Cameron Wong McDermott

Let me begin with a story.

On a cold evening in January 2021, I was walking in Queens Park when, by coincidence, I bumped into Matt, a close friend from high school. After leaving school in 2009, we lost touch – he moved to England, and I went to Glasgow University to study law. Matt is a raconteur, and over several hours we reflected on the journeys that brought us back together. With perfect recall, Matt reminded me of who I, as a 16-year-old, wanted to be as a lawyer: a human rights barrister in London (with a side practice in commercial law to ‘pay the bills’), all while serving as a back-bench Labour MP. How did that work out, you might ask?

Rewind to the summer of 2010. I was about to begin my second year at university. I had performed well in first year courses, and was, in my eyes, on track to achieving that ambition. As the first in my family to go to university, I didn’t know any lawyers, but I knew I needed practical legal experience before applying for summer vacation schemes. My advisor of studies, Professor Maria Fletcher - then a lecturer in EU Law - suggested that I undertake pro bono work at a law centre. Castlemilk Law Centre had taken law students in the past, and she thought it was a good place to start. I saw this as a chance to gain hands-on experience while ‘helping’ people. A win-win, I thought.

So, in 2010, I began volunteering at Castlemilk Law Centre. Geographically-speaking, Castlemilk is only a short drive from where I grew up in Newton Mearns. But in socio-economic terms, they are worlds apart: Castlemilk remains one of Glasgow’s most deprived areas, while Newton Mearns is one of its most affluent. Built in the 1950s to house people moving from sub-standard tenements in the old inner-city, residents of Castlemilk still do not have access to a supermarket selling affordable fresh food, despite years of campaigning. By contrast, residents of the Mearns have their pick of major supermarkets.

My time at Castlemilk Law Centre coincided with the early days of austerity. There was much work to do, and I began at the sharp end - supporting clients with appeals against refusals of Disability Living Allowance. Legal education had equipped me with useful technical skills, but it had not prepared me emotionally for the relentless pressure of supporting vulnerable clients facing injustice. With every refusal decision, every barrier to justice, every benefit sanction, I grew increasingly angrier and more disillusioned. The law, I had thought, was supposed to be just and fair. Yet, this work began to shift my understanding of justice, and my role in it.

I continued to work at various law centres alongside my studies, as welfare rights became even more challenging following the introduction of policies like the benefit cap and the so called ‘bedroom tax’.

Reflecting on my student pro bono experiences during this 23rd National Pro Bono Week, I realise how profoundly they shaped my professional identity. Professional identity is, in essence, “the individual’s answer to questions such as, Who am I as a member of this profession? What am I like, and what do I want to be like in my professional role? and What place do ethical-social values have in my core sense of professional identity?”. While I had been taught about professional responsibility and legal ethics, it was only through directly confronting injustice that I began to understand the social impact of law, the role of lawyers in society, and, most importantly, who I wanted to become as a lawyer. Self-reflection on the anger and discomfort I felt in those situations, and examining my own power and privilege, ultimately shaped how I view law and practice today.

What became of the wannabe human rights barrister/politician? After graduating in 2013, I qualified as a solicitor in Scotland and pursued a human rights career that took me to Strasbourg (working for the Council of Europe) and roles in National Human Rights Institutions. In all my work, I have been guided by the belief—shaped by my pro bono experience – that the law can be a tool for progressive social change, and that lawyers can work to make a difference in the lives of people facing injustice.
 
That belief brought me full circle in 2024, when I returned to the School of Law as a lecturer in social change, tasked with developing clinical legal education. Ideas that began to germinate when I was a student have now come to fruition, with the establishment of the Glasgow Open Justice Centre creating more opportunities for students to take part in pro bono work. 

Reflective practice is a core part of all our projects, supporting students in their professional identity formation. One of our students, Ellie Armstrong, who worked on a public legal education project with the homelessness charity The Marie Trust, wrote powerfully in the Law Society’s Journal about the disconnect between legal duties and the lived reality of those attempting to enforce their rights. This experience is not uncommon in clinical legal education, where learners experience “disorienting moments” when prior conceptions of social reality and justice can’t explain clients’ situations. This, according to adult learning theory, is the beginning of real perspective transformation.

Today, pro bono work is a mainstream feature in UK-based law schools. In 2024, our own GO Justice Centre published findings from a student pro bono consultation. One finding resonated with me: students value pro bono because, among other things, it allows them to see the practical impact of law as a tool for social change. Responding to student feedback, we have now established a Student Pro Bono Committee with the bold mission of making pro bono an integral part of student life.

Revisiting that conversation with Matt, it’s interesting how my vision of myself as a lawyer has changed. For me, that change began through pro bono work, alongside the guidance of supportive mentors like Maria. These experiences taught me to explore and develop my own values and ethics, and, ultimately, helped to answer that question at the heart of professional identity formation: who do I want to be as a lawyer?