The final report of the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) – potentially the biggest shake-up of legal education in three decades – was due last month. But as yet there has been no sign of it...
Category Archives: Universities
Survival Tips For Baby Barristers At The Publicly Funded Bar
Last week, David Cameron’s former chief-of-staff, Alex Deane, explained to Legal Cheek why he tired of the genteel poverty of the criminal Bar – and eventually quit. Will things work out differently for this week’s guest, 2 Dr Johnson’s Buildings pupil barrister Stephanie Wookey (pictured), who joins Bircham Dyson Bell solicitor Kevin Poulter (pictured) and Legal Cheek editor Alex Aldridge on this week's #RoundMyKitchenTable podcast?
As she comes to the end of her pupillage this month, Cardiff University graduate Wookey is preparing for a return to being a student – via a masters at Queen’s College, Cambridge, which she’ll begin in October. In an unconventional move, Wookey will continue as a “door pupil” at 2 Dr Johnson’s Buildings, picking up bits and pieces of work to help fund her masters, then hopefully return to a tenancy.
GDL Route ‘Made Me a Damn Sight More Rounded Than If I Had Read An LLB’
OccupyTheInns backs Lord Sumption's recent pro-GDL comments, and draws paralells between drug shame pupil Henry Mostyn and new Spurs manager André Villas-Boas
After so much discussion recently about "accelerated" law degrees and legal apprenticeships, I was relieved to read over the weekend the ever-sensible Supreme Court Justice Lord Sumption standing up for the liberal arts route into our profession.
"I think that it is best not to read law as an undergraduate," Lord Sumption told Counsel magazine, with his comments subsequently carried by The Telegraph.
He proceeded to add: "The problem is that we have a generation of lawyers, and this applies to solicitors as well as barristers, who are coming into the profession with much less in the way of general culture than their predecessors.
Rarely have I ever read a truer word. As my regular readers will know, I took the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) route to the Bar, having previously studied a non-law degree at a leading Russell Group university. In order to preserve my anonymity, I won’t tell you which subject I studied, but I will say that it made me a damn sight more rounded an individual that if I had read an LLB.
Can You Get Into a City Law Firm From An Ex-Poly?
Can you get into a City law firm from an ex-poly? And how much will European languages help? Read the response below...
ADVICE: Your Uni Choices Are Fine, But Why The Narrow Focus On The Bar?
I recently received this email from a prospective law student...
Read my response below.
If You Can’t Go To The Best Uni In Town, Should You Find a Smaller Town?
Following last week's Queen Mary v Durham debate, I received this email from another student.
Would the same dilemma arise if the offer was from UCL rather than Queen Mary? Read my response below.
‘The Prestige Factor’: Queen Mary or Durham For Law?
Last week I received this email from a student:
"The prestige factor" is a major concern for law students. Read my response below...