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Pro Bono Students Open New Campus Law Clinic
ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR FELLOW UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
By Keith Lenton
From the first day of law school,
we are told of the importance
of increasing access to justice in
our community. Fittingly, it is also
around this time that students at
Robson Hall are given the chance
to become involved in various
student groups, including Pro
Bono Students Canada (PBSC).
Students come to PBSC for
any number of reasons. Some
students might feel the call of
social responsibility. Some want
to polish their legal skills outside
of the classroom. Some may
simply want to be more involved
with the school and surrounding
community. I was a mix of all of
the above, and so as I scanned
the list of PBSC projects to sign
up for, the University Legal
Information Clinic (ULIC), which
provides legal information to
University of Manitoba students
on a drop-in basis, immediately
caught my eye. In my first and
second years of law school, I
volunteered at the clinic and in
my third year acted as a Student
Lead for the project.
The ULIC is a relatively recent
PBSC initiative and has been
growing steadily. In my first year,
the project was in its infancy and
few students were aware of it.
This year, thanks to a significant
advertising campaign facilitated
by the University of Manitoba
Student’s Union, the clinic has
been well utilized.
Over the years, the clinic, staffed by
student volunteers, has generally
operated three days a week for
two hours a day out of an office
in University Centre. University
students, especially those from
out of town, may find themselves
in a unique situation – spending
most of their time in a relatively
enclosed environment. They are
far from most of Winnipeg’s legal
professionals and most often have
very little disposable income;
those who find themselves faced
with legal problems may have no
idea how to resolve them.
The ULIC provides an
important resource for these
students by serving as a first
step of inquiry.
The clinic aims to provide
students with information so
that they can better understand
the legal aspects of the situation
they find themselves in and, if
possible, provide information
that may help resolve it. Even
if their legal issue cannot be
resolved immediately, students
leave knowing what their
options are.
The clinic has helped students
with issues as simple as the
University withholding a transcript
until a parking ticket is paid, to
more complex issues such as the
threat of an eviction. Of course, the
student volunteers are not lawyers
just yet. We take seriously the rule
that, regardless of how simple or
complex the issues brought to the
volunteers are, volunteers must
always make it clear that they
can only provide information and
not advice. Not giving advice is
actually harder in practice than
it sounds, especially when the
clients are telling you about all of
their difficulties and asking you for
your opinion on how to fix them.
Nevertheless, students strictly
adhere to their information-only
mandate. This means that for
many cases the ULIC volunteers
are limited to referring students
to other resources, such as
statutes or official government
documents. For the more
complicated cases, the volunteers
conduct an informal interview
with the student and pass along
their information to their lawyer
supervisor. This lawyer reviews
the case and drafts a response
for the volunteers to provide to
the student. It is rewarding for all
concerned to be able to provide
information to clients, either by
doing one’s own research or by
passing along information from
the supervisor. We always want to
be the bearer of good news, but
51 ROBSON HALL ALUMNI REPORT