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About the Organisation:
Lawyers Against Poverty (LAP) is an established network of lawyers around the world working toward the common goal of eradicating poverty through access to justice and legal education. The organisation attempts to identify, facilitate and fund strategic legal projects which support access to justice in developing communities, focusing mainly on the following areas:
- Gender-based violence and women’s property rights
- Access to justice and legal empowerment
- Right to food, including land rights and food security laws
- Legal support for governments, NGOs, universities and lawyers in communities
- Climate change and other strategic litigation
- Legal support for refugees and asylum seekers
The Junior Lawyers Against Poverty (JLAP) initiative was launched in 2016 as a platform for students and young lawyers to develop skills, both personal and professional, in order to contribute to the achievement of this aim. JLAP strives to equip members with the ability to spearhead substantial and meaningful change during the course of their future careers in order to ensure that even the poorest sects of society can access the protection of the legal system.
Working in tandem with LAP, this junior division fights poverty through their work in legal support projects, public interest litigation, twinning law students and law departments at universities, training law students and junior lawyers and fundraising for the Justice Fund.
For information regarding JLAP, please visit their website and the Junior Lawyers Against Poverty Blog, which students are encouraged to sign up and write for.
About Us: JLAP Chapter at UCL
Who are we?
We are a student-led pro bono project, overseen by the UCL Centre for Access to Justice and founded in early 2020. We are affiliated to the Junior Lawyers’ Group (or Junior Lawyers Against Poverty), an initiative launched by Lawyers Against Poverty (LAP) in 2016, to increase on-campus student participation in issues regarding human rights laws and international development. At the forefront of both LAP and JLAP is the aim to increase access to justice and legal education, and to promote the rule of law to eradicate poverty and support vulnerable communities.
What do we do?
We provide students with the opportunity to work on projects that increase awareness of thematic groups focusing on subject matter such as legal education, refugees, land, women’s rights, etc. Some of the opportunities you could be part of include:
- Twinning with certain developing countries
- Collaborating with the International Law Book Facility
- Organising and participating in conferences, panel discussion events, and webinar’s
- Organising fundraising events for the LAP Justice Fund
- Authoring articles for the JLAP blog
JLAP Committee Positions
- President
- Manages all student groups under the UCL chapter of Junior Lawyers Against Poverty
- Responsible for setting out the direction and goals of the chapter and implementing initiatives accordingly
- Oversees all internal and external communication between the initiative and other parties
- Vice President
- Holds biweekly meetings where the progress of the three teams and potential collaborative opportunities between students are discussed
- Assists the President with their tasks, including the management of the budget and other administrative tasks if necessary
- Publications Officer
- Oversees the work of publications executives to ensure high quailty and consistent pubilcations.
- Implement creative ideas within the publications teams, such as the the creation of new initiatives and essay writing competitions
- Publications Executive
- Drafts human rights articles for the Student Pro Bono Committee blog (twice per term for each executive)
- Assists the publications officer with post-events posts
- Records 1-2 podcast episodes with leading human rights activists, academics, and/or other figures working towards the alleviation of poverty and increasing access to justice
- Liaison Officer
- Acts as a representative of JLAP and helps streamline communications between JLAP and the Student Union, other societies, and external organisations
- Raises engagement with JLAP through social media, pubilc comunications and increased organisation on all platforms
- Oversees and facilitates the creation of a streamlined social media presence
- Liaison Executive
- Assists Liaison Officer with organisational tasks and raising engagement with JLAP
- Creates social media posts in collaboration with the Publications teams
- Events Officer
- Responsible for organising events, which includes setting out their themes and aims
- Works closely with the events executives in submitting event planners, managing budgets, and external communication
- Events Executive
- Facilitates event-planning, which may include handling event planners, budgets, and external communication
- Ensures the smooth operation of events Responsible for communicating to bi-weekly.monthly zoom and in-person meetings to review the group's progress
How to Apply
Applications for Committee positions are now open. Please complete the following form to submit an application.
Should you have any questions, please contact Ram Sabaratnam at ram.sabaratnam.19@ucl.ac.uk.