Fife Law Centre was established to assist people in the community who are unable to obtain legal advice elsewhere. Principal Solicitor, Afshan Rathore, and Solicitor Sarah Jordan have been operating out of the office based in Crosshill since November 2009, and the Centre has now rented office space in the new Adam Smith College “Ourspace” facilities in Leven.

The organisation’s expansion is an effort to increase public awareness of the services provided in other parts of Fife and the Leven office will be an important part in achieving this. The launch event took place at Our Space on 11 March 201O.

The opening was followed by a seminar held on the topic of “Women’s Rights and the Law” in a bid to enhance awareness of the difficulties faced by women from a legal stand point. The first presentation at the seminar was by Ann Oliver, a well respected family lawyer in Fife. Ann made a short presentation on the difficulties of women obtaining interdicts, exclusion orders and non harassment orders. Details of the legislation governing this area of law was also covered during the presentation and Sinead Daly from Women’s Aid provided some anecdotal evidence regarding the impact on woman of not being able to obtain such orders.

Rosemary Guinnane, Advocate the presented on the topic of “Equality of Women in the Workplace”. This presentation examined the challenges faced by women in the workplace and the potential impact of the Equality Bill.