Assessment and Problem-Based Learning in the Law Curriculum

The profession needs skilled applicants to join it, and students want good jobs. How do you satisfy both? Is the answer an academic course, on-the-job training, or a combination of both? Anil Balan examines how legal education needs to change, particularly in the light of the introduction of the SQE. The book is a report on research about different methods of teaching. It will be of interest to academics and people responsible for training, as well as a wider audience among the profession in general and students.

In my early days, there were a number of choices for students. You could still do five years’ articles, though most people chose to do a degree followed by a shorter period of articles. The new Final Examination had just replaced the previous two exams, imaginatively called Parts I and II.

Things have changed over the years and it is not only students who have to study as the profession was introduced to continuing education. The general practitioner is a rarity, if they exist at all, and now specialism is required.

My experience is that some potential entrants to the profession are ill-equipped to practise. They struggle with the basics, which can include simple tasks like learning how to write a letter, email or how talk to different people. It is interesting that many students have never been to a court. And they seem unaware of what is making the legal headlines. Unpaid work experience is no longer so popular. Very few students want to do legal aid, at least not after qualifying.

This book discusses the need to change law courses so they are more suitable to train lawyers to practise. Highlighted areas include clinical work, mock hearings and practising on clients. This is an interesting area and very important to the profession. I wonder if academic lawyers will be able to teach the practicalities of how to be a lawyer. Universities can have close connections with the profession but how many solicitors will have time or inclination to teach?

There is an interesting quotation from an academic: ‘What you’re trying to do obviously all the time is encouraging them to think… so it’s not such a big culture shock when they leave university.’ The proposals behind this interesting book do exactly that.

David Pickup is a partner at Pickup & Scott Solicitors, Aylesbury