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To those who are taking Law and graduated with a Law degree: why did you study it?

I'm interested to know from these two groups of people:
-The current Law students
-The Law graduate

1) Why did/do you want to study Law?
2) Did you get what you expected? What were your expectations?
3) How do you feel currently about your Law programme?
4) What advice would you tell your Law juniors?
5) What advice would you tell your younger self? :smile:

7) What's the most difficult subject and why?
8) What's your greatest obstacle?

Thanks! :biggrin:

Reply 1

kka25

Any Law students out there? :moon:

Reply 2

Bupdeeboowah

Original post by kka25

Any Law students out there? :moon:

1) Why did/do you want to study Law?

For the money.

2) Did you get what you expected? What were your expectations?

Expected to earn lots after graduating. Going to get the money, as expected.

3) How do you feel currently about your Law programme?

Could have been cheaper - wasn't worth the money actually.

4) What advice would you tell your Law juniors?

Don't care about social events, just aim for vacation schemes and work experience/skills so that you can get a TC/pupilage.

5) What advice would you tell your younger self?

Care more about money.

7) What's the most difficult subject and why?

IP law (there was unfortunately no finance modules to take, so I can't answer with money). Too much content to cover across 1 year, which each area bearing no connection to the other.

8) What's your greatest obstacle?

Having to conserve my money while studying at university.

Anyone else? :smile:

Original post by kka25

I'm interested to know from these two groups of people:
-The Law graduate

1) Why did/do you want to study Law?
Because I got an A in higher English and I didn't know what else to study.
2) Did you get what you expected? What were your expectations?
It was quite interesting however definitely not much contact time. Only 6 hours of lectures and a three 2 hour tutorials a fortnight. I didn't really know what I was getting myself in to.
3) How do you feel currently about your Law programme?
N/A
4) What advice would you tell your Law juniors?
If your uni has a law clinic, get involved it's the best way to get real practical experience that law firms love. Also if you get to the end of it and don't want to be a lawyer that's fine too. As having a law degree looks good on paper.
5) What advice would you tell your younger self? :smile:

Don't study law.
7) What's the most difficult subject and why?
Can't really remember, company law maybe?
8) What's your greatest obstacle?
Pushing myself to study when I didn't have to be in Uni.
Thanks! :biggrin:

In bold

Reply 5

kka25

Original post by lyrical_lie

In bold

Awesome!

I actually did see this "law clinic" in my campus as well but have no idea what it is lol! Mind telling me what it's all about? :colondollar:

Ha! I've a 6 hour contact lumped into one day! :pinch:

What did you find hard for company law? I'm taking it next year! :eek2:

Mind if I ask why would you tell your younger self not to study law?

Reply 6

lyrical_lie

Original post by kka25

Awesome!

I actually did see this "law clinic" in my campus as well but have no idea what it is lol! Mind telling me what it's all about? :colondollar:

Ha! I've a 6 hour contact lumped into one day! :pinch:

What did you find hard for company law? I'm taking it next year! :eek2:

Mind if I ask why would you tell your younger self not to study law?

Hey, law clinic at least at Strathclyde is where they take on community cases for free to help those who can't afford a lawyer. So things like housing and employment law. You're usually paired with an older law student and they help you with the work. However it is real cases and real people's lives so you have to be quite committed. I actually can't remember it was all this stuff with lifting the corporate veil and such. However I did do it in second year which was a good 3/4 years ago. I just found it really boring.

Because I didn't need it to get to where I am. I got a 2:1 etc but I had to work ridiculously hard to get that is subjects I didn't enjoy. Whereas I could have done a different degree, enjoyed it more, found it a bit easier and still get the job I have now.

Reply 7

kka25

Original post by lyrical_lie

I find constitution God boring lol :ninja:

Reply 8

TheDefiniteArticle

Original post by kka25

I'm interested to know from these two groups of people:
-The current Law students
-The Law graduate

I'm an Oxford law grad (well, technically Jurisprudence but it contains the LLB).

1) Why did/do you want to study Law?

I started by taking a general interest in rules and rule structures through sports and games. I took an A Level to confirm my interest and read a couple of books (my favourite being Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture).

2) Did you get what you expected? What were your expectations?

I can't remember precisely what I expected, but I think judgments were initially a little less logically structured than I expected. Apart from that the course was about what I thought.

3) How do you feel currently about your Law programme?

It was absolutely great.

4) What advice would you tell your Law juniors?

Don't skimp on the reading. Realistically you ought to be able to get a very heavy reading list done in about 40 hours tops, with the largest workload being about 55 hours in a week. Some weeks you will have less than 30. On the other hand, lectures are borderline pointless (or at least they were in my course) if you're going to do the reading.

5) What advice would you tell your younger self? :smile:

See above. Also, it's much easier to read long articles in a book than on a screen - cases it's more important to copy and paste quotes so using a computer is better.

7) What's the most difficult subject and why?

Administrative law. The generally vague nature of concepts involved with little in the way of solid answers, as well as the generally conceptual approach of academic literature made it quite tough to work through. I also found jurisprudence, land law and trusts quite difficult (land mostly because it was boring).

