Trinity FLAC: More Than Just Free Clinics

“Trinity Free Legal Advice Centre (FLAC), Trinity’s branch of the Free Legal Advice Centre, is often associated solely with their legal advice clinics. Founded in April 1969, FLAC was established to promote civil legal aid and ensure fair access to legal representation. After being named the winner of the Best Fresher and Best Medium Society awards at the Central Societies Committee (CSC) awards, the University Times sat down with the Chairperson of Trinity FLAC, Daria Jedruch, to find out more about the lesser-known FLAC initiatives and discuss their approach to making law accessible to all. FLAC offers eight clinic appointments per week in collaboration with two law firms, which provide volunteer solicitors to advise on the wide range of legal issues faced by students. Discussing which types of cases were most common to their clinics, Jedruch said that “the main issues we get are landlord and tenant cases”. Immigration, judicial review, employment, and education were also among the topics most commonly brought to FLAC. Members of the society have the opportunity to apply to shadow solicitors on these cases. With the goal of creating a more open, inclusive and educational space in mind, these opportunities are open to all disciplines, with Jedruch emphasising that “you don’t have to be a law student to get that legal research exposure”. Privacy is paramount in the cases examined by the legal advice clinics, with every effort made to preserve the dignity of the students availing of the service. “It’s a totally confidential service … it’s really important for us to maintain that”, Jedruch stated.“It’s really all about information and signposting for people to know what their rights are.” However, TCD FLAC offers more than just legal advice to students. Jedruch, a Senior Sophister law student, explained how her time in the Free Legal Advice Clinic shaped her approach as Chairperson. Having gotten involved in her second year as an Ordinary Committee Member, before progressing to the position of Clinics Officer, and now running the society, Jedruch has seen first-hand the importance of creating a society accepting to all. “Our presence has really grown”, she says. “We really focused on collaborating with other student services this year, like S2S, the student counselling service, and the disability service. We really wanted to focus on spreading our reach … we’ve had a lot of different initiatives and programmes happening, which I feel like then led us to getting the Best Medium Society win.” FLAC has also run two research projects in the past academic year, focused on knowing your rights as a student, and identity and crisis in family units. Additionally, Jedruch emphasises the necessity of engaging in topical subjects for the society. FLAC is “that bit more focused on advocacy and social justice”, hosting standout events such as their “Confronting Racism in Ireland” panel, their discussion on “Access to Justice Crisis: Civil Legal Aid Reform in Ireland”, and their presentation of the 2026 advocacy award to Darragh Mackin. On top of this, FLAC holds two annual mooting competitions (the Karen Kenny Intervarsity Moot and the Conor Ringland Memorial Moot), alongside a series of essay competitions during the year, one of which is in Irish. “We wanted to open up different sections of law that people would be able to get involved in”, Jedruch explains. “There’s always something for everybody.” Perhaps the most rewarding FLAC initiative in the past year has been their School Tasking Programme, organised in collaboration with the Trinity Access Programme (TAP), the Law Society of Ireland, and the University of Warwick. Affectionately nicknamed “Taskmaster”, the School Tasking Programme was an initiative run in collaboration with three TAP-linked primary schools, in which five FLAC volunteers facilitated fun legal workshops in each school. Commenting on the programme, Fedruch states, “It was the most amazing programme. It started last year, and the volunteers were committee members, so this year I really wanted to open it up and get as many people involved as possible”. The primary school students involved were only in fourth class, but their ages certainly didn’t hold them back. March 20th saw twelve schools brought together for the regional Taskmaster finals, organised by the Law Society of Ireland. Although TCD FLAC’s students didn’t win overall, they will be brought back to campus and recognised on April 16th for a graduation, complete with caps, gowns, and certificates for all. Although pulling off such a large initiative was challenging, Jedruch feels that the experience was invaluable for everyone involved. “It was definitely hard …but the kids were phenomenal. They were just so amazing.” In discussing what she thinks contributed most to their recent victory at the Central Society Committee Awards, Jedruch offers up the commitment of her team as the primary reason. “I wouldn’t have been able to do all this without them”, she states. “It was a crazy year for sure, we had so many different events, we had so many firsts … [the CSC win] happened because of all of their phenomenal work.” Molly Scanlon, the society’s Junior Fresher Representative, secured the 2026 Best Fresher award for FLAC. “Molly does incredible, incredible work in engaging the first years. We have such an amazing Clinics Officer (James de Barra), Irish Language Officer (Labhraidh Ní Choisteala) … everyone’s just such an amazing team.” Jedruch hopes to see an emphasis on outreach not only continued, but embedded into the FLAC constitution. She explains that “as a result of the outreach going really amazing … we are, hopefully, changing one of the ordinary committee roles to outreach officer”. Also hoping for more alumni engagement in the future, she explains that “everybody who has been involved with FLAC is so fond of the society and of the work we’ve done … I’d love to see an alumni event”. Most importantly to Jedruch, however, is her desire that Trinity’s branch of the Free Legal Advice Clinics will continue to be a welcoming society to all, not just students of the law. “I think people who struggle in secondary schools thrive in college … I think it’s so important to give chances to people who didn’t have those opportunities before. If you’re passionate about social justice, then we want you to get involved.” Trinity FLAC’s Annual General Meeting will be announced soon, so be sure to keep an eye on their Instagram account (@trinityflac) for updates on its date and location.

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