The Legal Aid solicitor

Gwendolen Morgan studied law at Trinity College Dublin, travelled and did legal work in several countries before doing her Legal Practice Course. In 2004 she started her training contract at Fisher Meredith, a London firm specialising in litigation and committed to Legal Aid work.

One of the values of doing a training contract in a publicly funded firm is that it’s extremely hands on – you’ve got early responsibility for your own caseload with appropriate supervision and client contact from the beginning. And early on you gain a solid understanding of the law and develop good case management skills, especially in areas of high volume caseloads like immigration and crime.

I did immigration/asylum for the first six months which was brilliant – the cultural, political and historical dimension really makes the work colourful and I got to use my languages. The clients were extremely vulnerable people and the department’s commitment to their clients was truly inspiring. It really brought into stark relief the necessity to enable people to challenge unlawful acts in administrative decision-making.

I went from immigration to public services law. That department’s remit is quite broad - it specialises in education, mental health, community care and public law generally. Then my third seat was in Children’s law, and in the fourth seat I was back in public services law into which I’ve just qualified.

Rights for a child

An example of an education law case would be an appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Discrimination Tribunal. I’d interview the client - the parent of a child with physical or learning disabilities and then advise them on their case. When clients come to us it’s generally at a low point in their lives so it’s really important to establish a good relationship with them.

You take the client’s instructions, identify the legal issues and then research and analyse information that they’ve provided; this would typically include the child’s statement of special educational needs - a document produced by the local authority supposed to define all their needs and the provision made to meet those needs.

You also look at their medical reports and the case history in general. Then you would put together grounds of appeal to the Tribunal. You instruct an independent expert where necessary. For example, an autistic child often has sensory integration problems so an occupational therapist would be able to give particular suggestions about what level of input the local authority will need to make for the child.

Putting the case

After you’ve submitted the appeal you get the other side’s case back. You analyse that and see if there’s any additional evidence required and decide how to obtain it.

We don’t get funding to go to the appeal but solicitors will sometimes do the advocacy pro bono (free) if the client is particularly vulnerable. Another positive aspect of a Legal Aid training contract is that you get more opportunities to do advocacy in court or in tribunal than you might in a large city firm where large sums of money are at stake.

This work is incredibly rewarding and varied. You gain insight into a panapoly of other disciplines, which affect your clients, anything from psychiatry to physiotherapy. You have direct client contact and gain good experience of litigation, which is the majority of my work. Litigation is all-consuming - it’s intellectually stimulating but also requires practical strategies and good time management. I would wholeheartedly recommend a career in Legal Aid.

What do you think about this article?

Is there an issue that you would like Prospects to address? Make your suggestions here.