The Last of the Last Days

Wednesday marked the very last day at university for me and many others in my classes. Amidst the teachers handing out review forms and giving us vital last minute exam information/tips there wasn't a lot of time to get nostalgic. I did bring in cake though, and cake always marks a special occasion. 

I can now officially say that I have completed all of the learning on the Legal Practice Course. I have been reflecting on the past two years and whether I feel I have achieved everything that I set out to achieve on the LPC. I am obviously disappointed that I won't be starting a training contract this coming September as I began the course in high confidence that I would be able to secure a TC starting in 2014. Things don't always go to plan. I do, however, have a promising job in a firm that have invited me to apply for their 2015 training contract, so it is not all bad. 

In addition, I have really concerted my efforts into succeeding on the LPC - more so than on the LLB. I am of course aware that the LLB is regarded much higher than the LPC but I am still proud that I have gone from averaging mid sixties to mid seventies, showing my dedication and the amount of time I have invested into this course. I am genuinely proud of my achievements (and I don't say that very often!). 

For now, it is revision for me in preparation of my final exams. They are  a week apart too which makes me feel far more relaxed about the whole affair. We are also arranging a large group meal for all my lovely form mates so that is something to look forward to! 

For those of you coming to the end of courses, whether they be the LLB, GDL, LPC or BPTC, I hope your last days and exams  went well :)

Results: Litigation, Property, Writing and Conduct

Although a little late, I am here to talk about results day last Thursday. The strangest thing about getting results is that no matter how well you feel you did during and directly after the exams, the more time spent waiting for your grades, the more you begin to self-doubt. With ten long weeks to wait between the final exam and results day, self-doubt was in abundance among my friends in the last couple of weeks. Most of us were working on that Thursday and, if I'm honest, it is a bit of a relief to have an excuse not to be able to have the pointer hovering over the "open" button at 13:59. By 15:00 I had mustered the courage to open results after finally accepting the realisation that not opening the results didn't change their outcome! 

I logged in to elite. And then received a text from a close friend to say she had opened hers and got distinctions in both. My stomach sank and I closed elite down. It took me twenty minutes to get back to the page and I finally checked my results:

Litigation                            85%

(civil litigation                     65/80)

(criminal litigation              20/20)

Property                             76%

Conduct                              90%

Writing                                Competent

Needless to say I was completely overwhelmed by the grades and have been the given the boost I need for the final push. We now have only one (YES ONE!) teaching week left at university before more exams and then the end. Commercial is going really really well, and although there is a lot of prep for the workshops I am definitely enjoying it. We have now done workshops on competition law and online sales contracts. This module is, unsurprisingly, heavily based in EU law (being International Commercial Law) so is not for the person wishing to forget all those wonderful EU regulations learned on the LLB/GDL. Private client is also going well but I am surprised about the sheer volume of tax work in this elective. Not that this is a bad thing from my tax-loving point of view, but I can see how some people are beginning to feel a little grumpy at the prospect of doing another exam on tax!

Now, off to prep for the final week. I hope you have all been enjoying the wonderful sunshine.

Failing the LPC

I feel that, with exam results looming and due on 15 May, I am most likely tempting fate by writing this blog as it is all about failing the LPC. 

Ask any current student on any Legal Practice Course and they will all know of at least one failure related horror story. Mine is this: a girl in the year ahead of me managed to secure a training contract with a decent firm in her first year of the part time LPC. Having gained distinctions and competents in all of her exams thus far, she was horrified to find she had failed Civil Litigation. Even though she retook the exam, passed, and retained her 70% distinction average (even with the 50% cap on Civil Litigation), she could be awarded no more than a pass, as university rules state that to fail a core exam limits the student to an overall pass mark on the LPC. Do not pass Go, do not collect £200. As if the poor girl's situation could not seem any more devastating, upon informing her firm of her fail they hastily withdrew her training contract, as per the terms of said contract. The student who was once averaging a distinction and had a promising future in the bag lost it all by one failed exam. 

I did a little research and this type of situation is, unfortunately, not uncommon. And even worse is the cut throat attitude of other law students commenting on this type of situation. One pleasant chap was so outraged by the fact that anyone could fail an LPC exam that he stated that a person who fails an LPC exam was clearly not worthy of a training contract in the first place. It got me thinking, are the the LPC exams really that difficult to fail? And if a person does fail does that mean that they are henceforth irredeemable as a lawyer? 

Having studied on the part time course I have had the opportunity to meet people from a variety of different backgrounds. We all have careers outside of law school. Many have families and other commitments outside of law school. Basically, for some people, the world simply cannot revolve around law school. And this can lead to the dreaded fail. 

During the previous exam period I had my exams sandwiched between work days. I could not afford to take more than the actual days of the exams off. Has this affected my performance? We will see. But does this make me any less of a lawyer compared to a person who is fortunate enough to be able to study full time and without having to work? I am not so sure. 

If the legal world doesn't look any further into a person's circumstances before rejecting their application based on a fail (or worse, withdrawing a training contract) I have to wonder whether the profession genuinely does want to move towards representing a wider section of the community. The kind of student who has to work to fund their LPC is the same student typically from poorer backgrounds. In this way, the barrier to these students still holds. These students generally cannot get time off from work for work experience and certainly cannot afford to undertake the common place unpaid work experience. They cram their study in to ever busy working weeks and struggle to keep their heads above water. And on top of all this, one bad day, one hectic week at work, or one poorly child the night before an exam, could mean their whole LPC is rendered worthless. 

So to that extremely closed minded man who sought to make the author of the forum question feel totally worthless, open your eyes and see that, yes, failing a module on the LPC may be down to one's laziness and lack of motivation. But it could also be due to a whole host of other reasons that do not make that person any less of a fantastic lawyer.