First appointment to the Justice First Fellowship in Scotland announced

Deidre Flanigan

GLC is delighted to announce the first Scottish appointment of the Justice First Fellowship. The Justice First Fellowship is a prestigious new scheme established to support the next generation of students committed to public interest and social justice issues who want to pursue a career in social welfare law. The scheme has been established by The Legal Education Foundation in partnership with Govan Law Centre and other social welfare organisations across the UK.

The first Fellow to be appointed in Scotland is Deirdre Flanigan. Deidre has an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the Irish Centre for Human Rights and an LLB in Law and a Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Edinburgh. She was the Outreach Coordinator at the Scottish Human Rights Commission, her role was to assist civil society in taking a human rights based approach to their work and to engage more with the UN human rights system including treaty body reviews and Universal Periodic Review.

 

Deidre gained monitoring experience working for a human rights NGO in Nepal with a particular emphasis on the duty of the state to ensure accountability for human rights in a post-conflict society. She was a research consultant in developing Scotland's National Action Plan for Human Rights with a particular focus on economic and social rights including the right to an adequate standard of living.

 

She has also worked as an occasional case law reviewer for Oxford Publications of international criminal law cases and has additional experience with a criminal defence firm in Glasgow and a commercial firm in Argentina. She has volunteer experience in several fields including advocacy with a focus on the adequacy of living standards of temporary accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers.

First appointment to the Justice First Fellowship in Scotland announced

Govan Law Centre participates in UK launch of the Justice First Fellowship - opportunities for legal traineeships for those committed to social justice and social welfare law

Justice First Fellowship is a prestigious new Scheme established to support the next generation of students in the UK committed to public interest and social justice issues who want to pursue a career in social welfare law. The Scheme has been established by The Legal Education Foundation, in partnership with Govan Law Centre and other organisations in the social welfare law sector.

Govan Law Centre is one of seven organisations in the UK participating in the Justice First Fellowship, other partners include Coram Children's Legal Centre, Coventry Law Centre, Deighton Pierce Glynn, Greater Manchester Immigration Unit, Staffordshire North and Stoke on Trent Citizens Advice Bureaux, and the Public Law Project.

This is the first year of the Scheme, and it will focus on law graduates that have passed the Legal Practice Course or Diploma in Professional Legal Practice and are seeking to complete their training contract before taking up a role in social welfare law. The aim is that the Fellowship Scheme will come to be seen as a respected route to a career in this important area of law, with Fellows going on to become leaders in their field and important advocates for access to justice and the rule of law.

In 2014, the Fellowship has three parts. To provide:

1.      Training contract placements for law graduates seeking to pursue a career in social welfare law;

2.      Fellows with time and resource alongside their traineeships to develop and implement a project that will advance access to justice in some way;

3.      Additional support, training and opportunities for Fellows to gain skills and feel part of a wider movement of people committed to access to justice.

For more information and how to apply please visit the Justice First Fellowship website here; please note that applications cannot be made until Monday 8 September 2014, when the application process goes live.

Govan Law Centre participates in UK launch of the Justice First Fellowship - opportunities for legal traineeships for those committed to social justice and social welfare law