Community Legal Aid Volunteers for Winter 2026 Term
Community Legal Aid is now accepting applications from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year law students to volunteer for the Fall 2025 term! This is an exciting opportunity for you to work directly with clients who require legal assistance on various matters. Our volunteers assist clients with issues in the following areas of law: landlord/tenant, criminal law, provincial offences, employment law, consumer protection, elder law, family law summary advice and university academic and non-academic matters. Students will also have the opportunity to work in a systemic advocacy group preparing and presenting Public Legal Education workshops and systemic advocacy research and projects.
CLA is a Student Legal Service Organization providing free legal advice and representation for University of Windsor undergraduate students and low-income residents of Windsor and Essex County. We have recently moved back to campus - located in the law school. CLA is a real law firm that provides legal services to real clients. As a volunteer, you will provide legal services to clients under a peer-mentorship model. All of your work will be under the direct supervision of Review Counsel, who are practicing lawyers.
CLA expects and our clients deserve commitment from our volunteers. Part of this commitment means showing up. All volunteers attend a mandatory two (2) hour group meeting once a week. Students shall devote three (3) to ten (10) additional weekly hours, as needed to complete their work. To best serve our clients and facilitate volunteer learning, CLA enforces a strict attendance policy. If a volunteer misses more than one (1) scheduled group meeting, they forfeit their volunteer position.
If you are accepted to volunteer at CLA, you must NOT volunteer at another clinic or PBSC.
Details about the Senior Caseworker (SCW), and Caseworker (CW) Positions:
SCW: Responsible for the tribunal or court advocacy of files in assigned group. Senior caseworkers appear before the Ontario Court of Justice, Provincial Offences Court, Superior Court – Small Claims Court and the Landlord and Tenant Board. SCWs also share remand duty and navigation services/summary advice session in the Ontario Court of Justice and Provincial Offences Court.
CW: Communicate directly with clients, opposing parties, court staff and our community partners. Caseworkers conduct legal research and draft correspondence pertaining to client files.
---
Please check out our CLA website for more information about the clinic.
If you are interested in applying, please complete this application form. Students are ONLY allowed to apply for 1 (one) position.
You must be a 2L or 3L to apply for the SCW role. Preference will be given to returning students and those with criminal and tribunal experience. Winter 2026 Volunteer registration will be held on Saturday, January 10, 2026 from 8:30am to 11:30am on a first-come, first-served basis. Orientation will be held following registration from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. YOU MUST BRING A PRINTED COPY OF YOUR WINTER 2026 SCHEDULE TO REGISTRATION! Group times begin the week of January 12, 2026. Court times and appearances are also mandatory for SCWs and may conflict with class times.
In-person volunteer registration will be on a first come first served basis with priority given to returning students who abided by the terms of the clinic’s Commitment Agreement.
Successful candidates will be selected during the in-person registration on a first-come, first-served basis. A waitlist will also be created, and individuals placed on the waitlist will be notified by email if a space becomes available due to participant withdrawal at a later date.
All accepted and on the waitlist MUST attend the orientation.
The Volunteer Commitment
- Attending a weekly group meeting for 2 hours every week in person at the clinic.
- Attendance is mandatory and you will be expected to return to the clinic at other times during the week to fulfill the 7 to 10 hours that are required for CLA volunteers.
- Ensuring that you are able to attend the weekly group meeting on time, and you have considered the requisite travel time to and from classes in making this choice.
- You will be placed in one group and that group will meet every week at the same time.
- If this is the first time you have been accepted as Senior Casewoker or Caseworker, you will be required to attend orientation training.
- Mandatory attendance is required for the SCW Orientation which may require students to miss their group time.
- Students will be removed from clinic if they miss more than two (2) group times. If removed, their time at CLA will not qualify as completed clinic experience.