Law students tackle wrongful conviction in legal escape room

Students at Leeds Law School have recently taken part in the first legal escape room. Working with the charity APPEAL, students worked on a wrongful conviction case based on a real-life scenario. APPEAL is a charity and law practice that fights wrongful convictions and demands reform of a broken justice system.

Split into groups of five, students were tasked with going through legal documents, listening to voice notes from the client, and looking at photographic evidence to determine where evidence had been missed or if witnesses were not reliable. Throughout the morning, students were given more bundles of evidence to work through, whilst staff monitored their progress from the control room in our state-of-the-art syndicate suite.

Once students had gone through all of the evidence, they drafted their grounds of appeal to present to a Court of Appeal judge, played by Leeds Law School Lecturer Yasmin Pitter. Each group presented their grounds and expertly answered questions put to them by the judge.

Prizes were given to the best team, judged on their teamwork skills, legal analysis and presentation of the grounds. Law student Zaki Flecther won Best Advocate. He said: "The APPEAL Escape Room was an engaging and intriguing experience. The evidence bundles given were varied, and receiving further bundles throughout the day was exciting, keeping us motivated to construct the best appeal possible.

"Finishing off with advocacy was tense, but made the challenge feel rewarding overall and gave a large sense of achievement. I thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity and would highly recommend it!"

Lizzie Norton, Solicitor at APPEAL, was there on the day to monitor the students in the control room. She said: "I was delighted to attend Leeds Law School on behalf of APPEAL to run an exciting new project for the students. We are a small charity fighting wrongful convictions and demanding reform of the justice system, and we are very passionate about inspiring the next generation of lawyers to take up the fight.

"The students got practical experience reviewing and investigating a wrongful conviction and learned about many of the challenges faced by legal professionals working in the sector."

This is just one of many opportunities for Leeds Law School to apply their learning in practical ways. Senior Lecturer Kate Astall was also part of the team on the day in the control room. She said: "We are immensely proud of all the students who took part today. The facilities we have available to us at Leeds Law School mean that we can offer this unique experience to our students.

"Our immersive learning suite provides an opportunity for students to gain an insight into legal practice by providing them with a realistic hands-on experience which is also a great addition to their CVs!"

Find out more about the career development opportunities at Leeds Law School.