Information for Students

What are the Goals of PBSC?

For organizations and lawyers: to provide underrepresented and disadvantaged communities with pro bono legal service and to give public interest organizations and agencies access to highly skilled and committed volunteers.

For law students: to encourage students to volunteer in their communities and install a pro bono ethic among law students. To give law students practical experience and assistant them in assessing viable career options in public interest law.

Why Participate in PBSC?

Getting involved with Pro Bono Students Canada (PBSC) is a great opportunity to gain practical legal experience while making a valuable contribution to your community. Pro Bono projects allow students to explore interesting legal issues that expand on the law school curriculum and fall outside traditional areas of legal study. As much as possible, students are placed with projects that conform to their interests – both in the sense of the area of law and the focus of the organization. Being part of PBSC also allows the students to learn the importance and value of pro bono service.

What Kind of Work can I do during my PSBC Placement?

  • Client intake and interviewing
  • Contribute to advocacy work
  • Draft manuals for internal use at your organization
  • Perform public legal education, including presenting workshops and writing brochures
  • Produce policy or background memorandums
  • Provide legal information for clients
  • Support for lawyers working pro bono on a particular case
  • Research legal issues relevant to your organization’s work
  • Update materials, including conducting by-law research

What to Expect?

Students are expected to contribute on average 3-5 hours per week to the PBSC program throughout the school year, excluding December and April when students focus on exams.

Some projects are more intensive than others, but the coordinators will try to anticipate which projects will require more time and assign more students to those projects. There may also be students added to teams to deal with unexpectedly onerous projects.

You will have access to many resources and people to help you. These include training (held in September), the PBSC Coordinators, team leaders, your group’s lawyer-mentor, and the representative from the organization itself. 

We will work hard to ensure that your experience is a very positive one, and to help you uphold the commitment that you are making to the program and to the organization. 

How do I get Involved?

Stay tuned for more information during O-Week!

What are the Important Dates for PBSC?

Please see the Important Dates section for more information.