National Round For Louis M Brown                   Client Counseling Competition , 2007.

The Legal Services Clinic

THE LEGAL SERVICES CLINIC

 

One of the avowed objectives of the National Law School of India University is to promote legal education and research. In pursuance of this, the Legal Services Clinic offers legal and paralegal services by the faculty and students. It provides free legal services to the socially and economically disadvantaged who have difficulty accessing the judicial system, in addition to providing a centre for practical professional training for law students. The Committee also conducts competitions aimed at popularizing alternative dispute resolution techniques among the students.

 

The key activities of the Legal Services Clinic include the following:

 

1. Legal counseling and Mediation: 

· National Law School Legal Services Centre: This                  centre, set up in August 2005 and inaugurated by     Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, has been used to provide free legal advice and counselling and to facilitate mediation where necessary. A panel of practising advocates is affiliated to the Centre to provide pro bono assistance to disadvantaged clients whenever litigation is required.

· LSC Online: For those people who cannot visit us in person, LSC also answers legal queries through e-mail.

· Work with Local NGOs: The Legal Services Clinic has been collaborating with Sakti, an NGO working primarily with rural women’s issues, for the last fourteen years. The students of the Legal Services Clinic visit Sakti’s office at Ramnagaram thrice a month to help women who come to the office with their legal problems. In cases where it is feasible, the students try to facilitate a settlement by mediation. In other cases, LSC helps the women apply for a free legal aid lawyer and subsequently follows up on the case regularly. During the academic year 2005-2006, twenty such women availed of LSC’s help.

 

 2. Legal Literacy Programmes:

Apart from providing legal counselling and facilitating mediation, one of the core activities of LSC is to conduct Legal Literacy Programmes for different audiences.

· EOTO: LSC, in association with an NGO called Each One Teach One, conducts legal literacy programmes for children in different corporation schools around Bangalore.

· APSA and Sahayata Trust: LSC is also partnered with the Association for People’s Social Action (APSA) and the Sahayata Trust, and conducts Legal Literacy Programmes for women’s Self-Help Groups and sanghas in different parts of Bangalore. In the following months, LSC hopes to reach out to a substantial number of women through this venture, since these NGOs work in over 65 slums in and around Bangalore.

· Local Schools: LSC also conducts Legal Literacy Programmes for adolescents in several schools in the neighbourhood of the National Law School. During the course of the academic year 2006-2007 we hope to expand our reach to many more schools in Bangalore.

· Sakti Kendra: LSC conducts Legal Literacy Programmes in conjunction with Sakti Kendra for several women’s Self Help Groups and women panchayat heads in the rural areas of Karnataka, such as Ramanagaram, Magadi and Kanakapura.

 

3. Publications:

 In keeping with its mandate of making law easily accessible to all, the Legal Services Clinic has started a new project of publishing modules on specific areas of law for the benefit of the common man. These are written in simple language, supported by easy-to-understand examples and cartoons. The first volume, which is on criminal law, is due to be released in early 2007.

 

4. Competitions:

The Legal Services Clinic also organises client counseling and negotiation competitions within the University. The teams selected through these competitions represent NLSIU at the national and International level. Last year, the NLSIU client counseling team, consisting of Aditya Sarkar and Radhika Shah, won the national client counseling selections and represented India at the Louis M. Brown International Client Counseling Competition at the University of Cardiff, Wales. This year, the NLSIU team consisting of Kalyani Ramnath and Sanhita Ambast won the Kerala Law Academy Client Interviewing and Counseling Competition. The NLSIU negotiation team, consisting of Sameer Pandit and Subramaniam N., represented India at the International Negotiation Competition for Law Students at the College of Law, Florida A&M University, Orlando, and ranked fifth. This year LSC is proud to be conducting the national selections for the Louis M. Brown International Client Counselling Competition at the National Law School of India University on the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st of January, 2007.

 

Panel of Advocates:

· Mr. Aditya Sondhi

· Mr. Aditya Vikram Bhat

· Mr. Anind Thomas

· Mr. Nanda Kumar

· Ms. Pritha Srikumar

· Ms.Poornima Hatti

· Mr.Pradeep Nayak

 

Faculty Advisors

· Mr. Shankara Reddy

· Dr. V. Nagaraj

 

Members

· Anisha Gopi (Convenor)

· Poongkhulali B. (Joint Convenor)

· Thomas John

· Amogh Basavaraj

· Divya D.

· Gowthaman Ranganathan

· Rahul Kumar

· Ruth Anna Paul

· Swathi Agarwal

· Vikram Hegde

· Vivek Shivakumar

· Bhargavi Mudakavi

· Parag Mohanty

· Tasneem Ravindra Deo

 

Designed by Parag Mohanty and Swayam Arun

Content by Tasneem Ravindra Deo