is the ideal placement for those seeking a career in Criminal or Public Law.
Pro Bono Community
Pro Bono Community is a registered charity which seeks to improve access to justice by providing specialist training in legal advice and social welfare law to lawyers, trainees and students and then placing them as volunteers at Law Centres and advice agencies.
As part of the clinical legal education students are asked to write a reflective journal as part of their assessment, to learn through doing. Students are usually placed in a not-for-profit agency such as a law centre or citizens advice, providing a great way to obtain experience in real life.
Volunteers trained by PBC have gone on to work at Law Centres and advice agencies across London. PBC expects volunteers to commit to a minimum of 13 days volunteering following their training although many will go on to extend their placements for much longer periods.
Law Centres and advice agencies estimate that each volunteer assists an average of at least two people per session which means that PBC-trained volunteers have provided free legal support and assistance to an estimated 31,000 people since the charity was established.
Sequentus
Students are asked to indicate their preference for a clinical project when they register for the full-time BVS LLM (Clinical Legal Education).
Sequentus is a not-for-profit legal services organisation that partners with universities and corporate supporters to offer high-quality pro bono opportunities to aspiring lawyers. It provides the chance to gain experience in specialist areas such as regulatory fitness-to-practise proceedings and serious criminal appeals.
Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate a clear interest in regulatory law, professional discipline, or appellate work, whether through previous study, relevant experience, or personal motivation.
Volunteers work under the supervision of experienced practitioners and contribute directly to ongoing casework. Typical tasks include legal research, drafting, reviewing evidence and assisting with client communication. Sequentus’s mission-driven approach enables students to support access to justice while developing practical skills valued across the legal sector.
For Bar LLM students seeking meaningful, hands-on engagement with complex legal issues, Sequentus offers a valuable and impactful pro bono experience alongside your studies.
Company Insolvency Pro Bono Scheme
Students are asked to indicate their preference for a clinical project when they register for the full-time BVS LLM (Clinical Legal Education).
COIN provides free legal help for Litigants-in-Person (LiPs) appearing before the winding up court on Wednesdays. The Scheme operates from the High Court, Rolls Building, in London.
COIN can assist with the following:
- Advice on the law and procedure in the winding up court
- How to make or respond to a winding up petition
- Representation on your behalf before the winding up court
- What will happen after a winding up order is made
- How to apply for a validation order, rescission/appeal of a winding up order
- Provide you with guides on how to make the applications at v) above and how to write a witness statement
COIN is an award-winning service which helps those who would otherwise not have access to representation. Our students are trained to provide general information about advice and procedures, and volunteer barristers provide free representation to clients on a rota. Students will sit with the barristers in conferences and observe in court when the barrister makes submissions before the Insolvency and Companies Court Judges.
Students are asked to indicate their preference for a clinical project when they register for the BVS LLM (Clinical Legal Education). They receive a training session to enable them to participate which is conducted by a barrister who specialises in Chancery and Commercial law. They are expected to volunteer once a month from October to July.
Litigants-in-Person can contact COIN via email or by filling in the Company Insolvency Pro Bono Scheme enquiry form.
Clinical Legal Education on the LLB course
Students on the LLB can opt for the LawIRL module in year 3 of their degree programme when options are chosen in the second year of their studies. There are a number of options available. The course involves a one term training programme followed by a placement of a term in a variety of different organisations.
City Community Legal Advice Centre
The City Law School has its own Community Legal Advice Centre called CityCLAC which provides members of the public with free legal advice and assistance on a range of legal issues including:
- Employment
- Family
- Housing Disrepair for social tenants
- Housing Debt for tenants
- Immigration (a clinic regulated by the IAA)
- General Civil litigation
- Small business
- Consumer
- Contractual disputes
- Small claims
CityCLAC partners with a number of high-profile law firms in their work. Student Advisers regularly work with lawyers from top 10 firms and experienced staff in the provision of legal services.
Law students are asked to apply at the beginning of each term and trained as student advisers. The student advisers work in student law firms undertaking a variety of roles typical to that of a trainee solicitor in practice, including interviewing clients, drafting advice letters, conducting legal research, taking notes in client interviews and collating evidence on the client file. Opportunities are advertised on the Moodle page at the beginning of each term and a newsletter is sent encouraging students to get involved.
Final year LLB students can also undertake the LawIRL module and apply to be placed in CityCLAC as a student adviser as a 15 credit module, where they receive training and are placed in a student law firm for a term of volunteering.
If you are a client who would like to request legal advice please see our City Community Legal Advice Centre page for more details and fill in our online enquiry form. You can also email clac@city.ac.uk or call our phone line 0207 040 5414 where you can leave a message 24 hours a day.
Freedom Law Clinic
The Freedom Law Clinic is a pro bono legal education programme that gives law students experience working on a simulated miscarriage of justice case. Run by practising criminal lawyers and caseworkers from a law firm, the clinic trains students to analyse evidence, review case files, and contribute to submissions for a simulated appeal case. It offers a unique opportunity to develop practical legal skills, deepen understanding of criminal justice, and make a meaningful impact by supporting individuals seeking to overturn wrongful convictions. The course is taught 100% online.
Pro Bono Community
Pro Bono Community is a registered charity which seeks to improve access to justice by providing specialist training in legal advice and social welfare law to lawyers, trainees and students and then placing them as volunteers at Law Centres and advice agencies.
As part of the clinical legal education students are asked to write a reflective journal as part of their assessment, to learn through doing. Students are usually placed in a not-for-profit agency such as a law centre or citizens advice, providing a great way to obtain experience in real life.
Volunteers trained by PBC have gone on to work at Law Centres and advice agencies across London. PBC expects volunteers to commit to a minimum of 13 days volunteering following their training although many will go on to extend their placements for much longer periods.
Law Centres and advice agencies estimate that each volunteer assists an average of at least two people per session which means that PBC-trained volunteers have provided free legal support and assistance to an estimated 31,000 people since the charity was established.
