This module introduces some legal communication skills that feature in the law vocational courses i.e. the Legal Practice Course and the Bar Professional Training Course, and provides an introduction to professional conduct/legal ethics.  It is also relevant to students considering the School’s ‘Professional Placement Year’ programme, and helps to prepare students for law clinic work. Students can choose this module whether or not they plan to apply for a place on any of the School’s current pro bono and volunteering schemes.

The module uses an ‘enquiry-based learning’ approach to expose students to practical, ‘real world’ difficulties associated with receiving and analysing instructions from a client, identifying and obtaining additional necessary information, and providing clear and accurate advice. It requires students to learn to reflect upon their learning, which will encourage them to become reflective practitioners and support the development of wider transferable/employability skills.  The module will include the evolution of case studies replicating practice, with clients seeking legal advice on matters related to particular areas of law.

On completion of the module a student should be able to:

• Apply the principles of enquiry-based learning and problem solving in a legal context, building upon core legal subjects studied as part of their degree;
• Apply the key principles relating to professional ethics and codes of conduct for practising solicitors and barristers;
• Undertake accurate and efficient Practical Legal Research;
• Undertake effective client interviewing and negotiation;
• Apply the principles of effective legal writing in order to produce both client and practitioner-facing documentation.

Teaching on this module consists of a combination of large group teaching and smaller workshops.

Throughout the module, students will be expected to develop and practise intellectual, practical and transferrable skills appropriate to Level 5 learning outcomes, such as:

Intellectual skills

• Without prior instruction, use a range of set primary and secondary legal materials to identify the legal rules relevant to a particular legal problem which might inform a written piece of work or oral discussion of a topic in a client interview or negotiation.
• Build on basic knowledge of a legal topic by independently identifying supplementary primary and secondary legal sources and applying them in a written piece of work, and/or the presentation of an informed oral opinion in the form of a client interview.
• Evaluate essential elements of effective professional legal writing.

Practical skills

• Use appropriate legal research databases to identify independently primary and secondary materials of relevance to a topic for the purposes of supplementing reading lists and taught materials.
• Produce written work on an independently researched topic which is accurately informed by appropriate primary and secondary materials.
• Make a spontaneous or pre-prepared oral contribution to a workshop discussion on a taught topic that is coherent, substantiated where relevant by reference to primary and/or secondary materials and takes into account different perspectives.
• Interview a ‘client’, undertake practical legal research, analyse the client’s problem, identify appropriate legal and alternative solutions, and attempt to negotiate a solution to a client’s issue.
• Write a professional letter or email to a client to seek any further information and documentation required and/or to advise a client.
• Draft legal documents as may be appropriate for a placement student to produce.

Transferable skills

• Prepare and give an oral presentation (e.g. in the context of a tutorial or seminar group discussion) and provide clear and accurate supporting materials in an appropriate format.
• Reflect on their own learning, identify gaps in their knowledge and describe the limitations imposed by knowledge gaps.
• Use electronic methods for research and demonstrate general competency in IT skills when preparing and presenting written material.

Client Interview 20%

Reflective Log 30% (1500 words)

Portfolio - Legal Documentation (30%) 1500 words

Portfolio - Employability Documentation (20%) 1000 words

Areas of study typically include:

• Particular aspects of Law subjects studied elsewhere on the LLB programme (e.g. aspects of Tort, Contract and Criminal law, which could be the basis for teaching and practise of skills such as client interviewing).  Students may also be introduced to non-QLD areas of law to test research skills.
• Selected areas of substantive law, legal practice and professional ethics will be taught and practised through skills such as: Practical Legal Research; Client Interviewing; Negotiation; and Legal Writing and Drafting.

Details of the recommended texts will be available at the beginning of the module.

Teaching materials are created and provided by the teaching team, to supplement core texts.