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LINDA TSANGWhy we picked the classroom over the courtroomtraining contract and, in 2015, completed her DPhil on the law of joint enterprise at Corpus Christi, Oxford. She also played a significant part in what the BBC last year described as “a moment of genuine legal history”. As Krebs explains: “My research on the law of joint enterprise coincided with work undertaken by Felicity Gerry, QC, in appealing R v Jogee to the Supreme Court. I worked with her team as an academic adviser. It was very rewarding — ultimately, the case led to a change in the law.”Academics are increasingly retained by barristers and solicitors because they have the time to analyse the minutiae of issues. And, says Jeremias Prassl, who teaches constitutional and EU law at Magdalen College, Oxford, their work is far removed from the ivory towers of academic cliché. “My current research focus is the future of work in the gig economy,” says Prassl, who is also an associate professor in the university’s Faculty of Law. “I’m interested in the reality of life and working out how the law can regulate platforms to protect workers and encourage innovation. I’ve been lucky to discuss these challenges with tech entrepreneurs and trade unionists, academics from multiple disciplines and government regulators around the world.”That’s not the only upside to lifeas an academic, says Prassl, whoread law at Oxford, the University of Paris and Harvard.The best part of the job is “thesheer diversity of people you getto meet, and the mix of dailytasks, from teaching and researchto working in the college andfaculty. Whether it’s introducingfirst-year law students to the fundamentals, working with graduateson difficult problems, or discussing new topics with colleagues at conferences, there’s always something new to learn,a different point of view to explore.”Dr Johnson Okpaluba, a visiting lecturer at King’s College London, agrees. “I really enjoy engaging with students, answering their questions and seeing their knowledge grow,” says Okpaluba, whose research focuses on music copyright in the digital era. He also works as a consultant in intellectual property and music copyright, and says the words of a professor when he was studying for his PhD have been borne out. “I was told you never truly knowa subject until you teach it. It’s true. By continuing to work as a legal academic I keep on top of my specialist area.” Okpaluba cautions that anyone contemplating academia “needs a lot of self-discipline”. Kreb adds: “You’ve got to be organised, enjoy research and be good at managing your time.” For Prassl, “the early years of a research career can be challenging, but ultimately they’re worth it”, while another caveat is the money: if you’re intent on being a millionaire in your thirties, academia isn’t the answer. However, relatively speaking, legal academia is well paid — and if you want the chance to play a part in legal history, it could be for you.ALEX WADEEvery year 30,000 students begin an LLB course. The trouble is, with only 5,500 training contracts and 500 pupillages available, working in practice as a solicitor or barrister is far from guaranteed. What else could you do with your law degree? Could an academic career offer just as many challenges and rewards as one in conventional practice?For Dr Beatrice Krebs, an associate professor in law at the University of Reading, the answer is an unequivocal “yes”. Krebs had been offered a training contract with the City firm Lovells (now Hogan Lovells), but, having always been fascinated by criminal law, opted to study it in more depth via an LLM at Columbia Law School in New York. “I was inspired by the teaching and realised I wanted to have a career in research and teaching too,” says Krebs, who graduated from Oxford with a BA in jurisprudence in 2007. She gave up her You never truly know a subject until you teach it, says Johnson OkpalubaNot all lawyers aspire to be seen outsidethe Royal Courts of Justice having wona precedent-setting case.Doing deals is becoming just as high-profile, with the caveat that if you adviseon something such as the record-breaking€222 million (£189 million) transfer of theBrazilian footballer Neymar, your travelplans will be eagerly reported by the presspack as they try to track down the where-abouts of your client, as happened to theplayer’s attorney, Marcos Motta. However,negotiation skills, which are vital to litiga-tors and deal-makers, do not have a promi-nent place in a lawyer-to-be’s education.In the US budding deal-makers have theannual Transactional Law Meet, which ishosted by the elite New York firm Sullivan& Cromwell. The LawMeet allow studentsto participate in