LW811-7-FY-CO:
Industry Placement
2024/25
Essex Law School
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Postgraduate: Level 7
Current
Thursday 03 October 2024
Friday 27 June 2025
120
31 March 2021
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
LLM M2M2PP International Commercial and Business Law with Professional Placement,
LLM M221PP International Trade and Maritime Law with Professional Placement
The placement will provide you with an opportunity to experience a practice-based role in a legal environment approved by the School of Law.
Placements could range from working within the local council, a local law firm, to working in an international law firm, a company's legal department or any commercial, charitable or voluntary organisation requiring application of legal knowledge and skills. The module supports the development of practical, intellectual and inter-personal skills, facilitates understanding of the cultural, ethical and employment context of law, and integrates learning from work and academic study. The placement can take place in the UK as well as in any other country of the EU subject to visa and immigration limitations.
PLEASE NOTE that it will be your responsibility to identify an appropriate placement provider and secure an appropriate placement. The placement must be approved by the School of Law before it begins.
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 commercial law in its various aspects
5. To encourage better understanding of personal and professional development planning, professional ethics and reflective learning;
6. To introduce students to key skills in dealing with clients;
You will acquire, develop and apply knowledge and skills relating to:
• The practical application of commercial law
• An insight into the procedural aspects of commercial law
• Professional communication
• Professional conduct
• Personal professional development
• Business/commercial awareness
• Planning and managing workload
• Organisational skills
• Working with others
• Dealing with clients and/or the public
• Oral and written communication skills appropriate in a professional working environment
• Professional legal writing, e.g. letter writing, drafting of contracts.
• Working with others
• Professional legal research and application to a concrete set of facts
• Time management and workload management
• Information handling e.g. working with information, planning, attention to detail, drawing conclusions, problem solving
The placement must be in a legal setting and must allow you to meet a range of specified learning outcomes. There are few fixed requirements, allowing the nature of the legal experience to be flexible. Placements may be paid or unpaid. Placements are normally at one location, but with permission of the module director, separate placements may be used to accumulate the requisite amount of working hours. You 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.
PLEASE NOTE that it will be your responsibility to identify an appropriate placement provider and secure an appropriate placement. The placement must be approved by the School of Law before it begins.
100% coursework assessed by the department. The work placement is assessed on pass/fail criteria only. If students fail the module they will automatically revert back to standard Master’s Degree. 120 credits in total. The assessment will consist of three pieces of work interspersed through the placement at the start, middle and end of the Placement. These will comprise:
1) a placement report, (2) an interim work log and (3) a reflective essay.
1) Work placement report (at the start of the placement): A report detailing their role and the rationale behind the job search and in securing the work placement, including any interviews attended and preparation. This should include 1) CV, 2) a justification of the choice of organization in terms of company values, work to be carried out and relevance to career and 3) how the work and skills can contribute to the running of the organization. 1,000 words
Length: 1000 words
Weighting: 20%
2) Interim Work log (middle of the placement): regarding the placement experience (type of work place, issues and benefits of team work, tasks to complete, work set up and workflow processes, difficulties encountered and how they were solved, variations in work/tasks requirements, etc.). This must consist of at least two separate entries written during the first half of the placement.
Length: around 1500 words
Weighting: 30%
3) Reflective essay (end of the placement): A reflection on how the work placement has helped develop the student’s employability skills and how the skills acquired in academic modules played a role in their work placement The essay should cover the overall experience and can include recommendations that can be submitted to the employer.
Length: around 3000 words
Weighting: 50%
Role and responsibilities of the Student:
You must fulfil the assessment requirements of this module as explained in the previous section.
Before the placement:
• Ensure that you have read the module handbook and understand what is expected of you
• Ensure that you fully understand the assessment criteria for this module
• It is your responsibility to find and secure a suitable placement
• The placement must be approved by the School of Law before it begins
• A copy of this guidance document must be read and signed by you, by your placement provider and by the module director
During the placement:
• Provide the School of Law with a copy of the health and safety form, completed and signed by you and by the placement provider within one week of starting your placement
• Submit the “Interim Work Log” to the School of Law.
• Behave professionally, courteously and appropriately in all dealings with your placement provider, its employees and its customer/clients
• Maintain confidentiality to the extent required by your placement provider
• Abide by all rules regarding health and safety requirements and other practices and procedures at your placement provider
• Follow instructions and act sensibly to protect your own safety and that of others
• Return required contact details and paperwork within the timeframes set by the School of Law
• Monitor your own placement progress in terms of ensuring that your work/activities/duties meet the learning outcomes of this module
• Maintain accurate attendance records
• Maintain accurate records of the work/activities/work you undertake (whilst respecting client and commercial confidentiality)
• Keep a reflective journal of your experiences and skills’ development
• Notify the School of Law and your placement provider of any problems which might affect the satisfactory completion of this module
• Maintain contact with the School of Law for the duration of your placement
After the placement:
• Complete and submit the reflective essay by the specified date
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 |
Work Placement Report |
|
20% |
| Coursework |
Interim Work Log |
|
30% |
| Coursework |
Reflective Essay |
|
50% |
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
Dr Marios Koutsias, email: mkouts@essex.ac.uk.
lawpgtadmin@essex.ac.uk
No
No
No
Mr Eric Jeanpierre
Kingston University
Senior Lecturer in Law and Undegraduate Law Course Director
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.
Essex Law School
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