Legal Education

Ashurst targets Indian graduates in effort to broaden trainee intake

By Jeremy Hodges | March 30, 2010

Ashurst will for the first time take on trainees direct from India from September 2011. The top 10 law firm has been actively targeting both Indian and Chinese universities for prospective trainees over the last year, with the first wave of new recruits set to hit the firm next year.

1 minute read

Camerons offers two NQs contracts over permanent positions

By Sofia Lind | March 30, 2010

CMS Cameron McKenna has taken the unusual step of offering trainees temporary contracts upon qualification. Camerons retained an above-average 79% of its 29 trainees qualifying in March, but it has since emerged that two of the group were offered contracts of just one year and six months respectively.

1 minute read

Training and education

By Legal Week | March 25, 2010

Attempts to replace the training contract with work-based education are struggling to win support...

1 minute read

Training and education: Leaders in the making

By Legal Week | March 24, 2010

Many current managing partners joined their firms before law became a global business. They worked hard, focused on their clients and then found themselves running increasingly complex and sophisticated organisations. Not surprisingly, the approach to leadership and management in law varies greatly and many leaders have been left to develop these broader skills in relative isolation. This is compounded by the fact that every other fee earner in the firm is working hard, focusing on their clients and trying their best to ignore the things that management is doing. This article assesses the extent to which current approaches to developing partners prepares them for the future and the role that training/development departments play in this future.

1 minute read

Training and education: The evolution of legal training

By Legal Week | March 24, 2010

Since its establishment in January 2007, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has indelibly stamped its mark on the profession. Having introduced a new code of conduct in 2007 and overhauled the Legal Practice Course, the SRA in 2008 began to tackle the training contract, which has been the route for qualification as a solicitor since 1994, by trialing a new system for training lawyers. "We're aiming to make the legal profession one pure meritocracy," declares SRA education and training manager Tim Pearce.

1 minute read

Training and education: The talent grab

By Friederike Heine | March 24, 2010

Despite a broad move towards widening participation, entry into the legal profession is a long way from being a level playing field. A demand for intelligent high-performers inherently pushes law firms towards recruiting from leading institutions, so despite their best efforts at broadening access it may be of limited surprise that half of the trainees recruited at City firms over the last two years went to one of the UK's top 10 universities.

1 minute read

Hengeler ramps up business education for junior lawyers

By Suzi Ring | March 23, 2010

Leading German firm Hengeler Mueller has shaken up its associate training programme, as growing numbers of firms operating in the country look at amending their own training programmes for lawyers. Hengeler's formal link with Switzerland's University of St Gallen came into effect on 1 January, with associates to start the first modules with the university this month.

1 minute read

The NY Bar exam - first we take Manhattan, then we take Burnley

By Legal Week | March 18, 2010

The College of Law's newly-launched 'US JD-style' course - which enable its graduates to sit the New York Bar exam - will doubtless hold an allure to the increasing numbers of law students completing their studies without training contracts or pupillages to go to...

1 minute read

College of Law to offer New York Bar course for UK law students

By Alex Aldridge | March 12, 2010

The College of Law has unveiled a new course that will enable students to sit the New York Bar exam. From September, students sitting the full-time Graduate Diploma in Law programme who go on to complete either the Legal Practice Course (LPC) or Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) will be able to take the New York Bar Exam after an additional 22-week study programme.

1 minute read

Simmons puts 25 trainees on new MBA programme

By Sofia Lind | March 3, 2010

Simmons & Simmons is set to put 25 of its future trainees onto its MBA programme with BPP this September, with the firm moving to make the MBA a permanent option within its graduate recruitment process. The City firm is now asking all potential recruits to specify whether or not they would like to take up the one-year course before starting their training contracts with the firm.

1 minute read

Law.com

New NALP Survey Shows 85% Job Satisfaction—But Increased Debt—Among 2019 Law School Grads

By Christine Charnosky | July 20, 2023

The class of 2019 law school graduates have higher overall job satisfaction and some are earning more as compared with previous classes, but many also have more student loan debt, according to a National Association for Law Placement Foundation and NALP study released Wednesday.

5 minute read

Law.com

Missing 'Light Bulb Moments': Former Western State Law Dean Easley on Retiring After 44 Years in Academia

By Christine Charnosky | July 19, 2023

"And I thought to myself, I've got to find a way that I can be a law student permanently and yet make money at it. So I loved every minute of the 44 years—year after year as everything was evolving and changing," Allen Easley told Law.com.

8 minute read

Law.com

'The Supreme Court Made It Harder, Not Impossible': Law School Leaders Talk Recruiting Without Affirmative Action

By Christine Charnosky | July 18, 2023

"The Supreme Court made it harder. It didn't make it impossible," Timothy Lynch, vice president and general counsel for the University of Michigan, said during the recent AALS affirmative action conference. "So that means we all have to work harder and that is just one of the challenges in life."

5 minute read

Daily Report Online

Baker & Hostetler Helps Georgia Law School Create Legal Tech-Driven Course

By Thomas Spigolon | July 18, 2023

The course is among the few in the U.S. to prepare law students for attorney and non-attorney legal tech jobs, and "one of the only examples of a private law firm contributing directly to law school curriculum," the firm said.

7 minute read

Legaltech News

Harvard Launches New Initiative to Better Understand—and Shape—the Future of AI

By Cassandre Coyer | July 18, 2023

Harvard Law School and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society become the latest players in the legal industry to dedicate resources to further legal professionals' understanding of artificial intelligence.

4 minute read

National Law Journal

Law Students Join Forces to Create Smoother Career Paths to Plaintiffs Work

By Christine Schiffner | July 18, 2023

A new nationwide student organization aims to help young attorneys map a career path into plaintiffs work.

3 minute read

Law.com

Ahead of the Curve: The U.S. Supreme Court's Affirmative Action Ruling Has Created a Perception Problem for Law Schools

By Christine Charnosky | July 17, 2023

In this week's column, we examine law school leaders' fears that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision invalidating affirmative action in higher education could lead to demoralization among potential law school applicants.

7 minute read

Law.com

USC Gould Appoints First Black Law Dean

By Christine Charnosky | July 17, 2023

"As the first African American to hold this position ever and the first woman to hold this position in over four decades, my deanship will be about creating a new legacy and standing on the shoulders of giants," Franita Tolson said in a statement.

4 minute read

Law.com

Golden Gate University Law School Says It Plans to Stay Open for at Least the Next Academic Year

By Christine Charnosky | July 14, 2023

"In the clearest possible terms—no matter what course is chosen for our Law School—that GGU Law will continue to operate during the academic year 2023-24 and beyond as necessary to ensure at a minimum that all currently enrolled and entering students will continue to receive their scholarships and be able to receive an ABA-accredited degree," David J. Fike, GGU president, and Mark Yates, GGU Law dean, said in an email to the GGU Law community.

4 minute read

Texas Lawyer

AI in the Classroom: New Guidance From the Department of Education

By Andrew J. Droke and Melissa M. Grand | July 14, 2023

The Department of Education specifically identified risks with respect to data privacy and security, discrimination, unfair automated decision-making, and plagiarism.

4 minute read