Bar Training Course (LLM)

How will I be taught?

You will be taught through a mixture of large and small group sessions. Large groups take the form of lectures to all students. A significant number of large group sessions are pre-recorded and accessed online. Most teaching is delivered to small groups of up to 18 students, all advocacy and conferencing sessions are taught to groups of six students.

Knowledge teaching

The majority of the teaching will take place in small group sessions (SGS), which are all delivered face-to face and comprise of no more than eighteen students. Large group sessions (LGS), will comprise of a mixture of face-to face and pre-recorded sessions. The purpose of the SGS and LGS is to ensure that all parts of syllabi are taught. In addition, use will be made of introductory and recap short recordings, drop-in sessions and online tests.

The small groups will be discussion based and prior to the sessions you will be given specific questions to research and prepare answers for. The majority of SGSs will be of a two-hour duration.

Skills teaching

The timing of teaching sessions and assessments has been carefully considered to ensure that you have enough opportunity to practise and receive feedback. This is essential to enable you to reflect on your oral performances and your written work, and then make refinements taking into account both peer and tutor feedback.

You will be encouraged to take an active role in your learning, particularly in relation to the feedback and assessment criteria. You will be continually required to self-reflect on your performances and to identify both your strengths and ways in which your performance can be improved. The ability to learn in this way is an essential skill for future practice. Furthermore, you will be required to undertake peer review on a regular basis and as a result develop the ability to critically and constructively analyse a performance.

Within the curriculum, you will develop your ability to undertake independent learning and team-working skills.  Communication skills are developed in small groups, where you will, at times, be required to work collaboratively on problems and tasks.

The Bar Training Course is a practical course which emphasises the synthesis of legal knowledge and factual information in order to provide clear, accurate and well-reasoned advice to a client. You will need take into account the rules of professional conduct and the commercial and business needs of the client. 

Research Project/Portfolio

There will be an introductory lecture in term one which will set out what you will need to do. You will also be introduced to legal research during term one. This will further assist you in preparing for the research module. You will attend a workshop in term 2 to assist you in drafting your research proposal. Thereafter you will have two supervision opportunities to receive feedback on your work. You will continue to work on the preparation of your research project or reflective portfolio during the second term. You will be formally admitted to the LLM research module upon successful completion of your BTC examinations.

Additional learning opportunities

Outside the curriculum you will have the opportunity to develop wider employability skills through participation in the school’s Law in Action pro-bono schemes run with partner organisations, in which student volunteers assist real people in their dealings with the law. Some examples of the schemes currently available to students include: 

• Law in Justice: the Innocence Project (dealing with alleged miscarriages of justice);
• Law in Healthcare: the NHS Continuing Healthcare Scheme (helping families claim back care home fees that arguably should have been covered by the NHS);
• Law in Sport: the Rugby Union Project (providing legal advice and legal newsletters to rugby clubs).’
• Law in Court: the Personal Support Unit (PSU) (offering practical support and assistance to people at court, in family and civil matters)
• Law in Mental Health: the Hafal Appropriate Adult Scheme (students are trained to support vulnerable adults being interviewed after having been arrested)

Other activities including mooting, negotiating and client interviewing competitions.

How will I be assessed?

The LLM Bar Training assessments are designed to be fair, rigorous, realistic and provide sufficient depth and/or breadth of coverage of the skills and subjects assessed. Individual assessments will cover a representation of the outcomes in the particular subject or skills area. A practical emphasis will appear throughout.

You will undertake both formative and summative assessments throughout your studies. These take a variety of forms, including closed book examinations comprised of multiple-choice questions, oral assessments, recorded simulations and written assessments. For all Cardiff-produced Bar Training Course assessments, the assessment criteria (set by the BSB) and, where relevant, guidance/explanatory notes will be made available to you from the outset of the subject. The assessment criteria for each subject are clearly aligned with its learning outcomes to ensure you can demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes for the subject through the assessment. 

Summative assessment of the research module comprises the submission of a written piece of work of 8,000 words, in the form of either a Research Project or a Reflective Portfolio. The Research Project is available to all students on the LLM Bar Training Course, but only students with significant pro bono or legal work experience will be able to pursue the Reflective Portfolio.

You will be permitted a maximum of 3 attempts at an assessment.

