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PBSC Training Session
2012-2013
What
is
Pro
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Bono?
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PBSC Mandate
PBSC aims
(1)
to provide vulnerable communities
with legal services free of charge,
(2)
to provide law students with out-ofthe classroom legal experience, and
(3)
to instill the pro bono ethic in future
lawyers from their first day of law
school.
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Pro Bono Students Canada
 The
only national pro bono program in Canada
 Has
been serving the legal profession for 15 years
 Operates
22 Canadian law school chapters
 Approximately
 Runs
1500 volunteers nationwide
almost 500 projects every year
 Provides
120,000 hours of legal services each year
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PBSC Structure
National
Office
Local
Chapters
• PBSC has a National Office that supports and guides the work of
students hired to run PBSC’s 22 chapters from coast to coast
• All 22 law schools in the country house a local PBSC chapter
• Each year approximately 40 law students are hired to run these
local chapters
• PBSC Program Coordinators develop placements in the
community and monitor the projects throughout the year;
• Your Program Coordinator is here to make sure your volunteer
Program
experience with PBSC is an excellent one!
Coordinators
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How PBSC
Works
PBSC increases access
to justice by
partnering with:
Not-for-profit
Organizations
 Legal Clinics and Law
Help Centres
 Government Agencies
 Courts and Tribunals
 Lawyers working on Pro
Bono files

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What Do PBSC Volunteers Do?
 Legal
Research and Writing – summarize
legislation and write case briefs for non-profit
organizations and pro bono lawyers
 Clinical
Projects – assist lawyers by conducting
client intake, providing information to clients,
assisting with document preparation
 Public
Presentations – develop and deliver legal
information seminars to members of the public
who do not have access to lawyers; create plain
language documents for the public
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What is
Required from
PBSC
Students?
 General
PBSC Training
 Westlaw
Canada Training
 Student
Agreement Form
 3–5
Hours per Week on Your
PBSC Project
 On-line, end-of-year
survey
Timeline
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2012-2013
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PBSC Timeline
September

PBSC General Training
(this is it!)

PBSC-Westlaw Canada
Training

Make Contact with your
Organization

Make Contact with your
Lawyer Supervisor (if he
or she is not also from
your organization)
October

Meet With Your
Organization and
Supervising Lawyer

Develop a Work Plan and
have it approved by your
Organization and
Supervising Lawyer

Begin Working on your
Placement
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First
Meeting
What to Discuss

Prior to the meeting, gather
background information

Ask for more details about your
assigned project

Make sure to take careful notes!

Ask:
 Where should I begin with my
research?
 Are there any special resources
available that I can use?
 Do you have examples of similar
work that I can review?
 What would you like the final
product to look like?
 Is there anything else I need to
know?
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Develop A
Work Plan
What it Should Contain
 Discuss
how you should work
through the project with your
supervisor
 Devise
a schedule with
timelines and benchmarks
you will need to hit
 Set
a final deadline and dates
for a number of regular
‘check-ins’ along the way
 Draft
the work plan and ask
your organization and lawyer
supervisor to approve it
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PBSC Timeline
November

Continue Working on Your
Project

Make yourself available to
the Program Coordinator for
Monitoring

Check in with your
Organization and Lawyer
Supervisor about where your
project is at (if applicable)

Attend PBSC’s Fall
Community Building Event!
December
 Exam Time. We
have
made it clear to your
Organization that this
month, you will not be
working on your PBSC
project. Good luck!
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PBSC Timeline
January
 Resume Work
Project
February
on Your
 Consider
Applying to
be a 2012-2013
Program Coordinator
 Consider
Applying to
be a 2012-2013
National Office
Coordinator
 Continue Working
on
Your Project
 Respond
to the second
Monitoring telephone
call
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PBSC Timeline
March
 Submit Your
Final
Project (if Applicable)
before the Exam
Period Begins
 Attend
PBSC’s Final
Appreciation Event!
 Complete
PBSC’s online, End of Year
Survey
April
 Your
project should be
completed and
submitted at this point,
so you can focus on
your exams.
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Expectations
What is Expected of PBSC Students?
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PBSC Volunteers are Professionals
Treat Everyone with Respect

This includes support staff, fellow volunteers, supervisors,
clients, opposing counsel, your PBSC Coordinator, etc.
Follow Through On All Commitments

Answer all phone calls and emails in a timely fashion (the professional
rule of thumb is within 24 hours, even just to acknowledge receipt)

Be responsive to the specific requests made by your organization and
lawyer supervisors, as well as your PBSC Coordinators.

Arrive on time and prepared for all meetings and complete all tasks as
requested and promised and within the time frame agreed.
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PBSC Volunteers are Professionals
Submit only the Highest-Quality Work

While there’s no such thing as perfect, PBSC volunteers should not
submit any work until they believe that it is. Your organization and
lawyer supervisor are not editors!
Communicate Professionally

All Communication, including email, should be formal and
professional and include a proper greeting, complete sentences,
and a proper salutation. Note: professional emails do not include
“Hey guys”, “LOL” or “”!
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Scenario
Catherine McMahon and Simon Cheng are PBSC volunteers and
they have been assigned to:
 work at a clinic that provides litigation support to a rights-based
organization seeking to start a Charter challenge under s.15.
After a conference call with the clinic’s lawyer:
 They divide up the work that has been assigned, but agree to meet to
collaborate on a memo on the legal issues identified in the call.
 A deadline has been set for the memo so that the lawyer can review it.
 Catherine can’t meet the deadline, even after an extension.
 Simon sends in his memo and copies sections of Prof. Hogg’s treatise
on the Constitution for the work that Catherine was supposed to do.

