Student caseworkers grow their skills and experience at U of T’s Downtown Legal Services
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Laxsega Sivaloganathan says her experience at Downtown Legal Services has allowed her to grow, both personally and professionally.
More than 50 years ago, a student-led initiative at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, then known as U of T’s Students’ Legal Aid Society (SLAS), received funding for a summer project that became the foundation for a community legal clinic in Toronto.
Today, U of T’s Downtown Legal Services (DLS), located in the Fasken Building at 655 Spadina Avenue, serves as a community legal clinic and clinical legal education program, offering free legal assistance to U of T students and low-income individuals in areas including housing law, refugee and immigration law, criminal law (summary offences), employment law, family law, and income security.
Each year, 65 U of T Law students enrol in the for-credit clinical course during the academic year. In addition, the clinic hires 20 first- and second-year JD students to join the clinic as summer caseworkers.
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Lawyer and clinic director, Prasanna Balasundaram (far left), with staff lawyers Asiya Hirji and Jennifer Fehr, alongside staff and summer caseworkers on the steps of the Fasken Building, home to U of T’s community legal clinic and clinical legal education program, Downtown Legal Services.
For Laxsega Sivaloganathan, who starts her second year of law school this fall, the summer experience has been eye-opening.
“We hear about the access to justice issue, but at DLS we see it in real-time — intersections of different systems of oppression — making the circumstances of our client’s lives very difficult,” she says.
As a first-generation law student whose parents immigrated to Canada from Sri Lanka, Sivaloganathan has seen first-hand in her personal life how the criminal justice system can impact families.