Your attendance will form a part of the attendance threshold required to achieve a pass on the BTC. Students are expected to attend all classes and timetabled activities but must attend a minimum of 80% of sessions to achieve a pass on the BTC. A student who falls below 80% attendance shall fail the BTC and/or may be required to withdraw from the course. This requirement may be relaxed or adjusted by the provider in an individual case where this is necessary in order to comply with the Equality Act 2010 (or any replacement of that Act).

How will I be supported?

Your face to face learning will be supported by e-learning as follows;

• all teaching materials will be made available via Learning Central - a virtual learning environment that is available on and off campus through which you will access a wide range of materials for your modules;
• all lectures are recorded and a number of lectures will be pre-recorded enabling you to participate in these sessions at a time and in a place which best suits you;
• all oral skills sessions (small group sessions) are also recorded using Panopto allowing you to review your performance and the feedback given by staff;
• online quizzes;
• discussion boards;
• video examples.

You will receive dedicated pastoral support through:

• our personal tutor scheme;
• an extensive programme of careers lectures and workshops within the School with a specialist Advisor;
• a designated Disability and Diversity Officer who ensures that reasonable adjustments are made for students with disabilities;
• a range of services to support you, including the Careers Service, the Counselling Service, the Disability and Dyslexia Service, the Student Support Service and excellent libraries with specialist law librarians and resource centres;  
• support for your research module will be by way of face to face tuition, materials on Learning Central and supervision.

Feedback

Feedback is regarded as a priority and is intended to raise your levels of competence. You will be given feedback based on the relevant assessment criteria in skills teaching sessions.  You will also receive and give feedback from and to your peers. You will receive feedback in relation to your research module outline.

What skills will I practise and develop?

The Learning Outcomes for this Programme describe what you will be able to do as a result of your study at Cardiff University. They will help you to understand what is expected of you.  On successful completion of the Programme you will be able to demonstrate the learning outcomes for the individual modules to the standard set by the Bar Standards Board in the Professional Statement for Barristers.

The Learning Outcomes for this Programme can be found below:

Knowledge & Understanding:

On successful completion of the Programme you will be able to:

• Critically reflect and synthesize the rules and procedures of civil litigation, dispute resolution and criminal litigation to be competent to progress to the pupillage/work-based learning component of training to be a barrister;
• Critically reflect and synthesize the principle aspects of law and procedure relevant to your professional practice as a barrister;
• Review and synthesize the core duties and regulatory requirements set down by the Bar Standards Board including the Code of Conduct;
• Apply different methodologies and perspectives within legal scholarship to critically review current issues/debates in legal practice.

Intellectual Skills:

On successful completion of the Programme you will be able to:

• Critically review the rules and procedures of civil litigation, dispute resolution and criminal litigation to reflect and apply a range of appropriate solutions for your client;
• Critically analyse and evaluate complex information to make professional judgements which demonstrate an understanding of the short and long term implications of the judgements made;
• Critically review methods and techniques of legal study to elucidate and evaluate yours and others’ research and expert opinion.

Professional Practical Skills:

On successful completion of the Programme you will be able to:

• Take responsibility, exercising autonomy and professional judgment, for planning and preparing a case effectively, critically reflecting on the relevant law and facts whilst observing the rules of professional conduct;
• Ensure your professional judgement is informed by appropriate critical analysis, synthesis and evaluation and where appropriate identify and evaluate the consequences of different options;
• Author and articulate fluently, using correct and appropriate vocabulary and English grammar, in order to present, to a range of audiences, a reasoned argument in a clear, logical, succinct and persuasive way;
• Critically reflect on appropriate research methods and resources in order to prepare a research project or reflective portfolio.

Transferable/Key Skills:

All of the skills noted above are relevant employability skills for professional practice.  You will also practise and develop the following transferable skills:

Self-management – You will be required to plan and manage your time in order to undertake the workload required for the individual BTC modules;

Self-reflection - You will be provided with guidance to assist you with developing your ability to critically reflect on your performance, make use of constructive feedback and identify how your performance can be improved;

Application of IT – You will be required to make use of basic IT skills such as word processing to prepare written communication, which is clear, accurate and produced to professional standards. You will use and apply information technology to undertake relevant and comprehensive legal research.

Application of numeracy – You will be required to undertake some simple mathematical calculations and make use of these calculations during their verbal and written communication.

Social and cultural awareness – You will develop an appreciation of the social context in which the law operates, the other professionals involved and the principles of inter-disciplinary working.