Transcript

[music playing]
Harvey Brownstone:
Pro bono is community service in a way that only lawyers and law students can provide.
Natalie Lum-Tai:
Community.
Wendy Komiotis:
Pro bono means giving back to the community.
Barbara Grossman:
Using our legal skills to help people with legal problems who wouldn't otherwise have access to our justice system.
Brendan Stevens
From a law student's perspective, to me, pro bono is about inculcating a sense of public spiritedness and compassion amongst the law student community.
Steeves Bujold:
I think of all the clients I have assisted in the past and their gratitude.
Amanda Carling:
To me, pro bono is the recognition of the fact that it's a real privilege to practise law. With that privilege, comes responsibility and the responsibility, to me, is to do pro bono work. To do work that is in the public interest for the greater good of the people.
Mara Clarke:
If we have a capable student, they can actually take the places of OJEN staff, and we do give them the responsibility to have that direct contact. And so they appreciate that opportunity that challenges them and causes them to step outside of the box.
Tama Witelson:
The students help us do work that we couldn't do on our own. They write articles for our website, the Ontario Women's Justice Network.
Wendy Komiotis:
It certainly gives the students an opportunity to understand the needs that are out there around access to justice.
Amanda Carling:
They assist in our casework, writing intake memos, doing discrete research projects. At the end of the day, our PBSC students help us help innocent people get out of prison faster.
Steeves Bujold:
Pro bono work is one of the most effective way to improve the access to our system.
Barbara Grossman:
And for the law student, it's an exposure to practise areas where there aren't necessarily courses offered so it really is an all-around win-win situation.
Noorain Shethwala:
PBSC was my first experience in a legal environment, and it was incredible to see the juxtaposition between the theoretical and abstract concepts that I was learning in class. And how to apply it to a practical real life situation and help vulnerable individuals.
Harvey Brownstone:
They make important contacts in the community that may assist them with their careers.
Brenda Stevens:
No matter where I am in this country, I am guaranteed to run into someone who has had the same experience that I have and we can connect over that work that we've done.
Harvey Brownstone:
It conveys to any prospective employer, when they see pro bono experience on a resume, that this is a student who cares not only about making a living one day, but about giving back and sharing the expertise.
Natalie Lum-Tai:
When I told law firms that I'd come from PBSC and that I wanted to do pro bono work, they were really positive. I think that pro bono is more and more something that students are demanding, that their employers provide opportunities.
Harvey Brownstone:
In my opinion, it's no accident that some of the most respected and spectacularly talented lawyers that we see today, started their legal careers as PBSC students.
Nikki Gershbain:
I think the most satisfying thing about my job at pro bono Students Canada is that I get to see the impact that this work has on law students. And I can't tell you how many students over the years have said to me, that their participation in PBSC was the most memorable and impactful experience of their entire law school career. And that, of course, is so satisfying and rewarding.