About Us
Through workshops, court accompaniment, and campus events, we connect students and community members to help them better understand the law and stand up for their rights.
Timeline of
the LICM
The Legal Information Clinic at McGill (LICM) is a non-profit, student-run, bilingual and free legal information service. Our mandate is to provide legal information, referrals, and community services to the McGill and Montreal communities, with a continuing commitment to meeting the needs of marginalized groups.
The LICM is staffed by McGill law students, although it is an independent organization. Through its Advocacy services, it acts as advisor to McGill students in their academic disputes with the University.
Our volunteers do not provide legal advice; they only provide information.
1973
The Legal Information Clinic at McGill (then called the McGill Legal Aid Clinic) opens its doors to the public at the initiative of law students at McGill. With offices on the 4th floor of the Student Union Building and open at irregular hours, the Clinic has two directors and a couple dozen volunteers handling an estimated 500 cases that year.
1985
The LICM continues to grow: it now has four directors working full time during the summer and sixty volunteers during the school year. The continued growth of the organization has made it necessary to move to a larger space in the basement of the Student Union Building in order to better serve the increasing demand.
1988
Following a referendum through which McGill students demonstrate the value they see in its services, the LICM begins to receive direct student funding to provide legal information to students and other community members.
1989
The LICM opens its Student Advocacy Office to represent students in internal university disciplinary procedures and complaints.
1990
The Legal Information Clinic at McGill is incorporated as a non-profit organization
1992
Due to continued growth, the Community Services Directorship is established to bring the LICM closer to the community and develop stronger partnerships with other community organizations.
1998
The Just Info presentation program is founded to serve the LICM’s outreach goals. By way of this program, volunteers provide legal information presentations to community organizations throughout Montreal on a vast range of topics.
1999
The Director of Research position is established. The goal for the new Directorship is to ensure an ever higher standard for the quality of information provided by the LICM to its clients.
2006
The LICM meets the 21st Century! All volunteer workstations are equipped with computers and most operations move from paper to computer for a more efficient process (and less use of paper!).
2007
The LICM begins offering a Commissioner of Oaths service to its clientele for free.
2013
The Legal Information Clinic at McGill turns 40, hosting a 40th anniversary conference entitled “Partnering Legal Education and Social Justice across Boundaries”. The conference brings together legal clinics and educators, lawyers, alumni, and community members from across Québec and even Ontario.
2017
The LICM launches the Court Accompaniment pilot project to increase access to justice through education on procedure and moral support to clients who are navigating the justice system. Through this service, volunteers accompany clients to hearings at the Régie du logement and the Small Claims Court.
2025
Now staffed by six Directors and over eighty volunteers, the Legal Information Clinic at McGill is a well-established and respected member of the Québec legal community serving more than two thousand clients per year… with much more history to be written!
Our Staff
The LICM is proud to be the largest student-run legal clinic in Canada. A staff of roughly 80 student volunteers and 6 student directors work to provide free, high quality legal information to over 2,000 community members each year.
The Clinic is administered by a team of six directors, all former volunteers, who serve one-year terms each. Directors work full-time during the summer, and work part-time during the school year, receiving Legal Clinic Course credits from the Faculty of Law.
LICM volunteers are all upper-year law students: each volunteer has completed at least one year of a civil law degree. Although most of our volunteers are law students at McGill, we also have volunteers from the Université de Montréal, the University of Ottawa, and UQAM.
Volunteers work weekly shifts at the Clinic. They are your first point of contact if you call to be added to our waitlist. A different volunteer will then take your case and establish a legal question, will conduct research for you, and will call you back with an answer when their research is complete, likely on their next shift the following week.
Volunteers also participate in public legal education and outreach initiatives, such as the Know Your Rights campaign, the Court Accompaniment program, and Just Info presentations.
Directors
The Legal Information Clinic at McGill’s Board of Directors oversees the work of the Clinic, ensuring it accountability and overall strategic direction. Of diverse backgrounds, is Board members are united in their efforts to ensure that the Clinic continue to offer free, high quality legal information to members of the McGill community and the general public.
The Legal Information Clinic at McGill’s Board members:
Me Michael N. Bergman – Honorary Lifetime Board Member and Founder of the Legal Information Clinic at McGill | Founder and principal of Bergman & Associates
Wes Cross – Honorary Lifetime Board Member | Administrator (retired), McGill University
The Honourable Bruno Guillot-Hurtubise – Honourary Lifetime Board Member | Judge of the Superior Court of Québec
Me Georgina Hartono | Lawyer at Langlois Avocats
Me Gassim Bangoura – Honourary Lifetime Board Member | Senior Director, Legal Affairs and Assistant Corporate Secretary of Birks Group Inc.
Me Kathleen Houlihan | Senior Legal Counsel at VIA Rail
Me William Lacoste | Senior Legal Counsel at at National Bank Financial
Me Patrick Visintini | Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice of Canada
Professor Tina Piper | Interim Dean of the McGill University Faculty of Law
Me Emma Kerkonian | Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice of Canada
We’re Always Here For You.
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