LW237-5-SP-CO:
Clinical Legal Education (Law Placement)
2022/23
Essex Law School
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 5
Current
Monday 16 January 2023
Friday 24 March 2023
15
28 February 2022
Requisites for this module
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You MUST contact the module director before enrolling on this module. The module offers students the opportunity to gain academic credit through critical reflection of law in practice.
Students will undertake a practice-based role in a legal environment. Placements could range from working within the local council or local CAB office to working in a law firm or a company's in-house legal department.
The placement must be agreed with the module director. The module supports practical, intellectual and inter-personal skills and development, facilitates understanding of the cultural, ethical and employment context of law, and integrates learning from work and academic study.
The aims of the module are:
1. To teach law through its application and practice and through critical reflection on those processes
2. To increase the employability of students by developing and enhancing their transferrable and subject-specific knowledge and skills
3. To increase the employability of students by developing and enhancing skills of oral and written communication for specific audiences (including an oral presentation), professionalism, confidentiality, and problem solving in a day-to-day working environment
4. To develop in students a critical understanding of the ethical issues involved in legal work
5. To encourage better understanding of personal and professional development planning, professional ethics, and reflective learning
6. To introduce students to key skills in client interviewing and alternative dispute resolution
7. To afford students the opportunity to gain credit for their work placement and to enrich their legal understanding from undertaking work-based learning in a legal environment.
The student will acquire, develop and apply knowledge and skills relating to:
The practical application of the law
Professional communication
Professional conduct
Personal professional development
Business/commercial awareness
Planning and managing workload
Organisational skills
Working with others
The Placement
The placement must be in a legal setting and must allow the student to meet a range of learning outcomes. There are few fixed requirements, allowing the nature of the legal experience to be flexible. Placements can be paid or unpaid, but must provide at least 120 hours of work (the equivalent of 3 weeks full time or 15 to 20 days spread over a lengthier period). One or more placements may be used to accumulate the requisite 120 hours. The student will normally be expected to engage in a wide range of work during the placement in order to provide a rich experience of legal professional employment.
It will be the student's responsibility to identify an appropriate placement provider and secure an appropriate placement. In order to be accredited for the purposes of this module, the placement must be approved by the School of Law before it begins.
The placement must have started, and in some cases will have finished, before the beginning of the term in which the student has registered for the module. Students who have not started their placement by the end of the first week of the term in which they have registered for the module will be withdrawn from the module.
There are five lectures over the Spring term and attendance at lectures is compulsory. There are four 'drop-in' sessions where you will be able to discuss your portfolio, presentation and/or any challenges and opportunities arising in your work-based learning.
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Presentation (LW237 Placement) |
|
20% |
| Coursework |
Portfolio (LW237 Placement) |
|
80% |
Additional coursework information
1. Portfolio 80%
2. Oral presentation (c.10 minutes presentation plus 5 minutes of questioning) on an aspect of the placement which relates to the module's aims; the topic is to be agreed with the module director (20%)
Timing of assessment:
The oral presentations will take place in the final week of the relevant term: week 11 for students taking the module in the autumn term; week 25 for students taking the module in the spring term.
Submission deadlines for the portfolio will be in the first week of the term following the placement: week 16 for students taking the module in the autumn term; week 30 for students taking the module in the spring term.
Presentation Portfolio submission
Week 25 Week 30
Please note: sessions are NOT available on Listen Again; laptops and/or mobile phones are NOT used in class. This is to safeguard confidentiality, develop (and evidence) effective communication and note-taking skills, and to encourage open and authentic discussions with peers and with practitioners.
Portfolios must include:
Level 5 - C.V., placement approval form and guidance document, Health and Safety form, certificates of completion for three on-line modules, placement description, report detailing the internal and external business context of the firm/organisation, completed mapping document, work-based learning attendance log, work-based learning activity log, reflective diary/reflective statement (to include self-appraisal and reflection on practice), copies of session notes and reflections on all sessions, presentation summary and notes, post-presentation self-appraisal, reference completed by the placement provider.
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Ms Penelope Brearey-Horne, email: pbrear@essex.ac.uk.
Ms. Ann Ord, Ms. Penelope Brearey-Horne
Law UG Education Administrators: lawschoolug@essex.ac.uk
No
No
No
Travel costs for UK - based unpaid, approved work placements and live projects which are an integral part of a module may be covered by your department. (NB this will usually exclude field trips and site visits). Please check with your module supervisor to ensure that the activity is eligible.
Prof Richard Grimes
University of Edinburgh
Visiting Professor
Available via Moodle
Of 22 hours, 0 (0%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
22 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
Essex Law School
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