Guildford
Activities and events
Law firms increasingly tell us they are looking for trainees with a strong commercial awareness and business acumen. We provide a programme to build these skills – this includes guest speakers and presentations from an impressive list of legal and business professionals.
Share Challenge
Business Game
Client Interviewing Competition
Negotiation Competition
Mooting Competition
Employer talks and outside speaker programme
Mentoring Scheme
Prize Giving
Share Challenge
A team game open to all Guildford students based on the principles of fantasy football, where students choose a ‘fantasy portfolio’ of shareholdings and monitor them over a period of months.
The game involves analysis of the financial markets and provides an enjoyable way to increase commercial awareness.
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Business Game
Students are organised into teams to participate in a business simulation game developed by Elgood Effective Learning. Each team acts as the Board of Directors which manages a business operating internationally. The teams play over a number of “half years” or sessions, encountering different challenges and business situations as the game develops. Each team is mentored by external volunteers. The object of the games is to increase shareholder value by securing the highest increase in share price.
The game develops team working skills, offers exposure to the pressures of decision making in a competitive environment and places focus on the importance of the profitability of the company in the light of decision making.
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Client Interviewing Competition
The Client Interviewing Competition is an annual event between undergraduate law students studying at Surrey and Kingston Universities and College of Law LPC students.
Surrey Law Society sponsors the competition which is in memory of Chris Andrews, a former Guildford College of Law student who was a senior lawyer for Surrey Legal Services.
It is a great opportunity to meet with local solicitors, practise interviewing skills, and possibly win the trophy.
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Negotiation Competition
The annual regional heats of the National Negotiation competition take place at three of the College centres: Birmingham, Chester and Guildford.
Teams from law schools around each region go head to head in contests to measure their negotiation skills, They compete for a place in the national final in March and the chance to go on to represent England and Wales in The International Negotiation Competition. College of Law teams have been among the winners of this international competition.
The judging panels are made up of local solicitors and business people as well as academic staff from universities taking part in the competition. The competition involves teams of two, tasked with negotiating a transaction or resolving a dispute on behalf of a fictional client and are judged on the outcome of the negotiation, how prepared they are, their flexibility, teamwork, ethics and their relationship with the opposing team.
The competition is open to GDL students.
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Mooting Competition
The College of Law, Guildford mooting competition is open to both GDL and LPC students and takes places over five rounds. A moot is a mock appeal against a fictitious decision of a lower court at trial. The mooters operate in pairs of senior and junior advocates. Advocates must research and apply the law to persuade the judge to rule in their favour.
The mooting competition involves legal research and advocacy and gives students the opportunity to participate in mooting as a Practice Related Activity and is judged by district judges.
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Employer talks and outside speaker programme
A full and varied programme of employer talks takes place throughout the year. We have speakers from a range of practice areas, with varying sizes of regional and London firms. We also have talks from the CPS and a number of in-house legal departments such as EDF Energy and Warner Bros.
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Mentoring Scheme
The mentoring scheme is for students who have limited legal experience. There are a limited number of places so students have to apply via the careers service for a place on the scheme. Whilst all students are welcome to apply we aim to select those who will benefit most from the scheme. Increased confidence, a better understanding of practice areas and valuable work experience are amongst the main gains reported by students who have had a place on the scheme.
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Prize Giving
We have an annual prize giving for the students who achieve the highest marks in each of the courses. The prizes are donated by several firms and other legal organisations and are awarded for a number of categories. The names of winners are added to the sponsor organisation prize boards which are on display in our student library.
The prize giving normally takes place in the autumn and is an evening event attended by College tutors, sponsor organisations and students with their guests. This is an enjoyable occasion where everyone can celebrate individual student achievements.
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