Sciences Po Students Create the First Fully Online Legal Clinic in France

Each year, Sciences Po Law School students can take part in programmes structured around a mission of public interest. For nine months, Aleksandra Wierzbicka, Alexa Ivanov, Kaiqi Yang and Marjeline Serwier worked on the creation of Droits en ligne: an online legal information platform providing people with legal difficulties with precise and appropriate legal information free of charge.

This project was born in response to the Covid 19 crisis. Can you tell us more?

The creation of a Sciences Po Law School clinic to improve access to legal aid for access had long been considered. But in the context of the pandemic, demand has multiplied. Sciences Po Law School did not want to reproduce a traditional structure for access to legal services, but rather to create an organization that would adapt to the new Covid constraints and the dematerialisation of our societies. This is why we have created the first fully "online" legal clinic in France.

How has your project gone since September 2020?

From the start of the academic year, we put a lot of thought into every detail of the organisation of the platform. After learning from similar existing structures, we designed a new user-centered functioning mode. It was crucial for us to combine maximum efficiency with a deep understanding of people's needs. Given the large audience we are targeting, we have therefore built a model that would adapt to the various legal problems. This conception was then translated into our legal notices, our appointment form, and our website accompanied by a list of useful resources.

How was the Clinique’s website designed?

Around users! The platform works exclusively remotely, which allows users to benefit from the clinic's services in complete security and anonymity. However, Droits en ligne is also a space to listen and support vulnerable people in a context of health and economic crisis. We also make a list of useful and reliable resources available to all visitors.

To request our services, users first fill out an appointment form which allows us to know more about the law issues upstream. Then our team, assisted by our tutors and our partner, the global law firm Dechert LLP, performs the necessary legal research. Finally, we set up a virtual meeting with the user, when we verbally provide the answer to the legal question raised, while favouring direct interaction with the person. We adapt particularly to linguistic constraints, being able to receive users in nine different languages: French, English, Bulgarian, Cantonese, German, Mandarin, Polish, Russian, and Spanish.

How did you integrate a gender perspective?

We are an all-women team. The gender perspective question came very early, mainly from two angles. First, formally, through the choice of whether or not to use gender-inclusive language. We were particularly aware of this question thanks to both our classes, as well as our associative work. We took advice on this topic to decide whether it was relevant to use it in our questionnaire. We finally decided not to use gender-inclusive writing: we were afraid of sacrificing legibility, especially for non-French speakers who are not used to it. On the other hand, we tried to use as many non-gendered formulations as possible, so that everyone feels represented. Also, we are aware that women have specific legal needs. Thus, we will prioritize issues related to gender-based and sexual violence. In addition, our "Useful Resources" webpage links to the website of the French Haut Conseil à l'Egalité entre les Femmes et les Hommes [High Council on Equality between Women and Men], where you can find out about women’s rights.

Can you tell us about the telephone line that was created?

Droits en ligne is a digital project. However, we are fully aware that a segment of the population, especially the most vulnerable, has little or no access to the Internet. We have therefore thought about making it easier to use our services by creating a dedicated telephone number. When making an appointment, those who have difficulty filling out our online form can contact us by this means in order to communicate their legal problem. The final appointment can also take place by phone: no internet connection is required!

What is next?

The project presents many perspectives for the future since it meets two major needs of our societies: free access to legal information, facilitated by the online format of the platform, as well as the practical training of the lawyers of tomorrow. Much remains to be done to improve the system and ensure the sustainable existence of the Sciences Po Legal Clinic. Our ambition is to broaden its reach by recruiting a larger student team, but also to create a solid network of interpreters and legal professionals. We will also have to operate digital tools even better, by recruiting students trained in computer science and by investing in their development.

This Clinic project was supervised by Anne-Laure Lacoste, Marie Mercat-Bruns, Jeremy Perelman and Christophe Pouly, coordinated by Zina Osmani and Bérangère Gavaudo and facilitated by Mathieu Chaperon.

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Droits en ligne: the online legal information platform of Sciences Po