Community engagement, outreach and education.

Our founding principles provide that student members should not only advise and represent those with legal issues, but that they should also work to empower the community by assisting and/or providing the knowledge and skills necessary to reduce the likelihood of a legal issue occurring in the first place.

We believe this dual approach is the way to minimise the access to justice problem that exists in North East Scotland. 

Both independently and in collaboration with other established community groups and charities, we provide information and practical assistance on a range of subjects. Some of our current projects and initiatives are below.

Working with Young People - Our Schools’ Team 

The main aim of the School’s Project is to make the law accessible as well as to increase understanding of the legal system at a young age – through discussing the law as it affects young people, providing an insight into how the Scottish justice system operates and highlighting the career paths available within the legal sector.

We offer workshops to pupils aiming to raise awareness on issues they may encounter as well as their legal implications. These workshops aim to better prepare students from a young age as to how to protect themselves. These workshops raise awareness on topics including; digital crime, health awareness, drug abuse and money and product mules. Our school’s team, create and present interactive workshops, tailored to students of different ages to inform and educate students on these contentious topics and their legal implications.

Furthermore, our mock trials workshops provide pupils with an opportunity to learn about how the Scottish legal system works and allows them to engage actively in the court procedure. The team delivers these workshops both independently to schools as well as in partnership with Police Scotland – delivering a comprehensive session on police and court procedure.

We also provide workshops and one-to-one mentoring focused on bridging the academic attainment gap in social science subjects at under-performing schools as well as educating and inspiring students to pursue different careers in the legal sector through our ‘Legal Looking Glass Initiative’.

Working with the wider community…

We work to make the law and legal rights both more accessible and comprehensible to the wider community. We do this through a variety of community initiatives which cover most demographics and age groups. 

Prisons Project

Since 2010, the Prison's Project has aimed to support reintegration back into the community; a stage in the offending cycle where offenders are particularly susceptible to the social pressures which often lead them to relapse into criminal behaviour. Equipping prisoners with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to successfully re-enter the workplace is at the forefront of our specifically tailored, practical employability skills workshops. These workshops cover CV, interview Skills as well as rights within the workplace.

Homelessness Outreach 

Our Homelessness Outreach team works to raise awareness of homelessness in the North-East and give guidance and information to homeless or homeless-threatened individuals to help them improve their situation. The team runs the ‘OutFit Like’ scheme which aims to provide homeless or low income with appropriate workwear for interviews. Our employment rights team collaborated on this scheme offering workshops on CV skills and interview skills to service users assisting them in their journey to secure employment from start to finish. 

Domestic Abuse Prevention and Legal Consent

We also aim raise awareness on the issue of domestic abuse with the view that victims will be empowered to seek help but also that other members of the community will be better able to identify signs of domestic abuse in their own relationships and in other relationships. This closely links to our workshop on consent education aims to inform the community on the importance of obtaining consent and what constitutes consent hoping to create a culture of consent and respect. We have partnered with Police Scotland to provide the wider university community with consent education.

 Immigration & Integration

The aim of the project is to be able to make information and rights surrounding immigration more accessible and comprehensible to the wider community. The team also aims to facilitate and encourage integration through bringing community members from various cultures and ethnicities together to share their experience and learn from each other.

 Hate Crime Awareness

We also take a stand against discrimination, hate crime and bullying. Following incidents of hate at the University of Aberdeen, we are taking steps to address issues of discrimination and intolerance in our society. Our aim is to raise awareness and to spread a message of hope for those who have suffered from hate crime, encouraging them to report it.

Renters’ Rights & Employment Rights

We also aim to educate and engage with the community over their rights and responsibilities as private renters. We also provide accessible information on rights within the workplace. 

Business Initiative

We also try to encourage both entrepreneurship within the community and at an early age as well as to make legal information on creating a business accessible and understandable to the wider community including the migrant community.

Our History 

The Aberdeen Law Project is the first student-founded law project in Scotland.

We are extremely proud to be the first law project in the United Kingdom to be founded, led and operated by students. Established in 2009, by then student Ryan Whelan, The Aberdeen Law Project ("ALP") is now one of the largest law projects in the UK. 

Ryan was acutely aware of the North East’s access to justice gap.  Convinced that law students know more law than they think, and can be of greater assistance than they might believe, he was passionately of the view that students could play a valuable role in reducing the access to justice gap. He thought it was a win-win: students could obtain practical experience and the community could gain advice and representation. The question was “how?” 

What was lacking was a vehicle through which students could put their skills to use for the good of the community. With encouragement from a small group of other students, Professor Margaret Ross, Professor Roderick Paisley and Mr Greg Gordon, a company was formed and ALP born. 

The enthusiasm for the law project was beyond all expectation. Ryan put out a call for student volunteers. He expected a handful to respond. Not so. Over 100 volunteered. Next, Ryan turned to the community. They were the people best placed to know if and how such a resource could help. The enthusiasm was equally overwhelming. It was a resounding yes from those in the justice gap. Last came the profession. The student team approached numerous lawyers in an effort to obtain training and support. The response was remarkable; more offers were received than could be taken advantage of. 

We’re not just different in terms of how we came to be; we’re different in terms of what we do and how we do it. Some of what makes us different: 

• We operate through an independent company called Casus Omissus, which means gap in the law. We are not part of The University of Aberdeen, but we operate in partnership with it.

• We are a law project, not a law clinic. This is both deliberate and important. Our clinical dimension is where we provide advice and representation. It is vital, but it is just one part of what we do. The other part, the larger part, involves engaging, educating and empowering the community. Our founding principles are clear: ALP should work to reduce the access to justice problem, not just “fire-fight” existing issues. 

• People from across the world train, mentor, supervise and donate to ALP.  It’s remarkable and greatly appreciated.    

In its first year of operation ALP met with numerous organisations and individuals. We even made international headlines. Since then it’s been more of the same. Every year we have gone on to do more and more. Highlights include devising and implementing a host of innovative education programmes, appearing before the Scottish Parliament and winning cases that have become reported decisions. As of January 2020, we estimate that ALP students have processed more than 7,000 enquiries, taken on just short of 1,000 clients and educated more than 8,000 school pupils, third sector workers and prisoners in the North of Scotland. But this is only the beginning. We have more people to help, more boundaries to push. 

If you can help us or we can help you, please do get in touch.