News

Friday 16 June 2006

National pro bono award for Nottingham Law School students

Nottingham Law School (NLS) at Nottingham Trent University has announced that Alec Peschlow has been awarded the prestigious 2006 Trainee Pro Bono by the Young Solicitors Group.

Peschlow, a student on the Legal Practice Course at NLS, received the prize for his work in setting up a legal advice helpline, which aims to support start-up and early stage businesses. NLS students provide the service to Nottingham Trent University’s business incubation unit, The Hive, and in return gain valuable commercial experience.

The service was set up with support from tutors at the law school and using a model developed by the Solicitors’ Pro Bono Group. Peschlow provided advice himself, and set up systems which the law school hopes to develop next year to enable future students to gain pro bono experience.

Nick Johnson, who co-ordinates pro bono activities at NLS, said: “Alec’s idea of using law students to provide advice, under supervision, to The Hive is highly innovative. It will give students some invaluable hands-on experience before applying for training contracts and moving into commercial practice.

"Most student pro bono work does not involve commercial law, but his idea demonstrates that there are ways of providing students with this type of experience.”

ENDS

Notes for editors: The Hive is an enterprise development centre designed to facilitate the creation and support of new business ventures. It provides an environment for the creation of new business ventures, a network of support, expert in-house help, and access to the knowledge base and expertise with the university.

Nottingham Law School is part of Nottingham Trent University and is a leading provider of professional legal education, in particular the Legal Practice Course. It has a developing pro bono project which aims to provide opportunities for its students under the supervision of qualified lawyers. In previous years it has won awards for its Streetlaw programme and for work done by individual students. This year it established a legal advice clinic and its pro bono group has been awarded the Nottinghamshire Law Society’s Pro Bono Award.

In addition, Grace Marsh, a student on the Legal Practice Course, was awarded the NEP/BBC Reach Out volunteering award for her work with the Volunteers for Parents’ Voices project, run by the Family Welfare Association.

For more information please contact:

Dave Rogers, Press Officer, on Tel: 0115 848 8782 or via email: dave.rogers@ntu.ac.uk

Or Therese Easom, Press and Media Relations Manager, on Tel: 0115 848 8774 or via email: therese.easom@ntu.ac.uk