On 22nd July 2020, YLAL Leeds hosted the virtual event 'Legal Aid and Domestic Violence'. Aaqib Javed, YLAL committee member and future pupil barrister at Spire Barristers, began by introducing the event and the four panellists. He outlined the event’s main focus, domestic violence, and the three main topics to be discussed: the Ministry of Justice Inquiry, the Domestic Abuse Bill, and the important issue of legal aid and access to justice..
On 20 July 2020, the Legal Aid Practitioners Group hosted the ‘APPG on Legal Aid’ virtual meeting. Chaired by Karen Buck MP, the event focused on Covid-19 and its impact on the legal aid sector.
On 8 July 2020, YLAL hosted a 'Student Takeover' event. The event featured a panel of students and practitioners. The practitioners discussed their legal aid careers and resilience in the face of challenges.
The meeting was chaired by Hafsah Hussain, a recent BPTC graduate, and featured a panel consisting of current students posing questions to legal professionals.
On Wednesday 10th June 2020, YLAL hosted a ‘Question Time with Parliament’ #YLALVirtual event which took the form of a question and answer session.
YLAL Cymru hosted this virtual event on Wednesday 24 June 2020. The event was chaired by law student and YLAL member Crash Wigley, who introduced the panel of speakers who spoke on the impact of advice deserts in Wales. It was particularly prevalent that the lack of legal advice is affecting vulnerable individuals such as those with disabilities, the homeless and ethnic minority communities, and is exacerbated by the impact of Covid-19.
On Wednesday 27 May 2020, YLAL South West hosted a virtual meeting on wellbeing during COVID-19. The meeting was chaired by Emma Trevett (YLAL committee member, paralegal at Irwin Mitchell LLP and volunteer at Bristol Law Centre). The meeting began by discussing the key findings from YLAL’s second COVID-19 report.
On 7 May 2020, YLAL Midlands held a virtual meeting on Immigration Detention and Refugee Rights During COVID-19.
We were delighted to be joined by Dr Chelvan from No 5 Chambers, Ali Bandegani from Garden Court Chambers and Philip Armitage of Duncan Lewis.
The meeting was organised by YLAL committee members, Malvika Jaganmohan and Sam Coe, and hosted by The 36 Group.
You can view it in full here.
On Wednesday 22 April 2020, YLAL hosted its second remote meeting, 'Remote justice and our clients: the view from YLAL North'.
We were delighted to be joined by four expert speakers and members of YLAL North: Alice Stevens (Broudie Jackson Canter), Elizabeth Ridley (Irwin Mitchell), Yara Ali-Adib (Broudie Jackson Canter) and Hannah Costley (Burton Copeland).
The meeting was expertly chaired by Rebecca Kingi, YLAL committee member and New Zealand-qualified solicitor at ATLEU.
You can watch the meeting here:
On Wednesday 8 April 2020, YLAL hosted its first virtual meeting, 'Human rights and access to justice during COVID-19'. We were joined by four expert speakers: Steve Broach (39 Essex Chambers), Steven Galliver-Andrew (Legal Sector Workers United), Jo Hynes (Public Law Project) and Bella Sankey (Detention Action).
YLAL is 15 years old today!
COVID-19 means that our party plans are on hold, however, we would still like to celebrate 15 years of fighting for legal aid and access to justice!
Please post your #YLALMemories on Twitter! Photos, anecdotes and any other YLAL-related memories are all welcome!
We attach the minutes from our very first meeting. Hopefully we have gone above and beyond the original aims!
Yours,
YLAL Committee
