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Articling Fellowships help Legal Aid Ontario expand services to clients
Posted on: Wednesday, May 27/09
Linguistic minorities and residents of isolated communities in Ontario will have greater access to legal information and services thanks to 11 Connecting Articling Fellowships awarded to Legal Aid Ontario area offices and community legal clinics by the Law Foundation of Ontario.
The fellowships -- some of which involve partnerships between service providers - allow LAO and clinics to hire law students who speak a specific language or can serve where needed in rural and remote areas across the province for the 2010 articling year.
The fellowships were created after the LFO report "Connecting Across Language and Distance: Linguistic and Rural Access to Legal Information and Services," which identified barriers facing Ontario residents.
The successful applications were chosen by a Selection Committee consisting of members of the legal profession, as well as persons with expertise in linguistic minorities and the needs of rural and remote areas.
For more information about the Articling Fellowships awarded to Legal Aid Ontario and community legal clinics, please contact Lynn Iding, Manager, Lawyer Workforce Strategy at idingl@lao.on.ca.
Fellowships list:
| Area Office/clinic | Student requirement |
| Community Legal Clinic of York Region | Tamil |
| Metro Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic | Mandarin and/or Cantonese |
| Toronto Workers' Health & Safety Legal Clinic Industrial Accident Victims Group Spanish Speaking People's Legal Clinic |
Spanish |
| Waterloo Community Legal Services | Dari/Farsi, Spanish, Pashto, Somali or Amharic |
| Windsor/Essex Area Office Windsor/Essex Bilingual Legal Clinic |
Arabic speaking |
| Cochrane Area Office | Preferably who speaks Cree Rural and remote (Aboriginal residents) |
| Keewaytinok Native Legal Services | Rural and remote (Aboriginal residents) |
| Kenora Area Office | Rural and remote |
| Thunder Bay Area Office | Rural and remote |
| Community Advocacy and Legal Centre (Belleville, Bancroft) | Rural residents |
| Community Legal Clinic (Simcoe, Haliburton, Kawartha Lake) | Rural residents |
