Course description
Overview
Our well-established and world renowned BVC has been designed to meet every
demand of the modern Bar. By ensuring that you are fully prepared for professional
life, our course provides you with transferable skills which can be applied in a variety
of contexts.
Our BVC will help:
- Prepare you to meet the demands of practice and
professional life
- Ensure that you are competent to meet the expectations
of the public and the profession
- Equip you with the skills to perform a range of legal tasks
as required in practice
- Develop effective life-long professional learning patterns
We are extremely proud of our reputation, the strength of
our links with the Bar, the quality of our training, the expert
support we provide to help students secure pupiliages and
the work done by our Pro Bono Advice unit.
On successful completion of the course, you will receive the
City University London Postgraduate Diploma in Professional
Legal Skills which will enable you to be called to the Bar and
take your first steps into practice successfully.
How will I be taught?
The course is skills-based and replicates the demands and
disciplines of practice through realistic exercises. You will
receive training materials which reflect the work you will do
during the early years of practice which are made available
to you both in hard copy and online.
You will also receive:
- Blackstone’s Criminal Practice
- Blackstone’s Civil Practice
- The City Law School Manuals (published by OUP)
on all the skills and knowledge areas
You will be given regular feedback on your performances,
primarily from your tutors but also from other students.
Regular practice together with guidance through feedback
ensures that students on the course develop their skills to
the full potential.
In order to make sure that our feedback is useful to you,
we ensure that:
- All of our staff are fully trained in giving effective feedback
- The criteria for all skills modules are highlighted for students
in the introductory stages
- All skills-based small group sessions focus on one or more
assessment criteria
Feedback, including self-assessment and peer assessment,
is central to the development of your legal skills, and your
own professional (and even personal) development.
During the course, you will be taught by professionally
qualified experts who bring a range of experience and
specialist knowledge to the BVC.
Our expert teaching staff are:
- Directly involved in practice
- Accredited Advocacy Training Committee (ATC) trainers
- Leading authors of both practitioner and student texts
- At the forefront of professional legal skills training
- Regular contributors to the ongoing development
of effective legal skills training
Our unique Practical Training Exercise programme is:
- Practically focused
- Comprised of a series of sets of instructions and briefs
based on realistic cases
- Written and developed in close consultation with
practitioners
Our teaching is practically oriented and has an emphasis
on learning by doing:
- Advocacy is taught in a courtroom setting, in groups of six
- Small group sessions are held with groups of no more
than twelve
- Interactive large group sessions are also held frequently
The BVC marks the start of your legal career, so you are
expected to attend and work as you would if you were
in practice.
However, with optional early evening practitioner sessions
and an exclusive series of forensic science lectures, we build
in as much added value as possible for our students.
Our core BVC timetable consists of:
- Four days teaching each week
(equating to around 12-14 hours class contact time)
- One day for preparation, professional development
and research each week
- Twenty plus hours of private study and preparation
work each week
Like most others, our BVC consists of a number of core
and elective subjects, each developed to deliver the relevant
legal skills/knowledge that all young barristers need or the
detailed knowledge required for your chosen specialist
areas/subjects.
Core subjects:
- Case Preparation and Analysis
- Civil Advocacy
- Civil Litigation
- Criminal Advocacy
- Criminal Litigation and Sentencing
- Evidence
- Interpersonal Skills, Negotiation and Conferences with clients
- Legal Research, electronic and paper-based
- Professional Conduct
- Written Skills, Opinion Writing and Drafting
Other important areas covered within the context
of the main subjects:
- Alternative Methods of Dispute Resolution
- Costs
- Human Rights
- Remedies
- Risk Analysis
Elective subjects:
- Advanced Civil – Professional Negligence
- Advanced Crime
- Commercial Law
- Company Law
- Employment Law
- Family Law
- Fraud and Financial Crime
- Free Representation Unit work (limited availability)
How will I be assessed?
There are 11 skills assessments and two Multiple Choice
Tests. The assessments are a combination of “unseen”
and “take away” papers.
All assessments are based on realistic exercises reproducing
the demands of practice and reflecting the work done on
the course.
This includes: Oral skills assessments which are recorded on
DVD with actors playing the role of client and/or witness and
Written skills assessments that require you to write an Opinion
or prepare a piece of Drafting. You will also be assessed in
Legal Research Skills and Professional Conduct.
In addition, multiple choice tests will be used to assess
competence in Criminal Litigation, Sentencing and Evidence
and Civil Litigation and Civil Evidence.
We place a strong emphasis on the individual professional
development of every one of our students and offer you
numerous opportunities to participate in “live client” work
through the Free Representation Unit (FRU) and our Pro
Bono Advice Unit.
In addition, there are a number of activities incorporated into
the course which we regard as an essential part of learning
how to become an effective advocate.
These include:
- Court visits
- Practitioner classes
- Self assessment
- Peer assessment
- Critical analysis
Professional conduct and ethics are also central to all
teaching and learning done on the course. During your
time with us year we will help you:
- Become an independent, innovative and confident lawyer
- Develop your ability to use argument and persuasion in
oral and written forms
- Develop high standards of client service and care
Plus, our BVC students regularly participate in the National
and International Client Interviewing, Mock Trial and Negotiation
competitions… students on our BVC have won the National
Mock trial competition for the last 3 years (2005-06, 2006-07
and 2007-08).
Finally, both the course and careers teams are dedicated to
assisting you with the development of your career. We provide
a wide range of career-focused support for all students,
whether or not they intend to go into private practice.
Services offered include:
- Pupillage Advisory Service
- Pupillage workshops & annual pupillage fair
- Centre for Career & Skills Development
- One-to-one consultations, CV advice and
interviewing techniques
- Alternative Careers Service
Services offered include:
- Pupillage Advisory Service
- Pupillage workshops & annual pupillage fair
- Centre for Career & Skills Development
- One-to-one consultations, CV advice and interviewing
techniques
> Alternative Careers Service
