School’s relationship with local law firm leads to national award recognition
23 January 2017
A long standing collaboration between the School of Law and Politics and Hugh James Solicitors has been shortlisted in the National Undergraduate Employability (NUE) Awards in 2017.
The School’s relationship with the firm, a top 100 UK law firm, has been cultivated over the last ten years and has been recognised in the ‘Best Collaboration between a University and Employer’ category in this year’s NUE Awards.
The relationship between the School and the firm is mutually valuable. By supporting the School in a variety of ways, including attendance at Law Fairs, pro bono consultancy, careers advice and office open days, Hugh James has, for many students, become the natural choice of employer upon graduation; to date over 300 students have gained employment and/or work experience with the firm.
In September 2016 the School and Hugh James began a major new initiative, designed to support student learning and employability skills, with the launch of a work placement programme for Cardiff Law students. The scheme has so far provided 18 students with full time salaried work placements during their third year.
The first cohort of students are undertaking legal practice as paralegals. They are being given the opportunity to develop both key practitioner skills such as case management, legal research and legal writing in addition to generic employability skills such as time management, team working and commercial awareness.
Hannah Marchant, Lecturer, Cardiff School of Law and Politics said of the collaboration, “The partnership between Cardiff School of Law and Politics and Hugh James Solicitors is enduring and continues to evolve to meet the needs of both parties. Law students benefit hugely from this collaboration, developing their employability skills and their professional networks”
The ‘Best Collaboration between a University and Employer’ category at the NUE awards celebrates the most effective and influential collaborations developed between a university and employer/s to offer students additional employability skills and opportunities and will be presented, together with a range of other employability awards, at an event held in London on 24 February 2017.
The School would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the team responsible for the collaboration with Hugh James and wish them well in the awards ceremony next month.