Legal English Course
Course Focus:
Language being a crucial tool in the work and success of the lawyer, the importance and growing relevance of legal English is becoming ever more internationally recognised, as the ubiquitous demands of globalisation make no exception of the sphere of law. Masters of language as lawyers and other legal professionals are in their own tongues, near-equivalent proficiency in English is imperative to ensure corresponding competence on a trans-cultural scale, apart from on a national one.
The aim of this course is to meet these demands and enable students to translate the skills and principles they already have into a convincing English counterpart that maintains the accuracy and care typical of their profession’s communication style.
It is suited to the needs of both students of law as well as legal professionals, including commercial lawyers, public sector lawyers, solicitors, judges, legal assistants, attorneys and others.
Course Content:
Drawing on students’ own needs for the direction of the course, the programme typically includes using as many realistic work scenarios as possible to structure the lesson, while integrating all four language skills as relevant to each activity. There is therefore heavy reliance on the active involvement of students who are expected to contribute their own experience to the class in order to create effective and highly engaging simulations of the office and the courtroom.
Such activities include:
• formal and informal debate to hone the skills of expression of opinion, argumentation, persuasion and negotiation;
• preparation and delivery of interesting presentations;
• active participation in meetings;
• confident networking in multicultural business environments with a view to making contacts;
• agreement and contract drafting;
• report-writing;
• discussion of legislative proposals;
• interpretation of various legal documents.
For confident operation within such frameworks, students are provided with a solid lexical basis that includes the necessary terminology related to a range of different areas, such as:
• real property law,
• intellectual law,
• employment law,
• contract law,
• corporate law,
• secured transactions law,
• judicial review,
• public liability;
Upon completion of a needs analysis questionnaire, a tailor-made course programme will be created to suit the specific needs of the student/s. Simply send an e-mail to [email protected] to request a needs analysis questionnaire.
TOLES EXAM PREPARATION:
We also offer TOLES exam preparation courses for those students wishing to sit for an internationally recognised exam in Legal English recognised by law firms and organizations around the world. TOLES means Test of Legal English Skills and has three levels and therefore three exams:
Level 1: Foundation
Suitable for beginner level. Focus on basic grammar and vocabulary. Encourages commercial awareness.
Level 2: Higher
Suitable for intermediate level. Focus on intermediate grammar and vocabulary. A realistic introduction to work.
Level 3: Advanced
Suitable for advanced level. Focus on near-native level grammar and vocabulary. The gold standard exam for commercial lawyers
More information about our TOLES exam preparation courses here.