Another study weekend over. The Drafting formative work has been handed in and the results shall be given out next month. Both Advocacy exams came and went and the results were given out immediately afterwards. I faired better in the Examination-in-Chief, than the Cross-Examination, but am relieved just to have gotten them out of the way without any fails mishaps.
Next month I have the Criminal/Civil MCT exam and also the Negotiation formative. The MCT worries me most because there are far too many areas of procedure and evidence that I'm uncertain about, not least hearsay! As for the Negotiation, we shall see? Usually we 'perform' our negotiation with another student, but next month we are up against barristers, who are, I'm informed, extremely well briefed on the subject in hand.
We also have a one off civil advocacy next month and luckily it is an area of law that I'm quite interested in, so for once I feel reasonably comfortable. Last years contractual disputes did rattle me somewhat and I felt a little out of my depth at times, simply because my LLB, Sale of Goods Act and associated broken electrical appliances essays didn't really provide a sufficient grounding for the more technical aspects of contractual law.
As the title of this post suggests, it is also time to think about which Options I shall choose for the final few months of BVC. No. 1 is the Advanced Criminal Litigation, but I'm still all at sea with the 2nd choice. Judicial Review is a possibility, as is Company Law, and also Property and Chancery, but then there's also Employment Law...
Each has bits that I like and bits that I don't. Wills and Trusts didn't go down too well during LLB, but the remaining contents of the Property Option do look interesting (apart from mortgages), but the reading list looks quite daunting. And there's also the small matter that I haven't a hope in hell's chance of landing a pupillage at one of 'those' sets - wrong sex, wrong age, wrong uni... .
Judicial Review covers prison law, but also covers asylum and homelessness, which just doesn't float my boat somehow. However a knowledge of Public Law is useful in relation to some criminal appeals. I hadn't previously considered Company Law, but having looked through the information on the subject, quite a bit of it does look to be familiar, not least directors duties, which I covered quite thoroughly during LLB. And as for Employment, well it looks user friendly and the assessment format appears to be less onerous than the others.
Being a complete anorak, most of the Options look interesting and if I thought that it might be of use, I may have even considered International Trade, but somehow carriage of goods by sea is perhaps a little too specialised to be of any use post BVC, unless of course I decide to become a pirate. Family Law is a no no for me, not least because the module is based on ancillary relief and numbers and me don't always see eye to eye. Same with the Personal Injury module, quantum takes me ages to calculate and even longer if I then have to start calculating interest as well.
I shall have a better idea once I receive the results for my Opinion Writing and Drafting mocks - no point choosing a subject that requires excellent written skills, if I haven't gotten those skills.
Decisions, decisions...?
3 comments:
in case it helps, property and chancery is basically landlord and tenant. there is some other stuff but it is a bit of an afterthought. i did it and enjoyed it - but i had got to know (and like) the tutor from GDL so i picked it on him. worked wel for me - the marks did seem to be good but that may be because a lot of the more able students choose it.
i also did jr which wasn't brilliantly taught - it is exclusively about drafting applications for judicial review. that's what they teach and what is examined. it was ok. there is a lot of public law arond and that is only gong to keep increasing.
international trade is very well taught.
employment and pi are always going to be useful, but i would have been bored by them both and some of the teaching was pretty dire.
those are my thoughts form the full time course. good luck and enjoy.
Thanks for that SW. Know what you mean about employment, it doesn't exactly fill me with excitement, but I looked at the P & C reading list and thought that it might be much more hard work than the employment, but if it is better taught...
if you like land law and are good at it you should consider it - basically, unless you are very focused on the area you are applying to for pupillage, you want to do whatever gives you the best chance of outstandings. i don't think sets really know about the options on the bvc so you are unlikely to be faced with embarassing questions about 'why didn't you choose x (which is what we do)?'. more likely you can put on applications along with your overall marks - 'outstanding in ... option'.
that said, if you can bear to do employment or pi it is a huge slug of the work in common law chambers...
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