Kicking off Street Law: Preparing to train the next generation of lawyers

As part of our series to mark Street Law's 10th anniversary, Madeleine Kelly, a final year LLB student at the University of Edinburgh, reflects on completing our annual Street Law training last year, which aims to bring a legal education into schools. 

In October last year I had the privilege of participating in the Law Society of Scotland’s Street Law training, an initiative designed to encourage careers in law through teaching legal concepts via participative and engaging lessons in schools. My intrigue was sparked by a LinkedIn post recruiting a new team; I was instantly interested and decided to apply. As a fourth-year law student, I have found LinkedIn to be a valuable platform that connects me with peers and law firms, as well as keeping me up to date on global legal and non-legal news. This opportunity seemed like a fascinating challenge to use the legal skills I have developed over the years in a way I hadn’t considered before.

It all kicked off on a Friday evening where after meeting peers from universities across Scotland, training began without delay. The environment was welcoming from the get-go, and it was clear that the directors were keen to hear about where we had come from and our studies thus far. I must admit, I was initially nervous for what this training weekend might entail, and to be honest, I did not expect it to be so interactive! The weekend replicated the dynamics of a Street Law session, with John Lunney from the Law Society of Ireland stepping in and out of teacher mode to provide us with hints and tips on how we can engage students. However, training went beyond just hints and tips, every session involved teamwork, fierce debates, and out of the box thinking.

We began with a ‘Who gets the Heart?’ scenario, which had us problem solving in teams. Throughout the weekend, we took part in mock trials, conducted interviews, analysed evidence, and contributed to intriguing discussions. It was clear that they were great methods of provoking students to use typical legal skills. It was particularly interesting to see how legal concepts were transferred to everyday situations, reflecting fields such as criminal and human rights law. Personally, I felt most engaged during our mock trial. Here, pictures and passages were revealed to us that seemingly made little sense. After debating what the facts of the case might be, we were assigned our positions in the trial. Thankfully, I took the position of the judge which meant I was able to hear the compelling – and evidently fictional – cases pleaded by both parties.

The training weekend concluded with much anticipated peer-led sessions. This gave us the opportunity to utilise the skills we had culminated over the sessions and adapt the lessons to reflect our own personalities. My assigned topic was space law, where I recreated my favourite aspect of the weekend – namely the mock trial!

Overall, I highly recommend the Street Law initiative to any law student seeking to apply their skills in innovative and creative ways. If you are on the fence as to whether this is the right opportunity for you, my advice would be to apply. My only wish is that I had known about it sooner!

If you are a school looking to bring Street Law to your area or you would like to register your interest in the programme, please contact our Careers and Outreach Officer, Megan Scott.