Case study by Linklaters
Linklaters has provided its trainees with a boost to their career through collaboration with the University of Law. Alongside their Legal Practice Course, all Linklaters trainees now have the opportunity to achieve an MSc in Law, Business and Management, embedding business knowledge into their traditional legal education.
In this changing global environment, where it is no longer sufficient for lawyers only to be legal experts, the carefully designed MSc includes business topics tailored specifically for lawyers. The programme expands students’ commercial and business knowledge to help them to understand their clients’ business and sector and equipping them to provide more holistic and tailored advice. At the same time, the students are expected to gain business acumen, build initiative and independence, and to appreciate that law firms themselves are a business with their own challenges and markets.
“The collaboration with the University of Law on the design of this programme has been essential to ensure that future generations of Linklaters trainees have all the key competencies to meet the outcomes required in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving market.” – Patrick McCann, Linklaters Global Head of Learning
To build these competencies, and to allow the students to interact with experts from both Linklaters and the wider business world, the programme is delivered through interactive lectures and workshops. In these, the students participate in group study, practice giving presentations and even have the opportunity to pitch to a panel of experts.
During the programme, students study a variety of business subjects. They explore the environment within which businesses operate, discuss the competitive position of companies, interpret financial statements and analyse company performance, define strategy and its role in organisations, explore valuation models for stocks, bonds and financial derivatives, review the functionality of the financial system, discover the issues of ethics and regulation in the financial sector, analyse customers and markets and review marketing strategies for different companies. Mastering these subjects allows a Linklaters trainee to qualify with the ability to thrive in a competitive legal environment; they have heightened their ability to understand and deliver exactly what their client needs.
To be awarded the MSc, students complete a case study on a topic reflecting areas of interest related to Linklaters strategy. The top three case studies are then judged by a panel of Linklaters senior leaders and University of Law tutors. Linklaters have been enormously impressed with the ideas that students have developed for these case studies; in addition to the financial prize for the winner, the top three students meet with a variety of teams and leaders across Linklaters to discuss their ideas and build connections for their future.
The successful programme is now in its third year, following a five-year commitment made between Linklaters and the University of Law. The MSc continues to be developed in collaboration to ensure it meets the needs of the students, developing their knowledge and skills and equipping them with the business acumen to deliver success for future clients.
This article first appeared in the 2018 State of the Relationship report, commissioned by Research England and compiled and published by NCUB.
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