Barrister Training Course with Professional Legal Studies

Degree Overview

If you opt for the Barrister Training Course with Professional Legal Studies, you will study a preparatory term, the Fundamentals of Litigation and Skills, covering:

• The principles of civil dispute resolution
• The principles of criminal law and practice.
• The foundations of legal skills for barristers

The knowledge, understanding and skills acquired during this preparatory term will be built upon in Preparing for Pupillage 1 and 2 and will help prepare you for the assessments set under the BSB Curriculum and Assessment Strategy. You will then complete Preparing for Pupillage 1 and 2, which are designed to reflect the level and standard of work you can expect to encounter during your first and second six of pupillage. You will learn in the context of realistic case studies, many of which are based on real cases that our experienced tutors have dealt with in practice. Following this preparatory term you will complete:

Preparing for Pupillage 1: You will follow the typical life cycle of civil cases. You will thematically study civil litigation and evidence, which will be integrated with submission advocacy and drafting and the pervasive skills of legal research, case analysis, as well as professional ethics. Through face-to-face workshops, you will experience how a barrister’s procedural knowledge works hand-in-hand with the use of skills.

Preparing for Pupillage 2: You will continue to develop the knowledge and skills required to be an effective pupil barrister, while following the typical life cycle of criminal cases. You will study criminal themes, each of which integrates with the oral skills of conference, cross examination and examination-in-chief. You will attend workshops in each of the aforementioned oral skills and simulate life in practice by meeting with the client at various stages of proceedings and then conducting the witness handling in the client’s trial. The opinion writing and legal research module comprises several workshops based on common and commercial law cases, ensuring that you experience a wide variety of practice areas. The work replicates the type of work you will encounter in practice.

Important

If you meet all the requirements for direct admission to this university, you won’t need to join a pathway course before you apply.