8) What's your greatest obstacle?

Motivating myself when hung over.

Reply 9

kka25

Original post by TheDefiniteArticle

I'm an Oxford law grad (well, technically Jurisprudence but it contains the LLB).

I started by taking a general interest in rules and rule structures through sports and games. I took an A Level to confirm my interest and read a couple of books (my favourite being Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture).

I can't remember precisely what I expected, but I think judgments were initially a little less logically structured than I expected. Apart from that the course was about what I thought.

It was absolutely great.

Don't skimp on the reading. Realistically you ought to be able to get a very heavy reading list done in about 40 hours tops, with the largest workload being about 55 hours in a week. Some weeks you will have less than 30. On the other hand, lectures are borderline pointless (or at least they were in my course) if you're going to do the reading.

See above. Also, it's much easier to read long articles in a book than on a screen - cases it's more important to copy and paste quotes so using a computer is better.

Administrative law. The generally vague nature of concepts involved with little in the way of solid answers, as well as the generally conceptual approach of academic literature made it quite tough to work through. I also found jurisprudence, land law and trusts quite difficult (land mostly because it was boring).

Motivating myself when hung over.

Thanks

How do you keep up with those very old law cases? A lecturer of mine told us that some of the reports were written as if the judge didn't take a short breath (i.e. sentences were long, appropriate punctuation marks were less than desired, etc.) lol.

Also, some of the old law cases are so old that it's hard to find them (on the online journal), unless you actually find them on, literally, dusty, weathered and just ancient books/law reports lol. How do you mean by judgments were initially a little less logically structured than you expected?

I did do the readings, but mostly via the academic textbooks; I haven't indulged myself fully on the law reports yet. Did you go through all of the law reports without referring to any academic textbooks?
Hope you don't mind I'm asking this, do you have any suggestions/advice to remember and apply the law cases to law scenarios from your experiences?

I'm doing Tort now and Intentional Trespassing of Land is rather boring; I can't imagine how I'd find Land Law :erm:

Reply 10

ubisoft

Because they couldn't do maths.

Reply 11

kka25

Original post by ubisoft

Because they couldn't do maths.

Well, I've a background in Computing :biggrin:

Reply 12

TurboCretin

Original post by kka25

I'm interested to know from these two groups of people:
-The current Law students
-The Law graduate

Thanks! :biggrin:

1) Why did/do you want to study Law? I wanted to be a lawyer, and didn't want to study law in some modern, sanitised centre in London somewhere.
2) Did you get what you expected? What were your expectations? I expected a lot of reading, and I more or less got that. I was a bit surprised how much more the tutors seemed affronted by challenges to their views than the academics who taught on my undergrad course, though.
3) How do you feel currently about your Law programme? I've graduated, but it was alright. The better part of being a law student was getting free stuff from firms and doing things with the law soc.
4) What advice would you tell your Law juniors? Look at the competencies your target firms are generally after, and pick ECs which demonstrate them.
5) What advice would you tell your younger self? :smile:

Prepping for your Oxford interview might have been a good idea?
7) What's the most difficult subject and why? Trusts, because nobody understands it.
8) What's your greatest obstacle? I don't really understand this question.

Reply 13

TheDefiniteArticle

Original post by kka25

Thanks

Yeah, especially ones from the mid 19th century and earlier can be incredibly dense. Frankly, I read those cases and then looked them up in textbooks/case books to be sure I was picking up the right points (usually there's only approximately one line of relevant principle - you'll find this out about Allen v Flood if you haven't read that yet - DO NOT read the entire report).

Also, some of the old law cases are so old that it's hard to find them (on the online journal), unless you actually find them on, literally, dusty, weathered and just ancient books/law reports lol. How do you mean by judgments were initially a little less logically structured than you expected?

The only case I was ever unable to find online was Re London Wine and the amount of time I've spent looking, I'm not sure if that wasn't just made up as a joke. If you need any help finding any cases, feel free to ask.

I mean judges would often not isolate the question of legal principle at issue quite as clearly as I'd expected they would.

I did do the readings, but mostly via the academic textbooks; I haven't indulged myself fully on the law reports yet. Did you go through all of the law reports without referring to any academic textbooks?
Hope you don't mind I'm asking this, do you have any suggestions/advice to remember and apply the law cases to law scenarios from your experiences?

Textbooks are for if you don't understand what you're supposed to get from cases. I might give them a quick skim at the start of a topic but I wouldn't bother taking notes from them. Frankly, they're very dry and take far too long to properly go through, especially given there's often a lot in a chapter which is of limited (at best) relevance to what you're actually supposed to be learning that week - the only thing I picked up from a textbook which I wouldn't have elsewhere, and found useful, was Wrotham Park damages (and I only wouldn't have picked that up elsewhere because I didn't bother reading AG v Blake, Experience Hendrix or Vercoe that week).

I'm doing Tort now and Intentional Trespassing of Land is rather boring; I can't imagine how I'd find Land Law :erm:

It's very different. My main problem with land is that the rules on registration are really quite dull and they apply to literally everything. There is some quite fun stuff - the lease/licence distinction, severance of joint tenancies etc.