Law and Practice Stream
The Law and Practice Stream comprises those elements of the programme which concentrate on the accumulation of more specialised legal knowledge and the application of law and legal skills within a practical and applied context. The Law and Practice Stream involves realistic, complex and multi-faceted problems which introduce students to specialised areas of substantive and technical legal knowledge including the processes adopted and the skills needed for professional work. Critically, the Law and Practice Stream introduces the idea that problems in practice often cut across the typical subject areas which make up the Foundation Stream and other traditional law subject boundaries.
The Law and Practice Stream has a strong clinical legal education element. This involves a range of teaching and learning methods but essentially means ‘learning by doing’ i.e. experiential learning which focuses on enabling students to understand how the law works in the ‘real world’ through real or simulated (but realistic) cases.
The Law and Practice Stream develops the idea of student law firms which simulate certain aspects of the experience of ‘real world’ practice. The firms remain together for the whole of the clinical phase and meet two to three times a week. The firms will be supervised by internal academics and external adjunct faculty who give substantive assistance and advice on process and technical matters. The firms interact with one another whilst representing different client interests through negotiations, drafting and concluding non-contentious and contentious matters.
The subjects offered in the Law and Practice Stream reflect the idea of multi-faceted problems within broad practice areas which cover a range of specialised topics. They include:
• Legal Skills* (compulsory in Years 1 and 2)
• Law and the Business Environment
• Civil Litigation
• Commercial Transactions
• Corporate Transactions
• Criminal Litigation
• Property Development
• Private Clients
Students will also have the option of doing the Workbased
Learning module (See Box 2) within the Law
and Practice Stream in their final year instead of a
dissertation.
Box 2 - Work-based Learning
The simulated aspect of clinical education is supplemented and complemented by a work-based learning programme comprising “Link Days” and an extended Work-based Learning module. This module is an option for final year students who have taken the Law and the Business Environment option in their second year. It consists of a number of days’ worth of legal services experience where the students can observe how organisations and individual lawyers deliver those services, together with the real-life legal issues which arise. This also forms the basis for a research project which examines an aspect of legal practice or a legal issue encountered during their time in ‘practice’. Students are required to observe, participate or otherwise experience a range of legal skills and practices over those days, the precise range varying according to the nature of the work-based learning providers. Whilst many students will be in a position to secure some, or all, of their work experience with a single provider (such as a placement with a view to an offer of a training contract), the Law School has arrangements which enable it to provide a number of Link Days through its professional links. Whilst many students will spend most, or even all, of their time at law firms or sets of chambers, other organisations in the public, voluntary and private sectors may also play a part. Thus it may be possible to build up the required days from a variety of providers, including longer law firm placements, “Link Days” with the private and public sector, and other activities such as legal advice clinics/pro bono work and community programmes such as the ‘street law’ programme where students run workshops in local communities.
An introduction to work experience is provided through the availability of one or two Link Days in the first and second years, available to all students whether intending to take the Work-based Learning module or not.
Although it is anticipated that the main components of the clinical elements of the Law and Practice Stream will be simulated case-work and the Work-based Learning module, there are other options which may be pursued depending upon the interests of individual members of staff.