The City Law School has marked its first-ever international conference on 'Practising Law' with a keynote speech by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, a high-profile barrister who previously spent seven years prosecuting for the UN in The Hague.

Sir Geoffrey, of Temple Garden Chambers in London, was a key figure in the prosecution of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic the notorious war criminal who died in his cell in 2000 awaiting trial for crimes against humanity.

Sir Geoffrey's presentation on the impact of The Legal Services Act formed the centrepiece of the three-day conference, which began earlier this month in London's historic Inner Temple.

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The City Law School has sealed a new partnership with the Environmental Law Foundation (E.L.F), a UK charity that aims to help protect and improve local environments and quality of life.

Our law students are set to reap the benefits of the tie-up, which will allow them to work closely with full-time E.L.F lawyers and volunteers on a range of projects including climate change, planning enquiries, judicial review, policy development and pollution.

A number of City law students will also benefit from summer internships during which they will work on various E.L.F programmes for two days a week.

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City's Centre for Translation Studies and The City Law School have developed a new intensive four-week course designed to introduce law students to English legal language.

The programme, the first of its kind in the UK, will commence in August 2010 and is intended to help support international students as the Bar Standards Board moves to introduce English language testing. It also caters for those who have not studied law previously and want a head-start on understanding legal terminology, before progressing their legal studies.

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Anita Davies has won first prize in The Times annual essay competition. Anita who is currently on the GDL at The City Law School, wrote the winning essay on 'Supreme Court UK: radical change or business as usual?'. Jack Straw, one of the judging panel describing the winning entry, said that it was "an engaging, erudite piece of prose".

"It reasons that while the Supreme Court does not itself constitute radical change, it could prompt the traditionally pragmatic British to engage in a mature and open debate about the constitution - something that has not always been credited to the nation's representatives in the House of Commons.

"As the essay puts it, the court is a sign that 'constitutionally, Britain may be growing up'."

Third place went to Ian MacFarlane, who is currently studying his BVC at The City Law School, and the commendation place to Jack Pailing, a graduate from the GDL at CLS.

Read the full story and read the essays on Times Online here.

Dominic Regan, Visiting Professor in The City Law School chaired the biggest Webinar in legal history, in conjunction with the New Law Journal earlier this month.

The discussion took place following British Judge Sir Rupert Jackson's proposals to reduce costs of litigation, and was streamed live on the NLJ website.

Regan, a leading authority on civil procedure and costs, was joined by His Honour Michael Cook; David Greene, NLJ consultant Editor and President of the London Solicitors Litigation Association, Edwin Coe; Bob Musgrove, Chief Executive of the Civil Justice Council; Nick Bevan, Senior Counsel, Bond Pearce and Simon Butler, Ely Place Chambers.

The panellists gave immediate analysis of the Jackson report as well as their predictions of the report's potential impact on the legal profession.

The webinar was so popular that large numbers of visitors to the site caused it to crash. It can now be viewed online.

See the full text of Lord Justice Jackson's review on Civil Litigation Costs via the Judiciary website.

The City Law School is organising the first International Conference on Practising Law. This major event will take place at Gray's Inn and will provide a unique opportunity for legal practitioners and academics from around the world to exchange knowledge and skills.

You are invited to submit proposals for papers to be presented at the conference. Proposals should be emailed to mailto:cpd-cls@city.ac.uk no later than the 22nd January 2010.

Get flyer here.

For further information please contact Jane Brandt; tel +44 (0)207 400 3608.

To book a place at the conference, please complete our registration form.

Professor Penny Cooper
Associate Dean for Knowledge Transfer and Director of CPD

The City Law School
4 Gray's Inn Place
London, WC15 5DX

www.city.ac.uk/law

Students from The City Law School attended a record breaking training session for the National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV).

The City Law School hosted the largest single student training session earlier this month, for the National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV). In total, 117 students were present, beating the previous attendance record of 99, set recently at the College of Law.

The group included students from City's GDL, LPC and LLB courses, as well as colleagues from the College of Law and elsewhere in the country. All the participants spent a weekend being trained to be 'McKenzie Friends', who work in an advisory role with unrepresented victims of domestic abuse.

After two days of training the students, improved their legal clinical skills, they all qualified for volunteering work. Some of the attendees will be assessed on their work as McKenzie Friends in the future in a unique elective in the BVC.

See the full story here.