Live online legal English course

This LIVE course is scheduled to begin on April 12th and will consist of 20 1-hour sessions twice a week (Mondays and Wednesdays from 18.00 to 19.00) ending on June 16th.

It will cover the language of all key areas of law. Given its technical nature, this course requires a medium to medium advanced level of general English (B1+ or B2). If you can understand the following description of the course syllabus, you should be able to follow and process well the course materials.

Lesson Plan

Topic 1 – Legal Profession and Fundamentals: before being able to speak about any particular field of law, students will be briefly informed about the basic day-to-day workings of the legal profession in international (common law) context with focus on differences in legal professionals; their educational backgrounds and key terminology in most common areas of law in order to establish a common starting point (foundation).

Topic 2 – Contract Law: there are key differences in how international (common law) lawyers (and clients) speak about and understand contracts that any aspiring law student (or lawyer) from the civil law system should be aware of. Intro to fundamental contract formation terminology and review of key elements of a binding contract.

Topic 3 – Advanced Contract Law: Remedies and Key Clauses going beyond the fundamentals, this is what students will need to know to be able to deal with contractual disputes as well as effectively read, comprehend, explain and draft key contractual clauses. Study of unusual and controversial contractual disputes that have caught the attention of the media over the last few years.

Topic 4 – Language of Business & Corporate/Company Law: Introduction to the language of Corporate law with emphasis on different types of business entities; the incorporation process and characteristics of different types of companies; people involved in management of companies and their roles; corporate meetings; share capital and the end of company’s life cycle. Study of different issues that may arise in this context.

Topic 5 – Corporate Transformations and Regulation: Mergers & Acquisitions, anticompetitive behaviour and negotiation skills practice: Language of Corporate changes with focus on the M&A process as well as discussion of key anti-trust (competition) terminology, particularly relevant in the current international business context. Discussion of challenging recent anti-trust (competition) cases along with negotiating skills practice (in M&A context).

Topic 6 – Basic tax law terminology: Love it or hate it, tax law forms an integral part of any lawyers’ corporate practice; introduction to basic concepts in the area of personal and company taxation along with study of some of the recent landmark rulings and cases in the area of corporate tax. The controversial topic of tax heavens discussed.

Topic 7 – Language of Corporate Civil Responsibility (Tort law): Often companies are accused of corporate wrong-doing that results in serious harm or injury to third parties: exploration of key concepts in this area along with study of some of the recent Court rulings that have caught the attention of the world due to the severity of the consequences to the companies involved.

Topic 8 – Language of Corporate Crime: In addition to the civil responsibilities, often, criminal charges are also brought by public authorities against corporate entities; exploration of fundamental terminology and processes in the area of criminal law along with overview of key Court decisions in this area.

Topic 9 – Language of Court Process: Regardless of the area of corporate (or non-corporate) law that any lawyer may, ultimately, end up practicing, they will need to understand the basics of the functioning of the Courts as well as the language of Court decisions. Brief overview of the fundamental Court-related terminology including key court documents; parties involved in litigation and how to brief court decisions

Methodology

It is expected that the students come from a background of law so that this course will not be about teaching law but applying it at a high level of written and spoken communication through a variety of reading, listening and comprehension tasks on legal topics. Nevertheless, differentiating elements of the common law legal tradition (from the civil law legal tradition) will be commented on. Students will improve their English in this area through: actively engaging in debates on hot legal issues of the day; examination of courtroom scenes; interactive legal competitions which form part of liquid learning, an integral component of current day’s online teaching methodology (kahoots, quizizz, etc.); becoming familiarized with legal documentation, etc. This will be accompanied by Videos, listening exercises, real texts, case studies and written homework. 360º Feedback will be expected and encouraged at all times in an inclusive, dynamic and highly participative workshop environment.

Objectives

Improve knowledge of Legal English in all areas: communication with clients and other lawyers; understanding legal documents (such as contracts, agreements or court decisions) and expanding the range of vocabulary / technical terminology related to law (both commercial and procedural law).

Aimed at

Lawyers, legal professionals (paralegals, translators, etc.) and law students