Staff from Keele’s School of Law have celebrated the launch of Keele’s Legal Advice Clinics and CLOCK provision at Keele in Town, in the heart of Newcastle-under-Lyme. 

The University’s pioneering legal outreach programme, Community Legal Outreach Collaboration Keele (CLOCK), which has been running since 2012, now has a base at Keele in Town on Ironmarket, with Keele’s free Legal Advice Clinics also operating in the space for those in need of advice in small claims and commercial law. 

Delivered by supervising solicitors and students from Keele’s School of Law, the Legal Advice Clinics are held at Keele in Town on Wednesday afternoons during term time, to offer free legal advice to the local community of Newcastle-under-Lyme and beyond. Clinics are also held remotely where that is helpful to clients.   

Typical matters in which the Small Claims Clinic can assist with include breach of contract matters up to £10,000, including both consumer and business disputes, such as issues with faulty products, services carried out to a poor standard, or being owed money for work carried out. 

The Commercial Clinic is on hand to provide legal assistance to clients who have queries relating to setting up a business and can support with issues like drafting terms and conditions of business, or understanding director's duties. 

The clinic not only serves the public but also provides students with invaluable hands-on experience through real cases. Students develop essential legal skills and foster social responsibility, all while offering advice under the supervision of qualified solicitors.    

The venue also provides a new base for the CLOCK programme, which sees students and staff at Keele, as well as partners, supporting vulnerable people through the court system and helping those in need gain access to justice. 

CLOCK is a unique research-led project which brings together universities, law firms, barristers’ chambers, mediation, charitable and court services to educate, assist, monitor and promote access to justice for people facing barriers in the legal system. Since it was founded in 2012 the programme has been supported by partners across the legal and charitable sectors locally including Anna Brunt from legal aid firm partner Lewis Rodgers, New Era, Staffordshire Mediation, Citizens Advice Bureau, YMCA, CAFCASS, and Stoke-on-Trent City and Staffordshire County Councils. 

Working with partner agencies, CLOCK created the role of Community Legal Companion (CLC); law students who work with litigants to signpost them for legal aid and - where public funding is not available - assist litigants in person with tasks such as filling in court forms, arranging court paperwork, accompanying in court proceedings, and taking notes, with over 7,000 litigants helped since the service was founded. 

The programme will now have a base at Keele in Town on Tuesday afternoons during term time, alongside the Legal Advice Clinics, to make the service accessible to even more people. 

Staff and partners from Keele Law School celebrate the launch at Keele in Town.

Dr Bleddyn Davies, Head of the School of Law, said: “We’re delighted to bring our pro bono legal advice and support services to this fantastic new facility. In the coming years students will be able to gain valuable practical experience and provide this support to our local community while working towards their degrees, as we are making CLOCK and the Clinics credit bearing. This responds to increasing student demand to be involved in both projects, while also helping CLOCK and our clinics move from strength to strength.   

“This in turn will allow our law school to make an even more socially valuable contribution by providing life-changing support and advice to people who need it, and this wonderful new facility gives us the exciting possibility of making that advice more accessible to even more people.”