Volunteering at the award winning South Westminster Legal Advice Centre

Current 'Justice in action' student Lucy Jones writes about volunteering at the South Westminster Legal Advice Centre (SWLAC) and its recent LawWorks award win.

I volunteer at the South Westminster Legal Advice Centre (SWLAC) previously based in south west London until COVID-19 took hold in March 2020 that is!

SWLAC is an independent legal advice centre operating within the LawWorks charitable organisation working across England and Wales, connecting volunteer lawyers with clients unable to afford legal advice or those on low income. SWLAC first opened its doors in 1998 and recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. SWLAC is open to the public two evenings a week and operates a “walk-in service”. The Centre is run by team of volunteer lawyers and admin staff and depending on how many lawyers attend the evening sessions, will depend on how may clients we are able to help. In the 2 years I have been volunteering with SWLAC, we commonly see over 25 clients in an evening session and any clients we are not able to see are advised to come back or are turned away to nearby to other non- profit organisations.

SWLAC covers a wide range of legal including civil litigation, consumer law, contract, crime, data protection, family, housing, intellectual property, will and probate to name but a few. The only areas of law not covered by SWLAC are immigration and welfare benefits.

In March 2020, with our boxes packed, SWLAC was literally in the process of moving to new and better premises when the national lockdown happened. We transitioned from “face to face” clinics and moved directly to an online service overnight. It was difficult to really comprehend the impact of closing the “face to face” service on already desperate clients, coupled with the extra financial strain caused by the pandemic of losing your job or keeping a roof over your head, continuing to provide access to justice became even more important. The transition to online pro bono service was not easy, in addition we were navigating a new case management system, but SWLAC is well supported by LawWorks and all the volunteers rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in! 

The SWLAC executive board continue to work tirelessly behind the scenes and continue to support and guide all the volunteers (lawyers and law students) to keep the online service going. So, we were all proud to hear we had been nominated for the LawWorks Pro Bono Award 2020 for Best Digital / Virtual Pro Bono Activity. The LawWorks awards celebrate and recognises the pro bono commitment of LawWorks members in a variety of settings including independent clinics similar to SWLAC.

To the delight of the SWLAC team, we won! On winning the award, our CEO highlights the SWLAC service continues to triage and supervise lawyers but has the added benefit of being able to match clients to lawyers’ particular area of expertise more easily, so in essence clients are getting a better service. Although for clients not able to access online pro bono services this remains a problem.

My volunteering journey at SWLAC started when I stumbled on the Centre on my way to work one day. Having walked past the front door several times, I decided to take the plunge and offered my services and the rest is history.  I am immensely proud to be part of the awarding winning SWLAC team for the recognition and contribution in delivering an online pro bono services and continuing access to justice for those most in need.

Congratulations to everyone at SWLAC !