Written Coursework Assessment

1 - Written assignment (including essay) - 100

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This module covers a range of areas that are important for and pervasive within the work of a solicitor. It aims to show you how to work in a professional way and be aware of commercial considerations. These areas can arise in a wide range of contexts, and they may be relevant to how legal knowledge should be used, or how legal skills should be carried out.   The fact that these areas are pervasive does not mean that they only have background relevance. Being able to act in a professional way is key to being able to provide a good quality of service to a client. Making any significant mistake in relation to ethical or commercial issues could have a profoundly negative impact on your professional reputation and the success of your career. The areas covered in this module are:
<ul><li>The ‘business of law’</li></ul>
This includes marketing and how law firms make money and legal technology.
<ul><li>Practice Management:</li></ul>
This includes client care and managing client expectations, confidentiality and data protection, costs, billing, file management, time management, risk management and consideration of ethical issues.
<ul><li>Commercial Awareness</li></ul>
This includes reading financial statements, awareness of financial services and appreciation of the commercial context.
<ul><li>Continuing Competence</li></ul>
This includes an introduction to coaching, continuing professional development.
<ul><li>Negotiation</li></ul>
This includes preparing for a negotiation by analysing the issues and objectives, the different approaches to a negotiation, conducting the negotiation effectively, concluding a negotiation effectively, recording an agreed settlement.
<ul><li>The Statement of Solicitor’s Competence:</li></ul>
This includes all the above, in the context of the Statement of Solicitor’s Competence, and the SRA Principles and rules of professional conduct.
This module, taken in Term 2, further contextualises areas of functioning legal knowledge studied in Term 1, and practical legal skills covered in Term 2.

Feedback is provided in a number of ways throughout your module. This includes feedback you receive during teaching from both peers and lecturers and that provided for formative assessment. Following an assessment, you will be given your marks and feedback in line with the assessment regulations and policy. More information on the timing and type of feedback that will be provided for each assessment will be available from the module leader. <a href='https://www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/about/governance/policies/student-policies-and-regulations'>https://www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/about/governance/policies/student-policies-and-regulations</a>

This module will support the development of all the graduate attributes. Your module leader will provide you with information about how your learning, teaching and assessment activities support your development of these attributes. The graduate attributes are: - Always learning - Engaged in the world - Technical and digital - Connected Professional - Creating Impact

In-Person - 

Self-directed - 

LVM006 - Preparation for Practice

LVM006-PRD2-PER-ALV1

The SPP programme has been developed to provide supportive and coherent blended learning. The primary emphasis is on face-to-face seminars to help to ensure that you develop appropriate professional skills and are able to base those skills in a proper understanding of the relevant knowledge and how to apply it. To help you to develop your understanding and abilities, materials and classes focus primarily on the analysis of realistic scenarios that might be encountered in practice as a solicitor. This is located within a flexible environment where structured online resources on Moodle support your learning and skill development in a range of ways.
<ul>
<li>There is a clear week on week framework to guide you incrementally through the knowledge areas you need to learn. This is systematically presented to clearly indicate topics to be covered each week and work you will need to do.</li>
<li>The online materials may include a mix of video, audio, graphical and text-based resources, including realistic scenarios and documents for you to analyse and work on.</li>
<li>Normally, lecture type material will be pre-recorded as video, audio or narrated Powerpoints, to provide you with flexible access.</li>
<li>To help you to prepare effectively for class, each week there will be pre-reading and case analysis tasks to be completed, to help you to develop your knowledge, and to help you to practice applying it. Preparation for class will include identifying professional conduct, professional development, ethical or commercial awareness issues in a range of scenarios and considering how best to address them. It is very important that you complete this work in advance to get proper benefit from each class, and each class will be conducted on the basis required preparation has been completed.</li>
<li>In class you will be asked to identify relevant professional conduct, professional development, ethical or commercial awareness issues, and propose how they be addressed. You need to be ready for this as it provides key opportunities to develop your knowledge and skills.</li>
<li>After each class, you will be provided with online materials designed to help you to consolidate your learning.</li>
<li>The online materials may also include links to other resources, additional exercises to complete for practice, and sample answers.</li>
</ul>
Note that issues relating to professional conduct, ethics, commercial awareness and negotiation may also arise in exercises used in all other modules, and you should look for relevant issues in preparing for classes in those modules.
This blended learning approach involves substantial online materials, including problem questions to help you to refine your analytical skills and apply your legal knowledge.
Face-to-face teaching will mainly take place in seminars (normally of about 16 students). These classes are all designed to support your developing legal skills and your application of legal knowledge, providing a range of opportunities to practice in the context of exercises using realistic client-based and firm-based scenarios.
You will be expected to attend all classes, and attendance is monitored. Follow up action may be taken if you do not attend regularly. You will be expected to take responsibility for your own learning, ensuring you are always properly prepared, to get the best from the programme and to lay a sound foundation for your future career.
You will typically have around 2 hours of face-to-face teaching each week for this module, and you will also be expected to do about 6-8 hours of personal study each week, engaging in reading and research, online activities, and preparing for classes.
You will be able to monitor your progress through your ability to analyse the scenarios set for class appropriately, to apply your legal knowledge accurately, and to perform relevant skills in class with feedback from your tutor and other students in the class. There will also be a formative assessment will provide feedback, including developmental guidance.

Preparation for Practice

Values and attitudes

Show knowledge and understanding of client and practice management and personal and professional development.

Knowledge

Develop skills to support ongoing professional development and competence, including digital and presentation skills.

Skills

Show knowledge and understanding of negotiation processes.

Appropriately identify and address ethical or professional conduct issues.

Understand the commercial context including Financial Services to be able to identify any relevant issues that arise.

Exercise judgment so as to resolve any issue honestly and with integrity.

Appropriately advise a client on options and strategies for negotiation.

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the SRA Principles, the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, and relevant parts of the SRA Code of Conduct to be able to identify any ethical or professional conduct issues.

Identify and address issues in relation to client relations and practice management.