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. 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.