The lawyer has to quickly edit the memo to have something
presentable for the partner organization.

The lawyer schedules a meeting with Catherine and Simon to discuss
the work, but it can only be after the meeting with the client group.
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Scenario
On the day of the meeting:

Catherine sends in her own version of her research by email
directly to all of the participants, thinking this makes up for her
error.

They meet with the lawyer to discuss the memo and her concerns
about the work that has been completed.

The lawyer asks them to complete one follow-up memo which is not
a part of the original placement.

Since there is still another two months left to the program year,
Catherine and Simon agree to do the follow up assignment.

Shortly thereafter, Catherine sends the following email to her
Coordinator:
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Catherine’s e-mail to the PC
From: Catherine.Volunteer@gmail.com
Sent: Sunday, January 10 12:20 AM
To: Victor.Coordinator@utoronto.ca
Cc: victor1000@gmail.com; randomguy@hotmail.com
Subject: RE:
hey,
i’m really unhappy with my project. this has been a really crappy
experience.  I talked about it with my Con Law class and they
agree that clearly this is a pointless Charter case :s, so what’s the
point? Sorry, I’m just not going to be able to finish this up – I’m
falling behind in my classes and need the time to study. Can you
let the organization know they’ll just have to find someone else?
Also, can I still put this on my resume?
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Importance of Ethical and
Professional Behaviour
Your Reputation is Key
 As
a student you have already entered the
legal profession and begun the process of
establishing your professional reputation
 Every
interaction you have with classmates,
professors, lawyers or organizations
matters
 The
Bar is small: you will want to make sure
the reputation you develop is one of a
competent, reliable and ethical
professional
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Professional Behaviour
It’s Not Only Your Personal Reputation
 PBSC
– PBSC’s reputation can be damaged by any
unprofessional behavior
 The
Law School - When you interact with various
stakeholders, you are the face of your law school,
as well as PBSC
 The
Legal Profession - Your actions influence how
lawyers are viewed by the public
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Professionalism in PBSC Context
Loyalty
 To
whom am I loyal? Who is my client? For PBSC
volunteers, your “client” is the organization.
Confidentiality
 As
a general rule, volunteers should not discuss
anything about a project or a file with anyone
outside of the organization
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Professionalism in PBSC Context
Competence
 There
is an expectation you will be
knowledgeable, diligent, and exercise the
appropriate judgment necessary to assist your
client (the organization)
Conflict of Interest
A
conflicting interest is an interest that would be
likely to affect adversely your judgment on behalf
of, or loyalty to, your client (the organization)
Potential Challenges You
Might Face:
 Time
Management
 Disengagement
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 Withdrawal
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Legal Information
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PBSC Policy
 PBSC Volunteers
CANNOT provide direct legal
advice for at least 3 reasons:
 The Law Society does not allow law students
to provide legal advice
 Law students are not qualified to provide
legal advice
 Law Students are not insured to provide
legal advice
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Legal Information vs. Legal Advice
Law Students CAN provide legal information. Although the line
between legal information and legal advice can be blurry, it is critical
that all PBSC volunteers understand the distinction:
Legal Information

Legal information is a
general, objective
description of the state of
the law and not based on a
specific set of facts
Legal Advice

Legal advice is a subjective
opinion about how the law
applies to a specific set of
facts
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Some PBSC projects do cross over
the line from legal information to
legal advice!

PBSC operates a small number of projects where students provide
legal services that go beyond mere information

For all of these projects, students work under the close and constant
supervision of a lawyer

This year the following PBSC projects include some element of legal
advice:


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Project 1
Project 2
Project 3
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Sample Disclaimer for Written
Documents
“This document does not contain legal
advice. Pro Bono students Canada is a
student organization. This document was
prepared with the assistance of PBSC law
student volunteers. PBSC students are not
lawyers and they are not authorized to
provide legal advice. This document contains
general discussion of certain legal and
related issues only. If you require legal
advice, please consult with a lawyer.”
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Legal Information vs. Legal Advice
Exercise
You have been placed with the East End Legal Clinic. As part of your
placement, you will be responsible for the following tasks:

Assisting with client intake;

Legal Research for a factum;

Drafting letters to counsel and tenant applications to the Landlord
and Tenant Board;

Developing and delivering public legal education seminars on
tenant rights; and

Posting poverty law-related developments, particularly new judicial
decisions, on the clinic’s blog.
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Conclusion

PBSC’s role is to provide you with a
practical, meaningful experience in the
community
 Your
role is to make a firm commitment and
provide the most professional service
possible
 We
are here to help: contact us for
assistance at any point in the year
 Good
luck with your placement!
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Before we take your questions,
thank you to PBSC’s sponsors:
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And Thank You To:
 Chantal
 Archie
Morton – Centre for the Legal Profession
Kaiser – Schulich School of Law
For their assistance in creating the slides on Ethics
and Professionalism
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Any
Questions?