Law Insight Day at Berkhamsted Sixth

Sixth students attended a Law Insight day with a leading barrister and practical exercises to learn more about the career.

A selection of interested students in Year 12 at Berkhamsted Sixth recently took part in an interactive Law Insight day, designed to inform and encourage students considering a law career. Hosted by a successful criminal barrister, students were introduced to the career, received specialist preparation advice and even took part in an interactive activity to better understand different aspects of law.

This is one of two specialist insight days ran at Sixth, the other being medicine, that are ran annually to help students understand more about these competitive careers. With two students in our most recent cohort accepting places to study Law at Oxford University, and a further three studying at top Russell Group universities, insight days are the first step in a dedicated process of support and discussion to help our students secure world-class university courses.

Berkhamsted Sixth were joined by students from Ashlyn’s School, and the day began with practical information on the different legal careers. Our speaker explained his own journey into law, but was keen to preface that this was not the only route. With law careers encompassing a range of responsibilities, industries and different working environments, students were encouraged to reflect on their strengths and consider what might be the perfect career for them.

“It was a really interactive experience,” student Matthew reflected. “The barrister was a really good speaker, and it brought the whole process, which I didn’t really know much about, all together.” Another student Brooke agreed, and added, “I think it helped me gain more of an insight into law as a career path, and all the different paths you could go down.”

The most popular part of the insight day was an opportunity to engage with a complex plea mitigation exercise. In groups, students were tasked to be the defence council and achieve the most favourable outcome possible for a client whose case was multi-faceted and complex.

Using sentencing guidelines and their accrued knowledge from the day, students worked together to consolidate their thoughts before presenting in front of the groups. They were then challenged by the barrister in their decisions, helping to stretch their public speaking, debating and logical argumentation skills. This was a particularly valuable opportunity to extend every student’s understanding: Brooke commented, “the questions that the barrister asked us were very thought-provoking, and the activity really made me wonder if law could be the right path for me.”

The afternoon devoted time to understanding how pathways within law might look, alongside the challenging application process. Students were given advice from both Thomas and returning students on how to bolster UCAS and personal statements by engaging in super-curricular opportunities, work experience and personal projects. They also received essential advice on how to take the LNAT, the qualifying exam to take a law degree, and went through a past paper to better understand the way that questions were structured and written.

When reflecting on the day, one student Yasmina reflected, “Law has always been in the back of my mind in terms of careers, and I thought that it would be really interesting to come along today. I’m very happy that I did now, because it was very insightful and I got a lot from it.” She added, “I will definitely be taking a few of these LSAT papers home to have a look at!”

This law insight day is one of many opportunities for Sixth to explore different career paths and to better understand the processes behind them. From 1 to 1 sessions with our Head of Careers, to weekly careers lunches and talks on more niche industries, we support every student to understand their future options so that when they leave Berkhamsted, they feel prepared and excited for the future.