In the latest of our recommendations series for undergraduate Law degree applicants, we spoke to Dr Lloyd Brown, Lecturer at Birmingham Law School.
I began my summer before law school by getting some work experience lined up. Obviously and sadly, I understand that this is not an option during this mad time, and students shouldn’t worry about this - everyone understands the situation!
I specifically recall reading Using a Law Library: A Student’s Guide to Legal Research Skills by Peter Clinch, given that he worked at Cardiff Law School’s Law Library at the time. This deals with legal research skills, which will assist you with your transition to law school.
There’s also cool books on cases, i.e. Allan Hutchinson’s, Is Eating People Wrong?: Great Legal Cases and How they Shaped the World. I remember reading a book like this before law school and that led me to gain a foundation knowledge of some of the big cases in law, like Donoghue v Stevenson and Carlill v The Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. It boosted my confidence when I saw these cases mentioned by the lecturer in my first couple of weeks - felt like the summer was worthwhile.
There are also more profession-specific books, e.g. The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken or Arthur Schopenhauer’s The Art of Always Being Right: The 38 Subtle Ways of Persuasion.
You don’t need to have library access to read some academic works. You can do some research and look for online articles (etc.) on Google Scholar.
Also, I think it would be a good idea to set up a Linkedin account and refine the information on that before law school.
Most importantly, it’s important not to work yourself into a state of confusion - there’ll be plenty to learn when you matriculate.
Dr Lloyd Brown researches in the areas of property law and environmental law.
His interests lie generally in the laws that regulate real property, the financial markets and the environment. In particular, he has focused on how the contaminated land regime, as statutorily enforced by Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, has affected commercial loan finance in UK banks.