Holistic legal education? Integrating the academic and vocational stage

Guidance notes by Kevin Kerrigan (Northumbria University) designed to provide a summary of the main issues relating to the exempting law degree programme offered at Northumbria, presented at the UKCLE seminar on alternative routes to qualification in law on 20 May 2004.

Note: These guidance notes should be read in conjunction with the notes prepared by Philip Plowden, Clinical legal education: theory, practice and possibilities, which look in detail at clinical legal education and the role of the Student Law Office in the exempting law degree at Northumbria.

The LLB Exempting Degree at Northumbria University School of Law combines a qualifying law degree (LLB (Hons)) with the outcomes of the Legal Practice Course (LPC) or Bar Vocational Course (BVC). It therefore exempt graduates from the vocational stage of legal education for solicitors or barristers, and students who successfully complete the degree can go straight into a training contract or pupillage. The degree is currently the only one of its kind in England and Wales.

How it operates

Educational philosophy

The underlying philosophy of the exempting degree is that students’ understanding of legal rules and principles is enhanced if they can appreciate the practical context in which those rules and principles are applied. Similarly, their professional ability is strengthened if they develop skills at the same time as they study the substantive rules and principles underlying the law. To this end the development of knowledge and skills is viewed as an integrated, not a linear, achievement. The aim is to produce lawyers who understand the interdependence of black letter law and procedure and are able to reflect on the law in their professional life.

Curriculum design

The exempting degree is not a ‘three-plus-one’ degree with the Legal Practice Course or Bar Vocational Course tacked on the end. It is designed as an integrated programme, with academic and professional subjects taught and assessed across each of the four years. The foundation subjects specified in the Joint statement of the Law Society and the Bar Council (PDF file) are completed in years 1 and 2, along with litigation and evidence. The remaining compulsory Legal Practice or Bar Vocational subjects are completed in years 3 and 4, along with the required skills and pervasive subjects. The professional aspects are balanced by LLB options, jurisprudence and a legal research project.

In line with the rejection of a strict dichotomy between law and practice, many individual modules are also designed to reflect a balance of substantive law and procedural knowledge.

The first two years of the programmes are common. During year 2 students choose whether they wish to pursue the Solicitor route, Barrister route or Honours route. The routes split at the beginning of the third year.

Content

The programmes combine four aspects:

1. the foundation academic subjects
2. the compulsory LPC or BVC subjects
3. optional LLB subjects
4. clinical legal education

Crime, Litigation and Evidence (CLE, year 1) examines the elements of criminal liability alongside a study of the criminal process. Tort, Litigation and Evidence (TLE, year 2) similarly combines the principles of civil liability with the civil process, but also integrates with contract law from year 1 to consider aspects of contractual litigation disputes.

Law of Business Associations (LBA, year 3) on the solicitor route combines the study of company law with the vocational subject of Business Law and Practice, as taught on the LPC, including the Revenue Law element. It emphasises the importance of ‘black letter law’ while ensuring that students can apply that knowledge in an appropriate and professional manner.

Property Law and Practice on the solicitor route is the last element of a continuum, which includes Property I in year 1 and Property II in year 2. It confirms and puts into practice the students’ substantive law knowledge. Probate and Administration is taught as a short discrete module in year 4.

Remedies and Sentencing are compulsory subjects on the Barrister route. They are also offered as options on the other routes. Barrister route students also complete the Bar case skills and Bar options.

Student Law Office builds on CLE and TLE from years 1 and 2. In year 3 it adopts a problem-based learning approach, whereby students analyse diverse instructions in a simulated case study to identify legal problems and their solutions. In year 4 Student Law Office enables all students to put their knowledge into practice during their full academic year involvement in the School’s innovative legal advice and representation service. This clinical legal education programme amounts to a major commitment for final year students, requiring them not only to develop deep understanding of law, procedure and skills but also to reflect on their own development, their role as a lawyer and the wider implications of the legal process.

There are modules in each of the foundation areas for the qualifying law degree. There is also a wide range of optional LLB subjects.

There is a compulsory jurisprudence module in year 3.

All students complete a research project in their final year, working with a specialist supervisor.

Structural diagram of the LLB Exempting Degree (solicitors route)

Year 1
Property 1	Crime, litigation and evidence		Contract	Foundations of English and EU law
Year 2
Property 2	Public law		Tort, litigation and evidence	full option
Year 3
Property law and practice	full option	LLB half option	Law of business associations	Student Law Office
Year 4
Probate and administration
option	project	Student Law Office	Legal theory
			LLB half option

Teaching and learning

The programme uses lectures, workshops and seminars and, in the Student Law Office, firm meetings. Students also have one-to-one meetings with their Student Law Office supervisor, their research project supervisor and their guidance tutor. Most modules utilise Blackboard, the university’s online learning environment, to enable student access to additional information, discussion boards etc.

