School of Law

 Law students make competition finals

Third year Law Students Joe Carty and Kathryn King have successfully made it through to the finals of the 2010 Client Interviewing and Counselling Competition (CICC).

The finals will take place at Anglia Ruskin University this month after an outstanding performance in preliminaries.

Joe and Kathryn were tested under 11 criteria with a very short brief based around the theme of white collar crime. The pair's ability to advise and interview a client, whilst establishing and maintaining an effective professional working atmosphere was assessed.

The duo were chosen after displaying impressive talent and commitment to the competition, and the ability to work well as a team.  This prestigious competition requires the demonstration of excellent team work and is extremely collaborative. Jonathon Gill, who came second in the finals last year, has worked closely with this year's team to offer support and guidance from his experience.

High levels of commitment are required from entrants, with five weekly training sessions with Sarah Hardy-Pickering, Principal Lecturer in Law and Ian Johnson, Programme Leader in LLM Legal Practice - both as a team and individually. Team work is developed with colleagues and students of the Faculty carrying out role plays with the team, and self-reflection is worked on in order to strengthen individual skills and confidence. Despite only being a team of two on the day, many students and academic staff work behind the teams to ensure LJMU have the best chance on the day.

Talking about LJMU's past three years of success in the CICC, Sarah Hardy-Pickering commented: “LJMU have become well established within this competition, and it is fantastic to maintain this reputation. Once again I would like to express huge congratulations to Joe and Kathryn for coming this far, I am positive they will make us proud in the Final.”

LJMU's extremely talented team will compete with eight other teams in the National Finals with the winners gaining automatic entrance to the international competition to be held in Hong Kong later this year.

The Law Factor

23 students from Year 10 gave-up two days of their half term holiday to find out more about law and the legal system by attending a two-day taster programme at LJMU.

The students came from across Greater Merseyside and eleven schools from five boroughs were represented at the event. The day began with a theoretical introduction to 'The Law & Beyond' led by Stuart Taylor and Ester Ragonese, both Senior Lecturers within the School of Law at LJMU. The remainder of the day was based around discussions and activities covering topics such as: 'Principles of Law', 'Crime, Criminality and Criminal Justice' and 'Punishment and Sentencing'.
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