Legal Advice Centre Diary

Welcome to the LSE Legal Advice Centre, where legal theory meets human reality and students discover legal practice bears very little resemblance to glossy courtroom dramas. They quickly learn that practising law involves significantly more paperwork and considerably less evidence tampering, though the coffee consumption remains impressively high.

The Legal Advice Centre is returning for its second year, following last year’s launch of the pilot programme, a milestone for the LSE Law School. The clinic’s first year delivered genuinely impressive numbers: 115 enquiries, 36 clients served, and not a single student abandoned ship mid-semester. Those are the kind of numbers that make everyone quietly pleased with themselves.

Diana Kirsch, the clinic’s brilliant Director, has returned with the kind of infectious enthusiasm that could power a generator. She has wonderfully ambitious plans that sound either visionary or dizzying, depending on how much sleep you’ve had.

I’m looking forward to welcoming our new cohort of Legal Advice Centre students. I had a busy summer of interviewing students and I was really impressed with their enthusiasm for our work. We’ve got some exciting new projects and we are pleased to be welcoming two new colleagues – our new Deputy Director Saher Osman and our Clinic Coordinator Behnia Naemi.

As a result of Diana’s tireless work, some exciting updates are underway.

The clinic is settling into its new home on the bright and airy eighth floor of the Cheng Kin Ku Building, allowing the students to meet their vitamin D quota. The new space deserves its own proper introduction. More on that soon.

The employment law clinic, which handled over half of last year’s cases, is continuing to expand to meet growing demand. New partnerships are also taking shape, alongside a brand-new Sustainability Law Clinic, because apparently, saving the planet has been added to Tuesday’s to-do list.

Amidst all of these changes, the Centre Diaries are our attempt to document what happens when law students encounter actual human problems in all their messy complexity. Think nature documentary, but the wildlife wears business casual and occasionally has an existential crisis about legal ethics. You’ll witness the delicate choreography of students learning to balance overwhelming compassion with professional judgment, a process roughly as straightforward as learning to parallel park in central London.

Each term follows its own theme, because law schools do love their organisation. To kick off the Diaries, the Autumn Term explores “Building a Clinic”, covering everything from what it takes to set up a clinic to digging into the work. The team is already off to the races, armed with unfettered determination and an impressive collection of highlighter pens.

Welcome to year two. The doors are ready to open, and there’s work to be done.

As with any great literary saga, we must begin by setting the scene. However, the LSE Legal Advice Centre is defined not so much by the space it occupies as by the people who have lovingly shaped it into existence. So that is where we begin, with the visionaries of the clinic.

At the helm of our trusty ship is a name you’ll recognise, Diana Kirsch, the clinic’s Director. Diana is by now seasoned in setting up legal clinics, having previously established BPP’s Criminal Appeals Project and the award-winning Hertfordshire Law Clinic, the Shelter Court Runner Scheme, and the Stevenage Welfare Benefits Appeals Project, after a decade of working as a criminal defence solicitor. Needless to say, she has sailed these waters before.

Supporting, and hoping to match Diana’s limitless drive is Saher Osman, the clinic’s Deputy Director and in-house Employment Law specialist. Saher has quickly learnt the ropes after joining the clinic this academic year. She has practiced employment law for 12 years, including 5 years leading the employment team at Camden Law Centre. Here she set up and ran a student volunteer partnership with SOAS and is now enjoying working with students again. Saher easily connects with clients and students alike and explains legal concepts in plain English. Despite her short time at the clinic it is evident that Saher, also a mediator, is approachable and empathetic. One might see her as a perfect port in the storm when the student advisers need guidance and reassurance.

Behnia Naemi rounds out the core team as the Legal Advice Clinic Coordinator. Behnia is tasked with supporting the development of pro bono projects and student engagement within the Legal Advice Centre. He has been an active member of two award-winning university law clinics, at Hertfordshire and King’s College London, where he contributed to cases including family, immigration, housing, and employment law. With experience spanning multiple clinics and practice areas, Behnia knows how to keep the ship running smoothly—even when the students are steering.

What initially strikes you about this crew is how they’ve created an environment where students feel supported enough to tackle challenging cases without being frozen by the weight of responsibility. It’s a delicate balance: they must provide enough guidance to prevent disasters, while allowing sufficient independence for real learning to occur.

With the clinic officially underway, Behnia is very busy booking the clinic’s first appointments. There has already been a flood of enquiries, 60 so far. That’s more than half of the total number from the clinic’s first year. To keep up with demand, the team is in the midst of training up students for the different clinics, helping them to already meet and advise clients, all whilst also actively recruiting more students to get more hands on deck.

It’s safe to say we might want to reconsider that 'setting the scene' bit, as the action is well underway.