The Justice First Fellowship scheme is run by The Legal Education Foundation (Reg. charity 271297). The scheme funds a number of social welfare trainees across the country, including some in Merseyside, the Society’s core area.
Here, Matthew Smerdon, CEO of The Legal Education Foundation provides us with an update: “There have been four Justice First Fellows (JFF) in Liverpool, three at Merseyside Law Centre and one at Vauxhall Law Centre.
Two Fellows are currently on the scheme, Samantha in her second year at Merseyside Law Centre and Alex just starting in his first year at Vauxhall Community Information and Law Centre. Alex is Vauxhall’s first Fellow, although Ngaryan Li, Senior Solicitor and Centre Director at Vauxhall Law Centre, has experience of supervising Justice First Fellows in her previous role at Greater Manchester Law Centre.
Two of the Liverpool Fellows have graduated. Siobhan Taylor Ward is now working as a solicitor at Vauxhall and is heavily involved in wider strategic work. For example, she has contributed to creating the Social Welfare Solicitors’ Qualifying Fund. Through the fund, over £100,000 raised from over a dozen London city law firms will provide grant funding for the BARBRI SQE preparatory course and the SQE 1 and 2 exams to help experienced advice workers in the sector to qualify as solicitors.
Tom Lavin, the second Fellow at Merseyside Law Centre is now working as a Housing Solicitor at Citizens Advice. This focus on what happens to Fellows after their time on the scheme is important. Of the 88 Fellows that have completed the scheme, 90% are successfully working as lawyers in roles using law for public benefit – 77% are working in specialist social welfare not-for-profit agencies, private firms or chambers and 13% are working in government or courts settings. In summer this year, the Fellowship’s first residential summer school will be held bringing together all 120 Fellows on the scheme.”
Find out more about the Justice First Fellowship scheme here.
Building a Merseyside Consortium
Liverpool Law Society is supporting the regional consortium model as a way to partially fund Fellowship training contracts through a collaboration involving private practice firms and other local organisations and the host organisation where the trainee works. The LEF and Society’s thanks go to local firms Bermans, Brabners and Weightmans for signing up to the Merseyside Consortium and funding JFFs in the Liverpool City Region area.
Can you help?
In order to fully fund one Justice First Fellow for a training contract, we need to raise an additional £25,000 (£12,500 per year for two years). Are you willing to pledge £2,500 per year for two years to contribute toward the two year training contact of a social welfare law trainee?
Sponsoring a JFF is not just about helping promising lawyers to train in their chosen field. Through supporting a Fellow’s work, sponsorship directly helps the hundreds of clients that Fellows serve in the course of their training.
To find out more about the Merseyside Consortium, contact Sarah Poblete.
March 2022