Building the Business Case and Signing-Up
Local Lawyers in Schools can be run in a variety of ways and this will affect how the scheme is initially joined and how you and your organisation 'sign-up'. The classic model is that a small/medium-sized law firm join the scheme with the view that they will be able to recruit a sufficient number of volunteers (ideally 10) to run the scheme at a local school. This firm would pay a one-off fee of £1000+VAT to join the scheme.
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We are aware that a number of very small firms still have volunteers within their ranks that are very interested in taking part in the scheme and working with students at a local school. As the sessions involve a group of lawyers (around 5) working with a whole class of students, individual lawyers must group
with other interested volunteers to create a pool of enough volunteers to effectively run the scheme (ideally 10 to ensure that 5 can always attend). Between them, this group of volunteers and their firms would make up the £1000+VAT required to cover the costs of the scheme. For example, if 10 volunteers group together to run this scheme, they would each pay £100+VAT.
We are aware that at the present time budgets are tight but some things you might like to consider when discussing meeting the cost include:
- the fee could be split between various budgets within your firm - eg, Marketing, Staff Training etc;
- perhaps one of your clients could sponsor your firm's participation in the scheme to show their support of the local community;
- if you have a relationship with another local firm you might like to share the scheme with them (and the fee!) and have volunteers from both firms working together at the same school.
Ok, we've signed-up, what happens next?
Once you have signed-up you will receive the following:
Coordinator's Toolkit - a comprehensive guide covering everything you need to know to run the scheme including information, advice and templates for:
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selecting and making contact with a local school
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recruiting and training volunteers
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arranging sessions
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monitoring and evaluating the scheme
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maximising publicity opportunities
Coordinator Training- a one hour session held at your office to go through the Toolkit and discuss how your scheme will work.
Volunteer Training - a two hour session also held at your session covering how the scheme works, using the materials and working with young people.
Six high quality educational units - written by educational experts and designed to engage the students in discussion through interactive activities.
Working through the Toolkit you will select and make contact with a local school, liaise with the coordinating teacher at the school to arrange the dates and times of the sessions ahead of the volunteers starting work at the school. Once the sessions have begun, the law firm coordinator will use the Toolkit to monitor and evaluate the scheme to ensure that it is running as effectively as possible.