Choosing the right university is a crucial start to your legal training

Are you planning to study law at university in the next year? It’s very important to be aware that the system by which you ultimately qualify as a practising solicitor or barrister may be different by the time you finish university.

Within the next few years, as a graduate, you may face new national tests that will examine both your legal knowledge and your ability to apply it in working scenarios. With that in mind, it’s important to choose a university that is already prepared to train and educate you so you’re in the best possible position.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board believe training lawyers is not just about knowledge acquisition. In the near future, law students will be expected to articulate how they have developed their legal skills like writing, researching and oral communication, as well as listing what legal topics they have studied. 

Employers will expect examples of how students have learnt and developed their professional skills, hence this should be a major focus in choosing your law course.

Under the new regime, the law you study cannot be taught in a vacuum – rather, it must be taught in the context of how it will be applied to specific scenarios. If you are a student, ask questions at open days to find out how keyed up departments are to deliver on this new approach to training. If you are an employer or stakeholder, make it your business to find out which universities are prepared. Recruiting from one of them could make all the difference to the pool of talent at your disposal.

To give one example, Roehampton’s Law School is working to stay at the forefront of the changes that will arise. We have developed our law school around a ‘law in practice’ approach to enable students to:

• have a healthy relationship with local law firms by regularly bringing in practitioners to teach on the law programme;
• take part in ‘clinical’ experience – ie, support from the university to work in a law clinic or with agencies such as the Citizens Advice Bureau;
• have skills training integrated in the syllabus, not just as an add-on module; and
• take part in work placements and employment-related presentations.

By studying at a university like ours, you will be fully educated in the law, and well versed in its application, which employers will value, given the forthcoming emphasis on skills. Firms value good academic students, but also want articulate and confident staff who can speak to clients, understand them and produce what the client wants. This is why learning these skills at university is so important: it can influence how quickly you are able to secure a training position after graduation.

Dr Giles Proctor is head of the University of Roehampton Law School. More information about the law school is available here.