Academic:  Michael Draper

Librarians:

SALT Team:  Chris Hall

The context

The module is part of the Swansea Legal Practice Course, which is a one year full time postgraduate diploma. The aim of the module is to enable students to appreciate the nature of a Conveyancing transaction, to be able to identify and deal with the steps in that transaction and gain experience through practical exercises of conducting a property transaction.

The Approach

In small group sessions students ‘work’ for the firm ‘Caswell Clyne Solicitors’. The small group sessions are conducted on a transactional basis. Students in each small group are allocated to a team and each team acts on a sale of residential property and a purchase of property and land with development potential, from taking initial instructions through to post completion of the transactions. Students prepare various documents and engage in correspondence within the group both during and prior to each small group session. The documents must all be completed using Caswell Clyne Solicitors stationary. The students are informed that it is vital that all documentation is prepared and passed to other members of the team as appropriate. This reflects practice where teamwork is vital for success. Everything is designed to make the process as authentic as possible.

The final assessment is a three hour paper where the students are expected to complete a series of tasks as though there had been given work by a partner the firm in the morning with the work expected to be completed by lunchtime.

Outcomes

The authentic nature of the module was unanimously thought to be ‘Excellent ‘or ‘Very Good’ by the students. Also, when asked to rate the assessment 67% rated it ‘Excellent’, 8% ‘Very Good’ and ‘25% Good’.

Student comments also underline the value of the authentic nature of the course and the assessment. For example:

‘I feel that the gap between undergraduate status and actually practising in a firm has been well and truly filled! The transactional and practical nature of the course, together with the constant support and feedback has made me very confident in my abilities to perform as a well-prepared and valuable trainee.’

The positive comments were backed up by Law firms. PLP module has been discussed with local practitioners both informally and formally through the Practitioner Advisory Board to ensure currency and authenticity