Tag Archives: Legal education

‘Thinking Is A Skill Which Came To Me Very Much After I Graduated’

By |

Ed note: This is the latest post in the 'If I knew then what I know now' series, where leading members of the legal profession share their wisdom with the next generation of wannabes.

To be honest, I rather hate nostalgia for being self indulgent clap trap allowing too many people to live in the past lamenting decisions which cannot now be changed and the consequences of which cannot be undone. That said, it's not like I've never made mistakes, writes Nottingham Law School reader in legal education – and former 'law teacher of the year' – Rebecca Huxley-Binns...

Continue reading

Learning The Law Through The Medium Of Doctored Clips Of Hitler Film ‘Downfall’

By |

One area of study that the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) is not believed to have considered is the learning of law through doctored clips of the 2004 film Downfall. A host of new legal education-themed spin-offs of the movie – which chronicles the final ten days of Adolf Hitler's reign of Nazi Germany in 1945 – have recently sprung up on YouTube, suggesting that Downfall-based law learning could be an area to watch in 2013...

Continue reading

Will The Next Generation Of Apprentice Lawyers Become Solicitors Or Legal Executives?

By |

Over Christmas, the announcement by minister for skills Matthew Hancock that school-leavers students will soon be able to become lawyers grabbed the national headlines.

At first, I assumed newspapers' enthusiasm for the story was based on the traditional festive lull. After all, only a few months earlier Hancock's colleagues in government had announced that they are to fund 750 new higher legal apprenticeships via a £1m investment.

Then I spotted the difference between the two pieces of news: Hancock was talking about training apprentices up as solicitors, while the apprentices whose funding was earmarked over the summer will become legal executives. I sense a storm brewing...

Continue reading

EXCLUSIVE: College Of Law To Change Its Name To The ‘University Of Law’ – And Become A Proper University

By |

The College of Law is to re-brand as the University of Law after being granted university title, Legal Cheek can exclusively reveal.

As you can see below, the College of Law registered the www.university-of-law.co.uk domain name some months ago. However, the name change – and associated re-branding – has remained a well-guarded secret...

Continue reading

Please, No More ‘Nietzsche And The Law’! Why Americans Are Looking Enviously At The GDL Route To Legal Qualification

By |

In comparison to our odd system of legal education – which sprawls haphazardly from the undergraduate law degree to the CILEX apprenticeship option, via the super-condensed GDL, multiple breeds of LPC and the career graveyard that is the BPTC – the US way of doing things is alluringly simple.

In America, you can only study law as a three-year postgraduate degree. At which point you sit a Bar exam. Then you’re a lawyer. The downside is the inflexibility, slow pace and high cost (over £30,000 a year in fees alone at the top US law schools)...

Continue reading