Korean Legal Clinic: Research Project (2 positions)

Area of Law: Immigration and Refugee Law -- Family Law -- Housing (landlord and tenant) Law -- Employment Law 

The Korean Legal Clinic ("KLC") was founded by Korean-Canadian lawyers in Toronto. The KLC aims to improve access to justice for Korean-Canadians by providing culturally and linguistically appropriate legal services, education, and resources with our partner organizations. To learn more about KLC, check out their website here: https://www.kcla.ca/

The Korean Legal Clinic seeks to address the specific legal needs of members of Toronto's growing Korean community. The Clinic strives to improve access to justice by tackling the cultural, linguistic, and economic barriers. The Clinic provides referral services, organizes public legal education seminars, and undertakes special projects to address specific issues.

Students volunteering with the Clinic will support the clinic's day-to-day operations and participate by conducting legal research and preparing PLE materials. The student's work will not be more than 10% administrative. For the PLE project, students will help identify topics that are of interest to the low-income Korean community, communicate wit guest lawyer speakers, conduct research on the topics that the guest speakers would like to cover, and synthesize research findings into a PowerPoint presentation. 

Students will research specific legal topics and prepare PLE presentation materials for lawyers who will deliver the information at seminars at the Clinic. The PLE presentations may be in-person or virtual. In the past, the clinic ran both in-person and virtual sessions. The student will not be speakers at the presentation; they will support the lawyer presenters, by conducting research, preparing presentation materials, and collaborating with the lawyer presenters before each session. Topics may include small claims, income tax law, bankruptcy, labour and employment, family law, immigration law, and housing law. Students may also provide translation support.

Time Commitment

Students are expected to volunteer 3-5 hours per week. Most work will be done remotely. PLEs will take place at partner organization as well as virtually. As KLC is moving towards providing more services in person, the clinic expects at least one student to be available to attend in person if guest speakers choose to have an in person session. 

Required Training

Students will need to participate in the mandatory PBSC training. 

Number of Students and Prerequisites

  • How many students? 
    • 1-2 students (students may be working with students from Osgoode Hall School of Law)
  • Can first year law students volunteer? 
    • First year students are encouraged to apply!
  • Should you be bilingual?
    •  Fluency in Korean is strongly preferred, however students who do not speak Korean will be considered as well.
  • Any other expectations for this project? 
    • Familiarity with the Korean community's culture is an asset.