Senior Lecturer in Law, Mark Johnson and final year LLB Law and Criminology student Heba Yahya reflect on this year’s Academy which took place on 6 and 7 November 2023.
Mark Johnson
As an applied university, we prepare students for whatever they choose to do next and create knowledge that provides practical solutions to real world challenges. The Academy provides an incredible insight to do just that – with a particular focus on recruitment in the legal jobs market.
This was the third time we have run the Employability Academy, and we could not do so without the support of the local legal community. No fewer than 14 external legal professionals gave up their time to inspire our students and offer them the opportunity of insights into the legal profession and entry into it. A huge thanks must therefore go to PM Law, Thompsons Solicitors, CMS, Lupton Fawcett, Shakespeare Martineau and Taylor Emmet.
The Academy would also not have been possible without the involvement of twelve committed colleagues from the School of Law – all participating students really appreciated the support.
I was immensely proud of our students who engaged with all of the Academy activities with an openness and tenacity which will see them thrive in their future career steps. We started the Academy with the aim of inspiring our students and, whilst this has clearly been met, I ended up also being hugely inspired by them.
Heba Yahya
I have had the greatest honour of being a part of the two-day School of Law Employability Academy, hosted by Mark. The Academy provided us with the tools we needed to succeed in the graduate job market and handle the transition from a university setting to a professional one as we learnt from and networked with local practising lawyers.
On Day 1 we had the fantastic opportunity of a careers panel, hearing and learning from professionals working and recruiting in the local legal market. Lawyers from Thompsons Solicitors and PM Law gave us a fantastic insight into what it is like to work in their respective firms and spoke about their own personal experiences and achievements, which was really beneficial as it gave us students a perspective of what life could be like after university.
Later on in the day we had an incredible and enjoyable session from CMS about gaining commercial awareness insight from the global law firm. We were given a case and had a go at trying to flag all potential issues we thought there were utilising our commercial knowledge. It was a great session and very intuitive for me personally, as commercial law was something I have been looking into and interested in. Gaining that outlook into working in the field was very advantageous and I am grateful to have been a part of it.
Day 2 started with practice group activities and a negotiation exercise where we understood and learned about different negotiation personalities and had a hand in what working in commercial law could look like.
Followed by that I had a go at a mock job interview with a solicitor from Taylor Emmet Solicitors. The interview was great practice on preparing me for real job interviews and was instrumental in improving my interview skills as both interviewers provided me with feedback at the end on what my strengths and flaws were.
Lastly, I want to thank Mark Johnson, Gillian Pastuch and Sheryl Cruickshank and all of the other staff involved for this amazing opportunity and insight.
