Hi guys, I am currently a second-year law student who is majoring in health care law and criminal law. I’ve learned so much beyond the classroom whist studying at York, and I’m going to share my experience of York Law School and how it boosted my employability skills!
Learning to Think Like a Lawyer, Not Just Study Like One
One thing that surprised me most at York Law School was how much critical thinking was involved. As in our study module, we will have to go through different real case scenarios and analyse them, which takes a lot more skills than you thought. What we do is not just analyse it, but use our critical mindset. For example, aside from pinpointing the key facts of the case, we have to put our foot into different parties’ shoes, understand their position and needs, and figure out the interconnection between them. These kinds of critical analysis skills are very crucial when you work in the legal industry because they enable us to understand our clients based on the information provided by them.
A comprehensive analysis is the first step to guiding yourself and your client to identify their needs and potential solutions, and so offer the best solution for them. I really felt the impact of this skill when I volunteered as a phone caller for York Neighbours, because it taught me to understand the whole picture of someone’s story before making an assistant call based on the basic information provided by the needy in order to provide the most suitable assistant for them.
Finding My Voice Through Law School
Before studying law, public speaking wasn’t something I felt confident about—but that gradually changed at York. Throughout the semester, I have had a couple of chances to participate in speaking training, like negotiation practices and mooting competitions. As a member of the Negotiation Society, I find those practices very valuable because not only do they help me shape and develop my speaking style, but they also build my confidence.
These transparent skills are highly valuable when it comes to boosting your employability, as the way you speak and represent yourself shapes others’ first impression of you. Throughout those practice opportunities, I learned to use body language and hand gestures to present my ideas more effectively, and I understand that it’s also very important to observe the reaction of the audience and see whether they can catch up with what you are saying. These subtle tactics are extremely crucial to fostering effective communication with your classmates or even colleagues in your workplace. I even applied these techniques while working as a live streamer for Shamble Jewellers, where switching my speaking style directly influenced how the audience responded.
Working as a “Little Law Firm”: Teamwork at York Law School
Another highlight of studying at York Law School has been learning how to work effectively with others. Studying in York Law School, you will be working with a different PBL group per year as a ‘little law firm’. You guys have to set up your own rules for the firm and try to figure out the ways of working, like do you guys prefer working in a subgroup or a whole group, or do you guys prefer hand-writing more than typing? Those discussions are very interesting because you will see how people work differently and how they actually compromise and contribute to the team. One fun fact about group work is that team members often have different personalities and naturally fall into different roles, such as observers, collaborators, or leaders.
If you are interested in working in a law firm in the future, this would be an immersive experience for you to understand the basic operational idea of a law firm, including how they handle cases and inquiries from their clients. From this learning approach, I also learned to work with people from different backgrounds with various personality traits, and I also figured out my strengths working in a team as a leader by reflecting on my own roles and performance in a team.
If you’re studying at York Law School, my advice is simple – make the most of your PBL sessions, because they’re more valuable than they first appear. And I believe having excellent collaboration skills could definitely be a plus if you are applying for jobs.
Studying at York Law School has been an amazing journey for me. It offers me something beyond a degree- those transparent skills and self-growth opportunities! So if you’re even a little bit curious about the law, don’t overthink it…just go for it!
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