• Year 1 is delivered via a traditional lecture and seminar approach, together with some joint lectures, mock trials, and skills activities in seminars.
• In year 2 workshops are introduced in civil litigation sessions to enable students to work co-operatively and to develop skills by completing tasks in class under the supervision of their tutor.
• In year 3 workshops are the dominant teaching vehicle, although lectures and seminars are also used. Students receive more extensive skills training and participate in problem-based learning via the Student Law Office training programme.
• In year 4, in addition to the sessions already described, students participate in firm meetings and joint firm meetings and have regular individual meetings with their Student Law Office supervisor. Firm meetings are small groups of six students and their supervising solicitor and are the forum for discussing, deliberating and reflecting on issues arising from the firm’s representation of clients. Monthly joint firm meetings bring together firms to discuss common themes or controversies arising from their caseload.

Two key features of the teaching and learning strategy are the promotion of independent, reflective learning and a strong emphasis on practical legal research.

Assessment

A range of assessment methods is used to measure the designated outcomes, including:

• unseen examination
• multiple-choice test
• unsupervised coursework
• supervised coursework
• transactional file
• dummy case file
• research project
• student personal file including reflections on live client work
• Student Law Office essay
• skills assessments:
  • advocacy exercise
  • legal drafting exercise
  • practical legal research exercises (one fictitious, one live client)
  • legal writing (in the context of the live client programme)
  • live client interview

Problems and issues

• The fees charged to LPC or BVC students would be prohibitively expensive for undergraduates and would put off potential students. It is possible to charge an additional fee, but this may not fully cover the additional investment unless economies of scale create additional savings.
• Students cannot recover the additional payment via student fee support. In addition, it is not possible for them to have secured a training contract prior to commencement, so it is unlikely that they will be sponsored.
• There is an awareness gap in the professional nationally about exempting degrees. Students need to understand the programme well and be willing to ‘sell’ this to ignorant employers. There is also a need try to raise awareness more generally.
• There is a time gap between study of the professional aspects of the programme. For example, criminal litigation is taught in year 1, so it is over three years later when students graduate. The legal system is bound to have moved on in the intervening period. This can be addressed to an extent by use of induction or foundation sessions at the beginning of each year to update student knowledge.
• Student deferrals can cause problems due to the time within which the professional stage must be completed.
• The heavy assessment diet can lead to students becoming assessment-driven.
• There is a need to constantly review the balance between skills and knowledge and to make sure that teaching staff are fully aware of the aims of the programme and the place of their module within it.
• It is difficult to comply with university assessment procedures due to the need to satisfy professional body requirements.
• Students may be more demanding than typical undergraduates, as they know they are also completing a professional programme and paying additional fees for this.

Key advice

• Course planners need to have awareness of the complexity of combining the undergraduate programme with the professional qualification. There are three separate monitoring reports and monitoring visits. The programme leaders must reconcile the sometimes competing interests of the university, Law Society and Bar Council. Recognition of the many masters syndrome.
• A complex programme requires reliable administrative support and robust databases in respect of student progression.
• There is a need to develop progressive approaches towards issues such as student support, skills, pervasive issues, careers etc.
• Students require clear guidance on careers and the content of the various routes at an early stage to help them decide which route is most appropriate for them.
• There is a requirement for a mix of academic, solicitor and barrister staff.
• An integrated course requires the same facilities as are required for a professional programme, such as courtrooms, interview rooms, practitioner library etc.
• There is obviously a need to secure validation by the relevant professional bodies in addition to university quality procedures.
• It is helpful to consult with the local profession.
• There is a need to constantly review the balance between ‘academic’ and ‘professional’ content.
• Assessment regulations need to be written in light of the guidelines on assessment from the professional bodies.
• Funding issues – students do not go on to pay LPC or BVC fees. The possibility of charging an additional fee for professional elements of the programme. Cost implications of clinical legal education.
• A key component of the integrated degree is clinical learning. This should not be seen as an attractive extra-curricular activity. It is a fundamental aspect of the integrated nature and professional ethos of the exempting degrees. A clinical component requires significant investment of time and resources in order to enable students to put their legal knowledge and skills into practice in a real world environment.

Last Modified: 4 June 2010