Legal Advice Centre Diary
This diary captures the Legal Advice Centre’s activities during the 2025–2026 academic year, celebrating the people, projects and moments that shape our work.
Entry four: Six weeks down, many more to go
We’re halfway through term now and the Legal Advice Centre has come into its own. The clinic is now operating at a pace that was beyond the best-case scenario at the start of term. Our vision of building something substantial is taking shape in real time, one client meeting at a time, one challenging case at a time, one sleepless night spent pondering at a time.
The numbers tell their own story. Thirty-four clients have walked through the doors of the eighth-floor clinic, fifteen of them seeking employment law advice. That’s more than three employment clients per week, which sounds manageable until you realise each case brings its own labyrinthine complexity. The Advice Centre team has been tackling everything from questions of geographical jurisdiction in employment tribunals to the interplay between TUPE and insolvency. Our team reports that these are the sort of engaging legal puzzles that keep you up at night. We’re left contemplating whether this level of intellectual commitment is admirable or slightly concerning. We suspect a mix of both.
The students have organised themselves into firms of six and their newly appointed firm managers are leading meetings weekly to discuss and reflect on cases, engaging in the kind of collaborative learning that no lecture hall can replicate. Beyond their own work, our students report that they’re learning a lot from observing how their lawyer supervisors interact with clients. They’re getting a first-hand look at the delicate balance of empathy and professionalism that can't be taught, only witnessed and gradually absorbed.
The clinic’s success has created its own logistical challenges. Demand has reached the point where extra rooms need to be booked to accommodate all the client meetings. The eighth floor, spacious as it is, wasn’t designed for this level of activity. And it’s about to get busier still. A second cohort, primarily LLM students, has joined the mix. Before meeting their first clients, they completed eight hours of compulsory training, had pre-interview meetings with their supervising lawyers. They’ve quickly become integrated in the team and now work alongside the lawyers present to conduct client interviews.
The clients, for their part, seem rather pleased with the arrangement. Recent feedback from one client captures the spirit of what the clinic is achieving: “It was great seeing you today. I really appreciate any help you can provide. Your students were super lovely it was a real privilege to work with you. I feel I am super lucky that LSE have given me the opportunity for pro-bono advice.”
There’s something rather moving about being called a “privilege to work with” when you’re still perfecting how to draft an advice letter without second-guessing every comma. It’s feedback that reminds everyone why they keep hanging on for dear life.
Six weeks down, many more to go. The students are learning that legal practice is messier, harder, and more rewarding than they imagined. Which is exactly as it should be.