Student Outdoor Clerk Scheme

Student Outdoor
Clerk Scheme (SOCS)

A collaborative initiative to give law students practical hands-on experience while also serving the local legal community.

What is the Student Outdoor Clerk Scheme (SOCS)?

SOCS was started by Kent Law School in November 2021. The idea is that firms of solicitors or barristers contact the law school to request a student outdoor clerk to assist them at court on a case. This is particularly useful for Crown Court cases where Legal Aid funding has long since been cut to pay for representatives of the law firm to attend the advocate at court. This means that the fee earner back in the office is left in the dark about the progress of a case until perhaps a couple of days after the case has finished in court. After consultation with the Kent Law Society, we thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to fill the gap in provision with law students. Students would get exposure to real-life cases while the advocate at court would get a helping hand.

Students are sent to court to make detailed notes for the advocate and the fee earner. Through this exposure it is hoped that students are enthused to engage with the law and pursue a career in that area of law. This is particularly important for the practice of criminal law where the number of new recruits has been declining for many years. Although our student clerks work predominantly in the criminal courts, they are also available to attend any court or tribunal where a solicitor may find their services helpful. Maybe the client is particularly vulnerable or scared and would benefit from an extra pair of hands to be with them? Our Student Outdoor Clerks do not give advice or talk about the case. They are simply there to provide clerking support to advocate, client and firm.

In order to ensure that the scheme is run professionally, ensuring full confidentiality, data and GDPR compliance, we have teamed up with Thomson Reuters Case Center who provide the online interface portal between students, solicitors and advocates.

Our Student Outdoor Clerks can service all courts in Kent as well as some in London.

How does an Outdoor Clerk assist the Advocate at court?

They can take a full note of all the evidence – especially the cross examination. There used to be so many occasions when the clerk caught something that the advocate asking the questions missed – because they were busy on their feet.

They are a second pair of ears when the client has to be given certain advice and can make sure a proper note is taken when that advice is given.
They can provide a ‘sounding board’ for the advocate and provide a ‘lay perspective’ of how the jury might be assessing the trial.
They can help to provide space for the advocate away from the client so that the advocate can focus on the case whilst the outdoor clerk divert the lay client.

Find out more...

Information for current Kent Law School students

Information for Solicitors and Barristers

Information for other universities

Information for current Kent Law School students

Eligibility: You must be a law student who is in year 2 or above of their law degree or be an LLB (Graduate Entry Student) or an LLM student (inc. Solicitors Practice).

Attributes we are looking for:

You will have to give up some time for some evening training
You will need to have a laptop & a mobile phone
You will need to be able to get to Canterbury and/or Maidstone Crown Courts yourselves appropriately attired
You will need to be able to manage your time effectively and have the flexibility in your timetable to be able to re-arrange seminars if necessary.
You will need to take responsibility for that yourselves.
You will need to be able to show exceptional professionalism.

How to apply:

We run recruitment campaigns at various time in the academic year (twice or three times). The scheme runs all year long, including the summer and so particularly for the summer holidays you would need to ideally still be based in Kent. So, keep an eye out for emails.

During term time, we have an office which is open to enquires (Mon - Fri, 1pm - 5pm) located in the Wigoder Law Building (opposite the moot court). Do drop in and leave your details if you are interested. We are also contactable by email: outdoorclerks@kent.ac.uk

What is expected:

You will undertake a short training course which will cover the duties of the role as well as your GDPR, confidentiality and data security responsibilities. You will then have to be freely available for the whole academic year to attend court. You will be expected to weave your court attendance around your studies and your assessments as well as your other commitments. Once you have said that you will attend a day or days on a case, we expect 100% commitment and professionalism. Students who let us down are immediately removed from the scheme.

On completion of the training and at least two court attendances, you are eligible for a completion certificate that gives you bragging rights that you have participated in the scheme. Students though are encouraged to do as much as they can. These days at court often lead to other opportunities, raise your commercial awareness and heighten your future employability prospects, so the more you can do the better.

