Developing your legal skills
You will be offered lots of opportunities to develop skills you will need for
your future career while you are studying with us.
We believe it is really important to provide you with lots of
extra-curricular activities during your time at Essex as employers are
increasingly looking for a wide range of skills from law students.
At Essex you will have the chance to get involved in all kinds of
volunteering opportunities and activities organised by the School of Law and the
University of Essex Law Society.
We hope to help you develop your team work, communication. organisational,
teaching and problem-solving skills, while also developing your knowledge of
legal research, drafting and analysis.
Volunteer opportunities
Essex Street Law
You can join the award-winning
Essex Street Law - the
Pro Bono division of the University of
Essex Law Society.
As a Street Law volunteer you will help organise an annual inter-schools
mock trial competition by coaching teams of local school children. The
competition helps to demonstrate the fun and competitive side to legal
argument.
You will also help to teach local school children about a range of legal
issues including citizenship, human right law.
Mock Trial
video
Teaching
video
Our thanks to Colchester Grammar School for taking part in these videos.
Children's Legal Centre volunteer
The Children's Legal Centre is a national charity based at our Colchester
Campus offering free initial legal advice in child-related matters.
As a Children's Legal Centre volunteer you will be trained to provide
telephone advice and to make referrals to the Centre where appropriate.
Working as a volunteer gives you experience of providing legal and
policy-oriented guidance on real issues.
Video of
Children's Legal Centre
volunteers in action
Student mentoring
All first-year law students at Essex are welcomed by a team of two student
mentors and a personal tutor from the staff. Your personal tutor will also be
your tutor for LW105 Academic, Legal and Professional Skills (ALPS). Student
mentors are second and final-year students trained to play a vital role in
providing academic, welfare and personal support to those new to university
life.
Video on mentoring.
Essex Law Clinic
The Essex Law Clinic is located on
our Colchester campus but holds sessions at the Loughton and Southend campuses.
The Law Clinic provides pro bono gives legal advice to the local community and
provides Student Clinic Advisers the chance to work with a qualified solicitor
to interview and draft legal advice on real client problems.
Get involved in the work of the School
Students are encouraged to be part of the the Staff-Student Liaison
Committees. Student representatives are elected every year and play an essential
role in promoting student needs and opinions in the School of Law.
Skills development activities
Negotiation
Taking part in our negotiation competition sees you work in a team to find
the best solution for your client. You can gain points for teamwork,
professionalism, problem-solving, working within the legal brief and on-the-spot
thinking.
Video of negotiation competition.
Mooting
Mooting involves researching, drafting and presenting legal argument before a
judge. The Essex Law Society runs an annual internal mooting competition and the
winning team is sponsored to take part in national competitions. Mooting gives
you the chance to test your oral presentation, legal analysis and argumentation
skills plus develop your professionalism in a realistic context.
Video of Mooting.
Arbitration
Getting involved in our arbitration activities gives you another chance to
develop professional skills you will need in the future.
Arbitration is a method of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and our
activities give you experience of presenting a case before an arbitrator or
panel of arbitrators in a tribunal.
Legal journalist
Working for the Law Society’s Newsletter, Inter Alia includes researching and
writing about legal issues.
Inter Alia video.
Model United Nations
Test your political negotiation skills as a representative in our Model
United Nations organised jointly by the School of Law and Model UN Student
Society. Taking part can help you improve your argumentation, oral presentation
and research skills while finding out how the United Nations really works.