Law Firms

LEAP aims to bring together law firms and law students to provide pro bono legal services to the community.

We mobilise law students to engage in legal research and preliminary drafting for the pro bono work undertaken by your law firm. We innovate Hong Kong’s pro bono ecosystem by adding a new element – law students.

Under LEAP, HKU law students are attached to law firms as pro bono work experience students for a semester or a year to take part in pro bono projects undertaken by the firms. We also organize pro bono seminars with PILnet Hong Kong to educate HKU law students on different pro bono issues.

Operation

1. Student Recruitment

Group and individual interviews are carried out by Project Directors to select student participants who are the most outstanding and best fit the selection criteria provided by the law firms.

Academic transcripts, curriculum vitae and academic writings of the shortlisted student participants are sent to the law firm for perusal and approval.

2. Attachment of student to law firms

Student participants take up pro bono legal task as instructed by supervising lawyers. Bi-weekly log sheets are submitted by students to Project Directors.

3. Annual Evaluation

Project Directors meet contact points of law firms in person or arrange conference calls to evaluate upon the performance of student participants and logistics arrangement etc.

WHAT TO DO WHEN THERE IS NO/ INSUFFICIENT LEGAL TASKS?

WHERE TO OBTAIN MORE PRO BONO WORK?

We welcome all firms on board regardless of whether they have a stable source of pro bono work. Apart from letting LEAP student participants work on the existing projects undertaken by firms, LEAP is also happy to connect you to PILnet Hong Kong clearinghouse and our collaborating community centres e.g. St.. James’ Settlement.

At the same time, Project Directors will make it clear to prospective student participants that there may occasionally be an absence of pro bono legal tasks, depending on the instructions of the pro bono lawyers and the law firms.

HOW, AND WHAT, TO ASSIGN TO STUDENTS?

Law firms can freely set their house rules on how to assign suitable work to students.

Students will be briefed in advance that they should have well time-planning and management in terms of striking a balance between pro bono work assigned by law firms, and other billable work.

Law Firms we are looking for

All firms interested in helping the community are welcome. We expect each LEAP student participant to spend 4-10 hours weekly on pro bono work (such as legal research, drafting and reviewing) and student intake can be adjusted according to your firm’s capacity.

Exact work arrangements between individual law firms and LEAP student participants are highly flexible. We hope that LEAP student participants will receive valuable mentoring and feedback from their supervising lawyers. Firms may provide transportation or other subsidies on a voluntary basis.