By Rebecca Slade, Student General Secretary of the University of Bristol Law Clinic
This year, once again, we would like to thank our sponsors Osborne Clarke for hosting our annual Law Clinic training. This training not only provides our members with core Law Clinic skills but also gives members the chance to gain further insight Osborne Clarke and life at the firm.
An Osborne Clarke trainee kicked off the session this year with a quick overview of the firm as well as a little insight into her own experience. It was a great opportunity for members to learn more about our sponsors. We were very fortunate to have the firm's partner Julian Hemming, senior associate Caroline Bush, recruitment manager Geoff Mead and trainees all help to run the training session, ensuring that our members are trained to a truly professional standard.
We then moved into the first part of the session: training members on basic interview skills. Members were taught how to recognize and deal with different types of clients - whether that be professional, angry or vulnerable - and provided with a clear interview structure as well as extra advice from a partner.
Part of the interview skills session consisted of a chance for members to take these new skills and tips and put them to the test. Members were split up into groups of four (the client, the two interviewers and the observer) and were teamed up either with a trainee, a partner or a member of the student committee. Here they took it in turns to interview and were given personalised feedback.
After a quick refreshment break we moved on to the second-half of the session: how to draft a letter of advice. The partner outlined key things to include as well as things to avoid, such as too much legal jargon. Our student committee's training director, Richard, then outlined key Law Clinic procedures as well as how to use and where to find the Law Clinics letter of advice template.
Overall, we can confidently say that members left the training session with core Law Clinic skills and are hopefully excited to put all these new skills to work!