Research Assistant

About us

King?s Legal Clinic aims to improve access to justice and educate King?s students by providing free legal advice to members of the public through its Legal Advice Clinic and working with local and international organisations on research and justice projects. 

About the role

The Legal Clinic Coordinator will work under the Legal Clinic Manager to help with the day-to-day project management and administration of the Dickson Poon School of Law?s award-winning Legal Clinic, King?s Legal Clinic. 

The Legal Clinic Coordinator provides project management and high-level administrative support to Legal Clinic Manager, Director and Supervising Solicitors at King?s Legal Clinic (?the Clinic?). The role holder must have relevant professional legal experience, excellent organisational, IT, and communication skills and an ability to relate to and work with a diverse range of students, partner organisations and clients.  

A key function will be the day-to-day coordination and administration, a of King?s Legal Clinic. This will include: 

• Supporting the smooth running of the day-to-day operations of the Legal Clinic.
• Supporting the students with dealing with initial enquiries from members of the public, preparing case summaries, and support the supervising solicitors with triaging cases in a range of clinics
• Liaising with law firm partners to arrange suitability checks and clinic rotas 
• Booking client appointments, and managing and maintaining the digital case management system including data input 
• To oversee day and some evening clinics and provide support and IT assistance to Students, Partners, and Clinic staff
• Liaising with members of the public, the legal profession and voluntary organisations. The post holder will also be involved in the delivery of training to students on Clinic procedures. 
• To support in the collation of data for reports, including the annual report 
• Carry out the day-to-day financial administration and processing as necessary.

The position is likely to be of particular interest to a well-organised, proactive individual with experience of working in a busy legal environment, in particular a University Legal Clinic or Law centre, with good academic qualifications and interest an in access to justice.

This is a full-time post (35 Hours per week)

The role is based on the Strand campus

The Dickson Poon School of Law embraces equality, diversity and inclusion. We attract students and staff from across the world, from many different backgrounds, with a variety of ethnicities, religions, and sexual and gender identities. We promote flexible working as a key enabler of inclusion. We particularly encourage and welcome applications from women, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates, and from candidates who are LGBTQ+ and/or have a disability. 

Law Degree or Degree and demonstrable experience of the provision of legal services

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1.      Law Degree or Degree and demonstrable experience of the provision of legal services

2.      Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of the English legal system, data protection requirements and professional standards applicable to legal service providers

3.      Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to draft correspondence and documents with a high level of accuracy for diverse audiences

4.      Excellent administrative support and IT skills including use of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, Excel and knowledge of how to operate a legal case management system.

5.      Previous employment or experience in a law firm, legal advice or information service provider, charity, non-governmental organisation, government department, or Higher Education, or in a role that involves frequent contact with members of the public in relation to legal issues.

6.      Experience (including volunteer experience) of management or administration or other support of community projects at local, national or international level.

7.      Ability to work both independently and collaboratively as part of a team

8.      The ability to communicate and work with individuals at all levels, including the Clinic?s partner and service users, from a wide range of backgrounds, from vulnerable and diverse communities where English is a second language

Desirable criteria

1.      Experience of administration and coordinating in a University Legal Clinic.

2.      Knowledge of and skill in composing and managing web content and/or organisational social media account

This is a short-term research assistance role to examine EU and UK copyright law developments related to the Information Society Directive. In total, the project involves 40 hours of research. Specifically, the RA will need to examine UK and EU legislation and case law and scholarly materials relating to copyright law and the extent to which UK law converges/divergences from EU copyright law. The time period to focus on is 1 January 2019 to the present. Particular emphasis should be placed on those areas harmonised by the Information Society Directive (either explicitly or implicitly), namely, originality, subject matter; economic rights; exceptions; and enforcement. 

LLM, ideally with Distinction

Extensive knowledge of UK and EU copyright law.

Experienced administrator needed, working in person or remotely. 

To support the everyday administration of the Interface project, including file and data management, calendar scheduling, budget tracking with the support of the project lead, social media account management, updating project information, liaising with external and internal stakeholders, events management and additional duties arising. 

The candidate should also be able to start work Monday 6 January 2025. The role runs till end of March, but with a view to further employment if the project requires.

A first degree is essential, and postgraduate experience preferred but not essential. Far more weight will be given to a high level of expertise and experience with managing complex administrative projects. 

A high level of time management skills, project management expertise, event organisation and budget experience are required, as well as working with spreadsheets, digital file management, minute taking and general organisation.