Supporting law students to gain experience and seek out new collaborations

“I’m interested in the future of law and the future of work, and what that means for the next generation of lawyers and the skills they’ll need,” says Karen Watton. “I want to make sure we’re not missing opportunities to develop students’ skill set beyond the traditional legal work they do.”

In 2019, Karen became Director of qLegal, Queen Mary’s pro bono commercial law clinic, where master’s students improve their employability by providing legal advice and support to real clients.

She continues: “Working across and between disciplines is important in professional life, but it can be challenging for people with technical expertise to translate their work for people with different expertise.”

When she joined qLegal, Karen wanted to create opportunities for collaboration across Queen Mary. “I thought I’d go out and meet people myself, but then realised that would be a missed opportunity to develop skills in our students, such as networking, business development and talking about their role as lawyers.”

So instead, Karen applied for Westfield funding to run a pilot project to promote these skills and boost collaboration across disciplines. She recruited 12 students to form three teams, and provided training on how to approach people and communicate about qLegal. Each team was tasked with achieving at least three meaningful conversations within their allocated faculty. The project ran for four months with the teams having weekly check-ins and presenting reports at the end of the pilot.

She explains: “The students supported each other to overcome challenges. For example, when emails weren’t getting enough traction, one team created a survey for students and staff, asking what legal help might be of interest, and shared this idea with the other teams. They were learning by doing and learning from each other.

“They were also using their initiative, for instance they thought face-to-face might work better than emails, so they went into campus coffee shops to start conversations. For many of the students, it was the first time they’d done something like this, but they became more confident, overcoming cultural barriers and developing some fruitful connections.”

Results and feedback from the pilot were positive and, two years later, qLegal students are still involved in marketing. “We’ve adapted the most useful elements of the pilot and integrated them more broadly, making them available for all qLegal students. In the legal world, content marketing, social media and networking count, so we focus on those opportunities.”

The project also fed into qLegal’s collaboration with the School of Business and Management and other founding members of SKETCH: Student Knowledge Exchange Through Community Hubs. SKETCH provides student-led legal, business and financial consultancy to local businesses and community organisations, with a focus on interdisciplinary projects.

Student surveys show that qLegal’s offer of experiential learning is a key reason why new students apply for Queen Mary’s postgraduate law courses.

Karen adds: “For me, it’s about making sure we don’t lose the best elements of a traditional university education while ensuring we are relevant for the 21st century, for example helping students develop resilience and the ability to give and receive feedback. As technology changes the nature of work, these higher-level human skills are increasingly important.”