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Commercial Awareness in the Law Library: a New Role for Academic Law Librarians?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2024

Lauren Cummings
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Abstract

In this article, which expands on a lightning talk that was delivered at the BIALL Conference 2023, Lauren Cummings discusses how she developed and delivered a commercial awareness workshop to third-year students at Goldsmiths, University of London. She then reflects on how employability training relates to information skills and how developing these skills can help students from less advantaged backgrounds achieve their career goals. Lauren also discusses how employability work might fit into the role of the academic law librarian.

Keywords

education and trainingemploymentsoft skillsinformation literacylegal profession
Type
Conference Papers
Information
Legal Information Management , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 2023 , pp. 240 - 244
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians

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References

Endnotes

1 Alex Nicholson, ‘The Value of a Law Degree - Part 4: a Perspective from Employers’ (2022) 56 Law Teacher 171, 180

2 See for example Linklaters, ‘Your application’ <https://careers.linklaters.com/en/early-careers/your-application > accessed 7 September 2023; Addleshaw Goddard, ‘Training contracts’ <https://earlycareers.addleshawgoddard.com/careers/training-contracts/> accessed 7 September 2023

3 The Law Society, ‘Trends in the solicitors’ profession. Annual Statistics Report 2021’ (September 2022) <www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/research/annual-statistics-report-2021> accessed 25 August 2023, p41

4 Goldsmiths Law, ‘NSS results: Goldsmiths Law best in the UK (and top 3–7 in the UK) for learning, teaching and the student experience!’ (Goldsmiths Law Blog, 25 July 2022) <https://sites.gold.ac.uk/law/nss-results-goldsmiths-law-best-in-the-uk-and-top-3-7-in-the-uk-for-learning-teaching-and-the-student-experience/> accessed 25 August 2023

5 Goldsmiths, University of London, ‘Goldsmiths History’ <www.gold.ac.uk/about/history/> accessed 7 September 2023

6 Goldsmiths Law, ‘Goldsmiths Law ranked 1st in the UK for student satisfaction’ (Goldsmiths Law Blog, 11 August 2023) <https://sites.gold.ac.uk/law/goldsmiths-law-ranked-1st-in-the-uk-for-student-satisfaction/> accessed 25 August 2023

7 University of Kent, ‘Develop commercial awareness’ (Get Into Law blog) <https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/getintolaw/how-to-2/becoming-a-solicitor/commercial-awareness/> accessed 4 September 2023; Legal 500 Future Lawyers, ‘Gaining Commercial Awareness’ <www.legal500.com/future-lawyers/courses/the-university-of-law/gaining-commercial-awareness/> accessed 4 September 2023

8 Simranjeet Kaur Mann, ‘How to increase your commercial awareness’ (LawCareersNet YouTube channel, 9 March 2021) <www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9RX84t96wQ> accessed 6 September 2023

9 Society of College, National and University Libraries, ‘Employability Toolkit’ <www.sconul.ac.uk/page/employability#Literature%20review> accessed 5 September 2023

10 Megan Wiley, ‘A review of the literature on current practice in the development of employability skills’ (SCONUL, June 2014) <www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Employability%20Literature%20Review%20June%202014_0.pdf> accessed 5 September 2023

11 Stéphane Goldstein, ‘A graduate employability lens for the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy’ (SCONUL, December 2015) <www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Employability%20lens%20and%20report.pdf> accessed 5 September 2023

12 Maria Mawson and Amy C Haworth, ‘Supporting the employability agenda in university libraries’ (2018) 119 Information and Learning Science 1/2

13 University of the West of England, ‘Researching employers and building commercial awareness’ <www.uwe.ac.uk/events/researching-employers-and-building-commercial-awareness-1> accessed 6 September 2023

14 James Sandbach and Richard Grimes, ‘Law School Pro Bono and Clinic Report 2020’ (LawWorks, 2020) <www.lawworks.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/LawWorks%20Law%20Schools%20Report%202020_1.pdf> accessed 6 September 2023

15 Jill Alexander and Carol Boothby, ‘Stakeholder perceptions of Clinical Legal Education within an employability context’ (2018) 25 International journal of clinical legal education 53, 58

16 Universities UK, ‘Graduate employment: its limits in measuring the value of higher education’ (28 June 2023) <www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/what-we-do/policy-and-research/publications/graduate-employment-its-limits-measuring> accessed 7 September 2023

17 Siobhan McConnell, ‘How do Law Students Develop Commercial Awareness? Listening to the Student Voice on the Role of the Law School and the Law Student in Developing Commercial Awareness’ (2023) 44 Liverpool Law Review 107, 129

18 Solicitors Regulation Authority, ‘How diverse is the solicitors’ profession?’ (27 June 2023) < www.sra.org.uk/sra/equality-diversity/diversity-profession/diverse-legal-profession/> accessed 6 September 2023

19 Sarah Hallowell, ‘Employability forum – are your students commercial enough for the real world?’ (LexisNexis Future of Law, 25 Apr 2022) <www.lexisnexis.co.uk/blog/future-of-law/employability-forum-are-your-students-commercial-enough-for-the-real-world> accessed 6 September 2023

20 McConnell (n17), 129