electiveHQ

This module examines the role of the legal profession in contemporary social, economic and political life and the competing pressures of values and ethics in professional life. It engages students in developing critical awareness of how the legal education and the practice of law shapes both legal norms and the outcomes of legal processes. The module combines the development of legal skills with the acquisition of a deeper understanding of the legal system. We consider evidence as to what lawyers do and why. The professional practice of lawyers involves the acquisition and retention of clients, finding out their circumstances and preferences, articulating the law in its potential, but also bearing in mind the practicality of recourse to the law. We examine how lawyers charge for their services, and what ethical dilemnas may arise consequent on countervailing commercial influences on lawyer and client.We will use a series of simulations to experience how lawyers gather information and instructions from their clients and use their professional knowledge to advance the interests of their clients through advising and then negotiating on their behalf, or acting as advocates for them. Central to this activity is the development of writing skills for legal drafting and other forms of writing. We will experience and evaluate the significance of drafting processes for advancing client issues. Finally we will examine the various mechanisms through which professional values are implemented and enforced through the actions of professionals themselves and their firms and through the oversight and enforcement by both professional and governmental bodies. We will examine the relative balance between self-regulation and public regulation, and tensions between professional autonomy and the claims of state actors to intervene in the name both of competition and regulatory ordering.