Darren Weir, Director of Lawyering Skills, recently contributed an opinion piece to the Law Gazette about the importance of providing students with direct exposure of criminal justice system through active participation.
For the past 14 years Darren has been in legal education and he mentions how he has seen many changes in the motivations of students over that time. He suggests that without a platform to do so, law students are not often exposed to first instance criminal cases in our Magistrates or Crown Courts on their own volition. He says, ‘this lack of exposure, of course means that our young lawyers of the future do not know the value of the work of the criminal practitioner.’
In response to this need, Darren discusses how he launched the University’s Student Outdoor Clerking Scheme (SOCS) alongside lecturer colleague Trevor Linn. Explaining the premise of SOCS, he said: ‘SOCS is a student administered scheme whereby criminal defence firms get in touch and ask for a trained student outdoor clerk to attend court. This is particularly useful for trials that involve a lot of cross examination or in cases involving vulnerable clients who could do with that extra hand-holding. It has been hugely successful. Since the scheme started we have serviced over 80 cases, sat in on over 230 court days and involved over 120 law students. The scheme has provided a valuable service and has opened student eyes to the criminal justice system in a unique way. Many of the students now want to pursue a career in criminal practice with them applying to criminal firms for paralegal positions or criminal sets of chambers for pupillage.’
Darren discusses plans to expand the scheme nationally and says ‘we need universities and criminal law firms from across the country to join together to make this a reality.’
Read the full Law Gazette piece here.
