Name of Committee
Legal Services Clinic

Mandate of the Committee

One of the avowed objectives of the National Law School of India University is to promote legal education and research. In pursuance of the same the Legal Services Clinic offers legal and paralegal services by the faculty and the students. It not only provides a centre for practical professional training for students of law, but more importantly, provides free legal services to the socially and the economically backward sections of the society who have difficulty accessing the judicial system. In the past, LSC has also directly been in charge of coordinating and organizing competitions aimed at popularizing the practice of techniques of Alternate Dispute Resolution among the students, such as client counseling and negotiation competitions for law students.

1. Nishita Vasan (Convenor)
2. Adithya Banavar (Joint Convenor)
3. Amshula Prakash
4. Lakshmi Nair
5. Meera Sreekumar
6. Nidhi Killawala
7. Deepika Kinhal
8. Linda Beatrice Louis
9. Shruti Aji Murali
10. Aqseer Sodhi
11. Sahana Manjesh (Sr Co-opt)
12. Aathira Menon (Sr Co-opt)
13. Basavan Gouda (Sr Co-opt)
14. Aditya Kumar (Sr Co-opt)
15. Ashwini Obulesh (Sr Co-opt)
16. Sachi Poudyal (First year)
17. Shashank Reddy (First year)
18. Shilpa Goel (LLM first year)

ADR Board 2010-11

1. Subhang Nair (Convenor)
2. Nalin Bhatnagar (Joint Convenor)
3. Rohit Jayaraman
4. Suveni Bhagat
5. Mihir Shukla
6. Harini Viswanathan
7. Mugdha Sharma

Faculty Advisors:

Prof. D. Shankara Reddy

Dr. V. Nagaraj

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

National Law School Legal Services Centre: A dedicated LSC Legal Services Centre has been in operation at the NLSIU campus in Nagarbhavi since August 2005. This Centre has since been used to provide free legal advice and counseling for people from various sections of society, as well as facilitating mediation from time to time. The Centre is kept open from Monday to Saturday between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. and can also be contacted during these times at (080) 32957830 .

LSC Online: For those people who cannot visit us in person, LSC also answers legal queries through e-mail. If you have a question, just drop us a line at lsc@nls.ac.in or lsc.nlsiu@gmail.com and we will get back to you at the earliest.

Work with KLSA: The Karnataka Legal Services Authority has set up a 24 hour Legal Aid Cell. LSC has undertaken to send volunteers one day every week to help out with the cases that come there.

Work with NGO's and Public Prosecutor at Ramanagaram: The Legal Services Clinic conducts several field visits to Ramnagaram. In Ramnagaram, LSC is in touch with some NGO's and also the Public Prosecutor of the area who refers cases involving family, property, or criminal matters to LSC. In cases where it is feasible, the students try to facilitate a settlement by mediation. In other cases LSC helps the clients apply for a free legal aid lawyer and subsequently follows up on the case regularly and provides them every kind of legal and paralegal help.

Legal Literacy Programmes:

Apart from providing legal counselling and facilitating mediation, one of the core activities of LSC is to conduct Legal Literacy Programmes (LLPs) 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 .
• 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 .
• NGO's in Ramnagaram and rural areas around Bangalore : LSC conducts Legal Literacy Programmes in conjunction with NGO's operating in rural areas around bangalore for several women's SHGs and women Panchayat heads in the rural areas of Karnataka, such as Ramanagaram, Magadi and Kanakapura.
• NGO's in various parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu- LSC also conducts one outstation LLP every year in a rural area in Karnataka , Tamil Nadu , as well as other adjoining states .
• KSLSA: In association with the Karnataka Legal Services Authority, LSC conducts Legal Literacy programs in various schools and colleges. The KLSA funds bookmarks and posters which are handed out at these programs. Further we put up plays on new areas of law on various occasions like Rajyotsava, National Law Day etc.

Research Projects: LSC has been deeply involved in pro-bono and public policy orientated research, and has been increasingly take part in and help coordinate projects in association with other organizations. The highlights of LSC's activities in this growing area are as follows:

LSC conducts many research programs for various government bodies including the Karnataka Legal Services Authority and the Karnataka State women's commission. We also conducted a Judicial Management Project under a committee of various High Court Judges in association with the National Judicial Academy , Bhopal . We intend to pursue more projects with them.

LSC has begun research on a project regarding Child Rights and prevention of Child Labor in co-ordination with the organization ‘Justice and Care'. Research on the issue has begun.

LSC has also started a PIL Group , in co-ordination with Poovayya & Co, which would research into areas which warranted a PIL and collect information (through RTI and other means), and carry forward the PILs

LSC's most recent pro bono project is an upcoming effort aimed at providing legal aid and representation to prisoners in association with National Institute for Human Rights though the assistance of law school alumni.

Workshops and Conferences: Members from the Legal Services Clinic attended the conference on legal and regulatory aspects on biodiversity at Chidambaran, organised by CIKS. The members made a presentation on RTI, Basic aspects of law and the process of legislation to a group of farmers and other dignitaries who attended the conference.

A workshop on the functioning and proper utilization of the RTI was conducted by LSC, with Prof. Sudhir Krishnaswamy providing valuable insight on the working of RTI Act for law students.

Competitions:

From last year, the work traditionally done by the Clinic relating to the promotion, team selections, and coordination of client counseling and negotiation competitions is being handled by a specialized ADR Competitions Board that functions autonomously under the Clinic's oversight. This Board will not only help conduct intra-university selections to help decide who will represent NLS at competitions outside (at which NLS students excelled internationally last year), but is also mandated to conduct workshops and other skill-development programmes to help spread and refine skills relating to client counseling, interviewing, negotiation etc. This Board shall also organize the National Negotiation Competition that NLS has been given the privilege to continue organizing to help select the Indian national team, as well as other client counseling and ADR competitions that might develop, which NLS has already shown itself to be more than capable of by its hosting of the Louis M. Brown International Client Counseling Competition in 2008.

Contact the Legal Services Clinic,

Legal Services Clinic,

P.O. Bag no. 7201,

NLSIU, Nagarbhavi,

Bangalore-560 072

Tel: (080) 32957830

NLS Legal Services Centre Hours : 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Saturday

LSC Online : lsc@nls.ac.in or lsc.nlsiu@gmail.com

Blog : http://legalservicesclinic.blogspot.com

ADR Board 2010-11

1. Subhang Nair (Convenor)
2. Nalin Bhatnagar (Joint Convenor)
3. Rohit Jayaraman
4. Suveni Bhagat
5. Mihir Shukla
6. Harini Viswanathan
7. Mugdha Sharma