Organisation Detail
LCNI was established in 1977 as a Belfast community law centre and expanded to cover Northern Ireland in the 1990s. LCNI uses legal, policy and education tools to work for social justice, focusing on strategic litigation for wider social change.
LCNI is a regional second-tier referral agency for the advice sector and provides free legal advice and casework while pursuing strategic legal challenges. The Law Centre provides training and information support to the advice network and produces public legal information resources. Through policy research and advocacy, LCNI seeks progressive change to law and policy, grounded in direct client experience.
The successful holder of the post at Law Centre Northern Ireland will be sponsored by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (UK) LLP through Skadden’s Justice First Skadden Trainee (JUST) Programme, and will take up the position as a JUST Programme Trainee. Through the JUST Programme, which is administered by The Legal Education Foundation and hosted by Law Centre Northern Ireland, the trainee will be given the opportunity to make connections with Skadden attorneys and professional staff, train alongside Skadden attorneys on relevant areas including immigration and social security, and receive funding for ancillary training support costs. The aim of the JUST Programme is to support the training of the next generation of social welfare lawyers who will become leaders in their field and important advocates for access to justice, and it was inspired by the U.S. Skadden Fellowship Program, which has provided two year fellowships to over 800 talented lawyers to pursue social welfare law. The successful holder of the post at Law Centre Northern Ireland will also benefit from training and networking opportunities with the other JUST Programme Trainees (former and current) and the wider U.S. Skadden Fellowship network. More information on the JUST Programme is available here.
For further information, visit our website.
Any questions regarding this organisation or the position should be directed to humanresources@lawcentreni.org
Job Description
What can a trainee expect by training at your organisation?
Legal Advice and Assistance
- to give legal advice to callers to the Law Centre NI across its areas of social welfare law practice;
- to give legal advice through outreach and other planned activities as appropriate;
- to conduct appropriate cases in accordance with the Law Centre NI’s casework strategy;
- to advise and advocate on behalf of and represent Law Centre NI’s clients including working with counsel as required;
- to contribute to the development of the Law Centre NI’s casework strategy and to identify strategic legal issues arising from the Law Centre’s areas of social welfare law work;
- to keep records to an appropriate standard for management purposes ensuring compliance with funding and professional standards including, for example, Lexcel Quality Standard, Legal Services Agency and the Law Society of Northern Ireland;
- to research relevant legal issues to assist and support the work of the Law Centre’s legal team.
Policy /Public Legal Information and Communications
- to undertake a social justice project that supports the Law Centre’s mission;
- to represent the organisation at appropriate seminars and conferences, including at relevant stakeholder groups;
- to identify policy and practice issues arising in the legal advice and assistance work and identify appropriate responses;
- to research and produce public legal information resources, including briefings/legal information papers and other written material for publication, including on Law Centre NI website
- to deliver outreach information sessions on social welfare law across Northern Ireland;
- to contribute to Law Centre NI responses to consultation documents and policy statements;
- to contribute to and participate in media interviews on law and policy issues as appropriate;
- to work with policy colleagues to achieve Law Centre NI policy objectives and build effective external networks.
Training
- to identify the training needs of members and others including in response to changes in legislation and policy;
- to produce training materials and deliver training to meet the identified needs of members and others as may be required.
Membership/Stakeholder Development
- to work closely with NGOs and others as agreed, including to administer and convene relevant meetings;
- to encourage and assist members of the Law Centre NI in carrying out their advice and policy work as appropriate;
- to contribute to the Law Centre NI members’ network;
- to develop and maintain effective working relationships with other relevant stakeholders to support the work of the Law Centre NI;
- to undertake relevant administrative duties in the performance of the above.
OTHER DUTIES
- to assist with the preparation of reports for funder as required;
- to act as ambassador for the Law Centre NI, upholding its public image through its legal work;
- to identify and maximise organisational development opportunities;
- to be available to work outside standard business hours occasionally to meet the demands of the role;
- to undertake such other duties as may be required from time to time.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- to agree individual objectives and set priorities in accordance with those objectives;
- to identify own training and professional development needs in consultation with Line Manager and source appropriate support;
- to comply with professional regulation requirements;
- to successfully complete the recognised professional post-graduate training through The Queen’s University Belfast Institute of Professional Legal Studies in accordance with the requirement of the Law Society of NI and to complete the requirements of the Legal Education Foundation Justice First Fellowship.
Job Description Download
Click on the following link to download a pdf copy of the job description:
2023 LCNI JFF Fellow - Trainee Solicitor Job Description and Person Specification document
