1. Student professional practice in brighton business school
Responding to the Legal Education &Training Review: Development of Communication Skills &Commercial Awareness
Jeanette Ashton

2. Context for the study PG Cert in HE educational enquiry
LETR 2013 – no overhaul of legal education & training but food for thought
LETR identification of key skills gaps in communication skills & commercial awareness
UoB law in the Business School
Relationships with stakeholders e.g. local firms
Context for the study

3. What are students’ motivations for participating in extra-curricular skills training?
Implications for the wider law curriculum?
LLB: compulsory skills module Year 1, compulsory mooting module Year 2
CPE / PG Dip Law: no compulsory skills module
Aim of the study

4. 64 students (LLB & CPE/PG Law) participating in skills programme
Mixed method, purposive sampling (Cane &Kritzer,2010)
Pre & post-programme questionnaire (motivation; perceived benefits; actual benefits; skills development; career aspirations; views on incorporation into curriculum)
Follow up focus group
Limitations – most motivated students, issue of transferability (Denscombe, 2007)
Research methodology

5. The literature: experiential learning
“When learning is conceived as a holistic adaptive process, it provides conceptual bridges across life situations such as school &work, portraying learning as a continuous, lifelong process” (Kolb, 1984)
Strong case for ‘expanded practice-based experiential education’ which ‘will provide foundational learning for the successful transition from law student to law practice” (Tokarz et al, 2014)
The literature: experiential learning

6. The data 1

7. The data 2: what was useful?

8. “The professionals coming in made me feel like a professional myself”
“I had an interview – it was the first thing they asked about. It separates us from other law students – really relevant”
“I would like it compulsory, but not in a separate module, instead put it into modules like Contract & Land”
“We will all need these skills at some point”
Qualitative data

9. Students feel they benefit considerably – skills development & employability
Extra-curricular approach only captures a minority
Need for coherent professional skills strategy pervading law curriculum
Experiential learning promotes lifelong learning far more effectively than traditional broad coverage, ‘infusing passion and context’ (Maranville)
Solicitors Qualifying Exam forthcoming – Stage 2 Practical Legal Skills
implications

10. From law student to lawyer

11. Thanks for listening – any thoughts?
Juliet Turner, Alison Bone & Jeanette Ashton (2016): Reasons why law students should have access to learning law through a skills-based approach, The Law Teacher, DOI: /