Collaboration and career readiness

What impact do legal professionals have on law students as they embark on their careers?

Collaboration between legal education providers and legal professions offers significant value by developing students’ employability skills, and so nurturing their chance of success in the competitive job market. Such collaboration can provide mutual benefits, not only enhancing students’ learning and career readiness, but also helping higher education providers and employers to meet their own goals. This article explores some of the effective ways in which collaboration can take place.

One such form of collaboration is through guest talks. Legal professionals are able to contribute to circulated content, for example by providing insights in terms of placing legal topics in a practical context and sharing their real-world experiences, drawn from legal practice. Further, legal professionals can share details about their career paths, thus demonstrating how students might work towards similar goals and career outcomes.   

Mooting has been recognised as a valuable way for students to develop real-world legal skills, while also gaining confidence in other practical skills such as presentation, communication and research. Participation from legal professions in mooting may take the form of acting as a judge of a mooting competition, for example. Simulating the real work of lawyers can be enhanced by having an external practitioner play the part of a judge, thus heightening the realism of the learning experience. There is also scope for networking and sharing insights drawn from the interactions between the students and the legal professionals.  

Placements are a chance for students to immerse themselves in a real work environment, allowing them to delve more deeply into an area that they may have already studied while participating in a hands-on manner. This experience enables students to explore potential career options of interest, enhance their work experience credentials and network with legal professionals and potential future employers.

Mentorship, provided by legal professionals to students, offers students an opportunity to obtain information and guidance, typically in connection with their careers and next steps following graduation. Mentors can highlight opportunities as well as share insights based on their own career. This mentorship may facilitate networking with other legal professionals and help to guide the students on how to navigate their early career goals.

Many universities offer university law clinics. These provide another way for students to gain real-world work experience and employability-focused skills. The resources necessary to deliver a successful law clinic can be intensive, requiring input from practicing lawyers who are able to supervise the clinic.  

These highlighted experiences all provide opportunities for students to enhance their employability; however, such collaboration also offers potential advantages for legal professionals and their law firms.

Collaboration may provide an opportunity for a legal employer to contribute to training and teach students the specific skills that they need for their business. There is also scope for employers to gain fresh ideas from their interactions, which may be applied to real-work matters. Collaboration may also be aligned with a law firm’s objectives in terms of its community engagement and community social responsibility objectives. Further, such collaboration can provide employees with an opportunity to gain mentorship and leadership experience, thus helping support their own professional development.

In addition, legal education providers and legal professionals who collaborate to enhance students’ employability skills can also help institutions to meet the Office for Students’ regulatory requirement to deliver positive outcomes for students.

The Office for Students (OfS) regulates higher education in England. Registration with the OfS provides specific benefits, including the ability to recruit students who can access student loans, and the right to award their own degree.

An overall requirement set out in B3 of the OfS conditions of registration is that a higher education provider in England must “deliver positive outcomes” for the students studying their courses. To meet these requirements, providers must deliver positive outcomes by performing at or above the numerical thresholds set by the OfS, in connection with various indicators that they employ as a measure. These include student continuation and completion rates, as well as the number of students progressing into managerial/professional employment or further study.

The OfS possesses enforcement powers, under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. These include the power to impose a monetary penalty on a provider, or to impose conditions of registration – or ultimately to deregister a provider – if there has been a breach of one or more of the conditions of registration.

Higher education providers working collaboratively with employers is an effective way of helping students to gain real-world experience and industry insights as well as networking opportunities, with the aim of facilitating their entry to the job market. Such collaboration can also help the legal education institutions to meet their goals, including achieving regulatory compliance.

Written by Dr Simon Best, Associate Professor in Law, Leeds Trinity University