This is unpaid work. It is not 'Qualified Work Experience'. It is regarded as volunteering. You can claim employability points. Although it is unpaid, if you attend courts outside of Canterbury we do try to give you some funds towards your travel. This does vary and the funds are generated through donations and are not guaranteed.

Information for Solicitors and Barristers

Since the scheme started we have covered over 100 cases, involved over 140 law students and serviced over 250 court days. Richard Atkinson, Vice President of the Law Society and partner at Tuckers says:

"My firm has used SOCS since November 2021 and we have been really impressed by the scheme. It not only assists us in being able to support advocates more fully at court but it also acts as a great introduction to students interested in a career in criminal law. I see great potential in it being rolled out nationally, and I look forward to helping that happen."

We are often able to send clerks out at short notice and our students are particularly handy when dealing with vulnerable clients and the advocate needs a second pair of ears and eyes and a good note of the advice given.

We have trained a band of students in what they need to know to be effective outdoor clerk agents for your firm. They will do all those things mentioned in our introduction. All you need to do is contact our administrator (by filling in the Online booking form) to book your case in, give us the information we need and we will then appoint a Student Outdoor Clerk/ clerks to your trial. They will then sit behind counsel (or your in-house advocate) and take notes, provide an attendance note etc.

YOU get an Outdoor Clerk for FREE
The STUDENT gets experience and a taste of work in a criminal practice
The LAW SCHOOL achieves elements of its Civic Mission.
WE ALL BENEFIT

Email address: outdoorclerks@kent.ac.uk

Academic contact should you wish to discuss before booking: Darren Weir, Director of Lawyering Skills & Employability - d.weir@kent.ac.uk

Useful links

Online Booking Form

Terms and Conditions

Privacy Notice

Our brochure (PDF)

Information for other universities

We are pleased to say that following endorsement from the National Law Society, Kent's Student Outdoor Clerk Scheme is now being rolled out nationally and we would welcome new universities to join the journey.

This is a scheme whereby law firms instruct law students to attend court and assist the advocate. This if not exclusively, predominantly, involves students attending the Crown Court on behalf of defence firms.

Legal Aid funding for firms to send outdoor clerks to court has long since expired and is yet another victim to a declining criminal justice system. Law academics will have noticed that the motivation for many students to study law is the draw of the large salaries from large corporates and law firms, particularly for those who come from non-traditional backgrounds. They have the big dream. This is unsurprising due to the neo-liberalisation and consumerisation of our Higher Education sector. The concern of those of us who are passionate about our criminal justice system is that if we cannot inspire the next generation to care about it, what will happen?

In their article, ‘Vulnerability, the future of the criminal defence profession, and the implications for teaching and learning’ Harris et al. said, ‘Within this process, we are aware of problems in the criminal justice system and, in particular, the challenges faced by criminal practitioners. We feel a duty to play a role in fighting to protect an institution that we see great importance in. That said, the task of providing resilience to the criminal defence profession is not ours alone; universities should also play a greater role in supporting the legal profession. Doing so will not only illustrate that they take seriously their students’ futures but that they also recognise – and place value on – contributing to wider society’.

The idea was always that students themselves would drive that engine, as long as the law school could provide them with the resource to run it. Using those local legal community connections already established, we were able to ascertain that there was appetite for the scheme from some of the local criminal defence firms.

Steps

Take a look at our brochure for information (it also includes a link to a video to watch)

If you want to take it further - email d.weir@kent.ac.uk

You will then be introduced to Thomson Reuters Case Center to set up a sub-account on our scheme. (It is at this point that usually your data protection people will get twitchy - we can help with that).

Once signed up with Thomson Reuters Case Center, we will provide you with the training to use the system.

We can provide you with what we used for training, our templates and other useful stuff

If you require it, we can even help with providing training to your students (small fee will apply for this one)

Meanwhile you will have been contacting firms of solicitors and barristers chambers to stir up the interest. You should also contact your presiding judges at your court centres.

You are ready to take on cases!

All we ask of you is that you use our National Logo and give credit on your material somewhere to Kent for starting the scheme. How you adapt it though and run it is completely up to you in consultation with your students and local legal community.