Wednesday, January 31

One semester down...

My first semester studying Law has come and gone already. In my last week before Christmas three assignments were to be handed in, and I had a moot to perform. I have since had my assignments back, all of which I passed.
The moot was more stressful than I had anticipated. This was mainly due to the way the majority of my moot team conducted themselves. Being the junior counsel, if my work was not prepared the team would more than likely fail. Others in my team, however, were spared this pressure and indeed used this freedom to full effect by performing such feats as; not preparing the bundle, not preparing the case summaries I required, not turning up to the moot. In the end however the moot went well and we ended with a higher (group) mark than the opposing team. Speaking to my lecturers on the subject I was told two important pieces of advice, which I can only imagine will apply throughout my entire career;
'Group work will always remain a problem, there will be those that do more work than others. Only you will know how much work you did and will have to answer to yourself.'
'By the next moot you will know who to work with and who not to work with.'

However the moot was not all bad. I did really quite enjoy presenting my arguments to the judges. It was good to practice skills that I may use one day as the basis of my job.

Since returning, we have been told that despite the exams being three months away we are to start revising now. I am slightly apprehensive about this, but feel that I should have enough time to learn all I need to pass the exams well. To that end I have decided to really knuckle-down and crack on with my revision and learning cases.
We were told that we should develop our own legal writing skills. One particular way suggested was to copy your favourite judge's own style. I am quite looking forward to reading as many judgements made by LJ Denning as I can get my hands on.

I shall attempt to update my blog on a more frequent basis than I have been from now on.