Over the past two months, I have had the opportunity to intern with Right to Remain. As a second-year law student, I came into the internship with experience of working in more traditional legal environments, but relatively little understanding of what happens beyond the legal profession itself. My time at Right to Remain has given me a different perspective on access to justice, the role of lawyers and, importantly, how legal information can be made accessible to everyone.

Working on the Right to Remain Toolkit

A significant part of my internship involved working on the Right to Remain Toolkit. The Toolkit is designed to provide accessible information and resources to people navigating the asylum and immigration system, and I quickly came to appreciate how much thought is required to make legal information genuinely accessible.

One of my main projects was carrying out a comprehensive review of the Toolkit. This involved checking whether information remained up to date, checking that page translations made sense, ensuring consistency in terminology and vocabulary, checking hyperlinks and making suggestions for how the user journey through the Toolkit could be improved.

Although much of this work involved careful reading and attention to detail, it also required me to think about the Toolkit from the perspective of someone using it for the first time. A page can be legally accurate, but that does not necessarily mean that it is easy to understand or navigate. This was an important lesson for me as a law student: communicating the law effectively is about much more than simply knowing the law.

I also contributed to a substantial overhaul of the Toolkit’s pages on lawyers and country of origin information. Alongside this, I created flow charts for certain Toolkit pages to help make complicated processes easier to follow.

These projects gave me an opportunity to apply skills I have developed through studying law, including legal research, critical analysis, interpreting complex documents, and written communication. At the same time, they challenged me to think beyond the perspective of a law student and consider how information would be understood by someone who may have little or no legal knowledge.

Learning from the wider sector

Another highlight of my internship was attending a Liberty strategic litigation and community lawyering workshop as a representative of Right to Remain. The workshop introduced me to different approaches for using the law as a tool for achieving wider social change and supporting communities.

Following the workshop, I wrote an article reflecting on what I had learned and the key takeaways from the day, which was subsequently published on the Right to Remain website.

The experience was particularly valuable because it exposed me to perspectives and approaches that I would not necessarily encounter through studying or working in a conventional legal practice. It encouraged me to think about the relationship between lawyers, communities and organisations working to improve access to justice.

A different perspective on the legal profession

Before joining Right to Remain, most of my work experience had been within traditional law firms, including firms that undertook pro bono and charitable work. Working at Right to Remain gave me the opportunity to see access to justice from a different side.

Right to Remain is not a legal practice. Instead, it plays an important role in bridging the gap between people who need legal support and the lawyers and organisations that can provide legal advice. This made me think differently about what effective legal support looks like.

As a law student, I have spent a lot of time learning how to understand legislation, case law and legal arguments. My internship made me think more about what happens when that knowledge needs to be communicated to someone who is unfamiliar with the legal system.

It also showed me the importance of organisations that help people access the information and resources they need before, alongside or beyond their interactions with lawyers. For me, this has been one of the most valuable lessons of the internship.

Being trusted to contribute

One of the things I have enjoyed most about my time at Right to Remain has been the level of trust I was given. I was able to work flexibly, including a mixture of working from home and co-working with my supervisor, Ally, while also participating in regular online team meetings.

I was encouraged to approach tasks in ways that suited my own working style rather than simply being given a set of instructions to follow. I also felt that my opinions were genuinely listened to. When reviewing the Toolkit, for example, I was encouraged to make my own suggestions about how its content and user journey could be improved.

That sense of ownership made the work particularly rewarding. I could see that the tasks I was completing were not simply exercises designed for an intern; they had a tangible purpose and could contribute to improving a resource used by people navigating the immigration and asylum system. At the same time, I came to understand that creating useful legal resources requires a willingness to trust and learn from the experience and knowledge of others. 

The Toolkit is a living resource – it needs it’s readers as much as they need it. Their experiences, questions and ways of navigating the immigration system are trusted to help shape what information is useful, how it should be presented and how the user journey can be improved. 

Understanding this made me think differently about the role of legal knowledge: rather than being something held exclusively by lawyers and passed down to those seeking help, it can be something built and shared collectively. For me, that idea of shared knowledge and solidarity was one of the most valuable aspects of working at Right to Remain. 

What I will take away

The biggest takeaway from my internship is that access to justice is not simply about having laws, lawyers or legal rights. Those things are important, but they are only meaningful if people can understand their rights and access the support available to them so that they have ownership and agency.

My experience at Right to Remain has allowed me to use skills I have developed through studying law while also challenging me to think about law from a different perspective. It has shown me the value of clear communication, accessible information and organisations that help connect people with the legal support they need.

I have also come away with a greater appreciation of the different roles that lawyers and legal organisations can play. My previous experiences have shown me the work of lawyers within traditional legal practices; Right to Remain has shown me another part of the picture.

I am grateful to the whole Right to Remain team for making me feel welcome, supported and able to contribute throughout my internship. Most importantly, I leave with a better understanding of how legal knowledge can be used not only within the legal profession, but also to help people navigate a system that can otherwise feel inaccessible and overwhelming.

– Freddie Walters