Which optional courses might a student who wants to work in a big law firm take?

The study of law in intellectually stimulating and challenging and can lead to a variety of interesting careers.

In the UK and the USA, law degree programmes usually take three years to complete. In the UK, these programmes typically include core subjects such as criminal law, contract law, tort law, land law, equity and trusts, administrative law and constitutional law. In addition, students are often required to take courses covering skills such as legal writing and legal research.

There is also a variety of optional (elective) courses available. Since many law students go on to become lawyers, students often take courses that will be useful to them during their future careers. Someone wishing to run a small partnership or to work alone as a sole practitioner in a small town may decide to take subjects such as family law, employment law and housing law. Those wishing to work in a large law practice will consider subjects such as company law, commercial law and litigation and arbitration.

Many universities also offer courses on legal practice. Courses like this give students the opportunity to experience the work of a lawyer before deciding on a career in the law. Another way of finding out more about law in practice is to get involved with a voluntary advice centre or law clinic. These clinics offer free legal assistance to the local community and provide a useful introduction to some of the day-to-day work of a lawyer.

For students wishing to work in a commercial practice, knowledge of foreign languages is essential. When law firms hire new recruits, they generally look at four things: education, personality, work experience and language ability. Since English is the language of the international legal community, law firms increasingly expect graduates to have a good command of English.

Read the text again and decide whether these statements are true (T) or false (F). If the statement is false, correct it.

1. A course in family law is usually included among the core subjects at law schools in the UK.

2. Some law degree programmes offer courses in some of the important skills that lawyers need in order to do their work, such as legal writing or legal English.

3. Law clinics give law students the opportunity to learn about the legal problems of the medical profession.

4. Today, commercial law firms expect recruits to be completely fluent in English.

When you record vocabulary, you should try to write down as many collocations as you can, and not only single words.

How many collocations with the words legal (e.g. legal writing) and law (e.g. law firm) can you find in the text?

Speaking 1: Law firms and courses

Discuss these questions with a partner. Look at the sample responses.

1. What type of law firm do you (think you would like to) work in?

I’d like to work as a sole practitioner, as I’d prefer to be my own boss.

I think a big law firm would be exciting.

2. Which optional courses are you taking / did you take during your studies?

This semester, I’m taking an elective course in environmental law.

I took a course on human rights law when I was in law school.

Reading 2: Course descriptions

Reading texts in a foreign language often means encountering unfamiliar words. Discuss these questions with a partner.

1. What is the best way to deal with unfamiliar words in the text?

2. Read the following list of strategies and discuss how useful they are.

What factors might affect the strategy you use?

Try to understand the new word with the help of surrounding words.

Look up every unknown word in a dictionary.

Ignore the unknown word and read on.

Look up some new words, ignore others.

Analyse the unknown word: ask what part of speech it is (a noun or an adjective, for example); if it has a root or a prefix (Latin or French, for example) that may help you understand it; if it has a positive or negative meaning, etc.

Keep these strategies in mind when reading the text on the next page.

The English Legal System

It is often said that the English legal system looks very fair in theory, but in practice it is difficult for ordinary people to use. Firstly, it is extremely expensive: a good lawyer costs two hundred pounds per hour. Secondly, it is very formal with all sorts of rules in the court. Until recently the judge and the lawyers used to wear extraordinary old-fashioned costumes: black robes, high white collars and white wigs. The inside of the court is rather like a church, with the judge looking down from a seat above the court.

The English legal system gives the judge a lot of freedom in deciding on the sentence. The lightest sentence possible is community service. This means unpaid work for a fixed number of hours, on jobs such as painting hospital buildings or gardening for elderly people. There are also fines for smaller things like parking in the wrong place and these fines are usually not big.

But fines can be used for serious crimes, too, if a criminal can not be imprisoned – for example, when a company breaks the law. Then rich people or organizations sometimes pay millions of pounds.

The standard punishment for serious offences is prison. Many people feel that criminals should go to prison, but it is far from the perfect answer to the problem. When prisoners are released they often carry on with their lives of crime; in fact, they meet other criminals inside, get ideas from them and make useful contacts. The prison system is extremely expensive. Yet judges continue to send large number of people there.

There is no death penalty in Britain. It was abolished more than 40 years ago. Although some people think that it must be introduced again, it will hardly ever happen.

1. Why is the legal system in Britain difficult for ordinary people to use?

2. What is the lightest sentence possible in Britain?

3. In what cases is an offender liable to a fine in Britain?

4. Why is the prison system far from perfect?

5. What is the public sentiment about the death penalty in Britain?