At the Student Legal Information Point "Law Clinic", students of the Faculty of Law and Administration, under the supervision and substantive care of academic staff and practitioners, provide free legal advice to nonaffluent people. It is also a place where future graduates of the faculty gain valuable experience, which already during their studies distinguishes their competences.
The ranking is prepared on the basis of data and information collected by the University Legal Clinics Foundation in annual statistical summaries. At the same time, the numerical data and achievements that underlie the ranking are based on data from the previous academic year, not the one that has not yet ended and has not been summarised
– informs Filip Czernicki, President of the University Legal Clinics Foundation.
The Student Legal Information Point "Law Clinic" was established in 2001 thanks to the personal involvement of Prof. Dr hab. Małgorzata Król, the support of the then authorities of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Lodz and the initiative of a group of law students. The Clinic's activities, initially modest, began to develop over time. The number of students participating in these unusual activities and people coming to the Clinic with legal problems has been constantly growing. Currently, the Law Clinic, in addition to its core activity – providing free legal assistance to nonaffluent people – runs the "I know my rights" programme and additional didactic forms such as training, exercises and workshops.
The classes as part of the Law Clinic were included in the legal studies curriculum at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Lodz as one of the monographic lectures in 2003. These classes used to take one semester (winter or summer one). Currently (since the academic year 2005/2006), the Law Clinic operates the entire academic year and is addressed to students of the 4th year of law studies (both full-time and part-time) and the 1st and 2nd year of supplementary MA studies in Administration. Students willing to participate in the work of the Clinic are selected on the basis of their current academic achievements and an interview. Since 2006, the activity of the student counselling centre has also allowed for compulsory student internships.
You can learn more about the activities of the Clinic Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration from our video published on YouTube.
Source of the citation: Rzeczpospolita
Edit: Daniel Maliński, Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Lodz
Photo: Bartosz Kałużny, Communications and PR Centre, University of Lodz