a simulated transaction, inwhich they gain drafting and negotiatingexperience. In preparation, students par-ticipate in client conference calls, draftrelevant provisions and mark up opposingprovisions. Teams participate in tworounds of in-person negotiations and theirwork is then judged by practising lawyers.The 2017 competition required teams torepresent the buyer or the seller in a simu-lated purchase and sale of a beveragecompany, Kombucha Hoocha, and it waswon by a team from UCLA.Another leading US firm, Milbank,Tweed, Hadley & McCoy, linked up withHarvard Law School and Harvard Busi-ness School in 2011 to launch a four-yeartraining programme for its associates,focusing on business, finance and law.Beginning in the third year and over con-secutive years, each associate from everyMilbank office is sent to the Harvardcampus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, fora week-long programme.Munib Hussain, who qualified in 2011, isan associate in Milbank’s global project,energy and infrastructure finance team inLondon. He has attended three modules.“As most of the topics covered and theskills and experiences on the programmeare not typically taught at law schools,they were somewhat alien to me at thebeginning,” he says. “But now, the leader-ship, management and strategy sessionshave resonated with me and I consciouslyapply what I have learnt in differentcontexts, such as learning to effectivelylead associate deal teams, considering thepath to partnership, or advising clientswith more of an awareness of clients’strategies and priorities.”Although, as yet, there is nothing similarto the Milbank programme in the UK,the City firm Charles Russell Speechlyssponsors and judges a business simulationat the Guildford campus of the UniversityStrike a deal: could you be the brains behind a record-breaker?8STUDENT LAWMaking your own wayThursday October 19 2017 the timesthe evening, and it benefits the trainees asthey mentor the students — and thetrainees and students are emulating a realbusiness situation.”On the international level, HerbertSmith Freehills (HSF) organises the Inter-national Negotiation Competition, whichstarted in 2014. It is held at the NationalLaw University in Delhi and is open touniversities across the world. Last monthstudents from 34 universities took part,including from 12 Indian universities and22 from outside India, including Australia,Canada, Nigeria and Japan. Four teamswere from the UK: Bristol, Exeter, KingsCollege London and Oxford.HSF graduate recruitment partnerMark Bardell says: “At the end of the com-petition, which was won by the Universityof Technology Sydney, the students havegained practical experience of negotiationjudged by lawyers from private practiceand general counsel, as negotiation skillsare not taught separately in UK [or Indian]universities. We are considering havingregional qualification rounds next year,which would include one in the UK.”The firm also sponsors the annualOxford alternative dispute resolutioncompetition, which is run by the LadyMargaret Hall Law Society and is the onlylegal negotiation competition run forOxford University students.Bardell adds: “Although firms do addi-tional training in-house once you are atrainee, and even after qualification — atthe undergraduate level, as students haveto fund themselves, there will be moreinteraction with practitioners and morepractitioner-led courses. And firms willhave to play an expanded role in providingmore relevant practical skills.”And Ben Ferris, associate professorand academic manager at ULaw,concludes: “Of course, the biggest chal-lenge is fitting something like this into analready crowded syllabus. In the USstudents can be awarded credit towardstheir degrees for participating, whereashere we still see it as part of an institution’s‘employability’ or careers offering. It’ssomething students do if they have thetime, so we need to work hard on ensuringthat they understand the benefits totheir careers in taking part.”of Law. The firm has a Guildford office andsees it as a way of supporting the campus.The corporate partner Catherine Drewtakes between two and four of the firm’strainees to act as mentors to the students,who are divided into teams of betweenthree and five to devise a business plan fora product — lawn trimmers. The teams have to decide production,price and advertising and produce a for-mula for return on capital, as well ashow to compete with the other teams sell-ing the same thing. Drew says: “It takesplace over about two and a half hours inNeymar’s move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain is the sort of work that requires tough negotiation skills“Students need to understand the benefits of taking partGETTY IMAGES