Inaugural Commercial Awareness event for Diploma students a success
Fri 29 January 2016
The event, which was held at the state-of-the-art new home of ECPLS on Holyrood Road, was organised by Emma Greville Williams, ECPLS Senior Teaching Fellow and Esther Duncan, a solicitor at CMS and Senior Tutor for the Professional Skills and Responsibility course.
It was organised in response to a growing need for students to demonstrate "commercial awareness" as trainees in law firms (and in the traineeship application process). Commercial Law Society members were also invited to attend parts of the event.
Speakers at the event (many of whom are Edinburgh Law School alumni) included Catherine Loughran, Senior Legal Counsel at Skyscanner; Sam Price, Head of Legal at Scotrail; and Morton Fraser Chief Executive, Chris Harte, and Director of Key Client & Tenders, Ruth McCallister. They spoke on a range of topics including "what clients want and how to deliver it", and "the challenges of being an in-house lawyer". Students had the chance to put questions to the speakers and to network. The presentations were stimulating and challenged students to put their legal skills and knowledge into the context of clients' commercial environments.
Student feedback on the event has been extremely positive and, as a result, this event will become an integral part of the DipPLP in future years.
Find out more about the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice