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Legal Systems and Skills

Legal Systems and Skills

Author: Scott Slorach; Judith Embley; Peter Goodchild; Catherine Shephard
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199676194
Published In: July 2013
Format: Paperback , 528 pages
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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A truly innovative solution: the only textbook to combine properly material on both legal systems and legal skills.
Supports students' professional development through an additional focus on commercial awareness and employability.
Provides a much more holistic and contemporary understanding of the purpose and practical application of law than is usually found.
Demonstrates step-by-step approaches to core legal skills which students can employ both in their legal studies and in subsequent employment.

Legal Systems and Skills provides students with the essential knowledge and skills they require to underpin their legal studies, providing a foundation for graduate employability both within and outside the legal service profession. It develops students' understanding in 3 core areas:

Essential legal systems: delivering a holistic and contemporary understanding of the purpose and practical application of law, with consideration of social, moral, and jurisprudential perspectives. Contemporary application is a key theme and students are encouraged to consider the current function of legal systems and their effect on individuals, businesses and commerce.

Essential legal skills: demonstrating step-by-step approaches to enhancing the skills law students require academically and in subsequent employment. Students are assisted in developing their own strategies to research, read and understand law more effectively, to analyse and apply the law to solve legal problems, and to communicate legal concepts and solutions in writing and orally.

Essential professional development and commercial awareness: encouraging students to develop professional skills early in their studies. A dedicated chapter on employability skills introduces students to the skills and competencies which all employers, but particularly those in the legal services sector, value. Four unique chapters on commercial awareness challenge students to reflect on and actively improve their own commercial awareness through a number of business case studies, practice interview questions and activities, making this section of the book perfect for self-directed study.

Delivering a wealth of illustrative examples, diagrams, jargon-busters, and thought-provoking questions to enhance critical skills, Legal Systems and Skills is the essential contemporary toolkit for savvy law students.

Online Resources
This text is accompanied by an innovative online resource centre offering a range of stimulating resources, including:
* Podcasts providing a variety of perspectives on the legal system
* Self-test questions
* The authors' guidance on the thought-provoking questions in the book
* A library of weblinks for students

Readership: LLB students studying a combined English Legal System and Legal Skills module in the first year of their degree and for reference throughout the course. The book would also be suitable for GDL students to accompany systems and skills training.

Legal systems
1: Introduction to law
2: Legal systems
3: Sources of law
4: Legislation
5: Case law
6: Legal services
Legal skills
7: Reading and understanding law
8: Legal research
9: Problem solving
10: Communication
11: Writing and drafting
Professional development and commercial awareness
12: Employability skills
13: Businesses and the business environment
14: Essential economics and finance
15: Law firms as businesses
16: Understanding clients: individuals and businesses

Scott Slorach, Professor, University of Law, and Visiting Professor, Strathclyde University, Judith Embley, Associate Professor, University of Law, Peter Goodchild, Associate Professor, University of Law, and Catherine Shephard, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University

Professor Scott Slorach is the Board Member for Innovation, Design and Production of legal education programmes at the University of Law, and a Visiting Professor at Strathclyde University. He has been involved in the design and delivery of legal education programmes for over twenty years, at undergraduate, postgraduate, vocational and professional levels. A qualified solicitor with City experience, he was author of Corporate Finance (OUP) and is currently co-author of Business Law (OUP).

Judith Embley is Associate Professor at the University of Law. She read History at Bristol University, then attended the University of Law and qualified as a solicitor in 1980, practising in a Lincoln's Inn firm. After a career break to bring up her three children, she began teaching law in 1999 as a Visiting Lecturer at Bellerby's College and then Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. She joined the University of Law in 2001, where she has taught Contract, Commercial and Business Financial Law. She is now a course designer and is joint author of Commercial Law and Practice, one of the University of Law's Legal Practice Guides.

Peter Goodchild is Associate Professor at the University of Law. He read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St. Anne's College, Oxford, then attended the University of Law and qualified as a solicitor in 1997, into commercial practice. He joined the University of Law in 2000, where he has taught the English Legal System, Contract, Tort, Commercial, and Business Structures Law. In addition to over ten years of teaching experience, he has designed programmes on legal systems, legal skills and employability, and is a co-author of texts on the English Legal System.

Catherine Shephard is Senior Lecturer and Subject Leader of Corporate Practice at Manchester Metropolitan University. She read law at Cambridge, practised as a solicitor in corporate finance and has ten years' experience of designing and delivering a wide range of skills and law programmes to students at the University of Law, Manchester Metropolitan University and to solicitors in practice. Catherine has a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education with distinction and was the author of Public Companies and Equity Finance (CLP).

"There is a clear gap in the market for a text like this and I believe that this text will quickly establish itself." - Roger Thomas, LLB Law Course Leader, Anglia Ruskin University

"I like the authors' approach; I feel commercial awareness is something that should be introduced from the start of the degree. I don't feel it was emphasised enough at the start of my course and I am only just getting to grips with its importance as I begin to look at training contracts." - Harriet Chapman, law student, Northumbria University

"I can imagine this book becoming a bit of a law student bible. 'Commercial awareness' is <b>the</b> buzz word of the moment." - Alice Reilly, law student, Cardiff University

"'The emphasis on employment, I think, is a great addition and something quite unique to law textbooks. With other books it is difficult to see the relevance of certain types of law so the practical explanations and case studies are very useful. I much prefer this type of learning." - Kate Taylor, University of Huddersfield

"This book provides an easily accessible one-stop-shop that could be referred to for both academic and employment-seeking purposes, bridging the gap that currently exists between such resources. It allows law students to develop commercial awareness from day one of their studies." - Joseph Wood, law student, Durham University