LAW students at the University of Bradford are putting what they’ve learnt into practice by providing legal advice.

The new collaboration between the Law Clinic and CHAS @ St Vincent’s, a community support charity, will focus on providing immigration advice. Students will be able to volunteer with CHAS and undergo formal training to become qualified immigration advisors, and aim to provide a drop-in clinics for general legal advice.

The School of Law’s Legal Clinic was opened in January 2016 in collaboration with the Bradford and Airedale Citizen’s Advice Bureau and Law Centre. The clinic not only offers legal advice to the local community, but also provides students with a chance to gain valuable experience.

Since then the programme has grown from strength to strength, with half of final year undergraduates taking place in the Law Clinic module.

Ian Miller, Deputy Head of Law and the Law Clinic Director, said: "The law clinic is an amazing thing to be involved in with students getting an opportunity to give back to the community whilst also practising their skills and completing their degree. Here at Bradford we fully believe in equipping our students with not only a first class degree but also real world experience.”

Cara Marshall, Advice Supervisor at Bradford Advice Bureau said: “We have received positive feedback from our service users in relation to cases dealt with by the Law Clinic, it has enhanced the information and advice that Citizens Advice offer, without the client having to pay for legal advice in some cases."

Other schemes in the pipeline for the Law Clinic include collaboration with Leeds Personal Support Unit with a view to running an ‘at court’ advice service working with the University Students' Union to provide legal advice to students.