Jane Ching | Nottingham Trent University (original) (raw)
Papers by Jane Ching
Refection in action is captured through a year-long litigation simulation exercise for experience... more Refection in action is captured through a year-long litigation simulation exercise for experienced practising lawyers, in which they could experiment in a 'safe' space, followed by an ongoing reflective writing project which required them to reflect on action and on their practice.
Analyses the approach of the courts to their jurisdiction to make an order for security for costs... more Analyses the approach of the courts to their jurisdiction to make an order for security for costs against an impecunious company under the Companies Act 1985 s.726 and under the CPR r.25.13(2)(c). Compares the courts' interpretation of the two jurisdictions with regard to their extent, their application to counterclaims and interim proceedings, the standard of proof of impecuniosity required, and the circumstances taken into account by the courts when exercising each jurisdiction. Assesses the likely impact of the repeal of s.726 expected on October 1, 2009.
This presentation is given by a group of academics from Nottingham Law school, the law faculty of... more This presentation is given by a group of academics from Nottingham Law school, the law faculty of Nottingham Trent University in the UK. Nottingham Law School is unique in the UK in providing the postgraduate vocational stage for three legal professions (solicitors, barristers and trade mark attorneys) as well as academic undergraduate and postgraduate courses. In addition, its staff teach junior and senior practising lawyers in a range of contexts, including internationally and through videoconferencing. Client interviewing pervades the law school's provision. Members of the panel represent the breadth of the school's activities. This panel presentation takes the theme of "variation" to explore a number of aspects of teaching and assessing interviewing skills. Those variations will be mapped against three dimensions: the lawyer dimension, the client dimension and the teaching dimension. Within each dimension we will discuss, drawing on research literature and on o...
Portia succeeded as a lawyer by pretending to be a man. Gwyneth Bebb, the first woman with a firs... more Portia succeeded as a lawyer by pretending to be a man. Gwyneth Bebb, the first woman with a first class law degree from Oxford, fought the Law Society. Child-bearing, ultimately, prevented her becoming the first woman called to the bar. Christabel Pankhurst got her law degree in 1906, and was a political prisoner by 1907. Lt Col Yvonne Bradley faced a dilemma: disbarred if she did, court-martialled if she didn’t. She-Hulk is a superhero who also runs her own law firm. Emma is the new lecturer down the corridor. In a university where 67% of the LLB students are women, but the University Challenge team is male. Is it her responsibility to be Portia, Louisa, Christabel or Yvonne? Discussion about the place of women in the legal professions (or in some of them) encompasses Portia’s assumed masculinity and Louisa’s drop out but only rarely Christabel’s cause making or Yvonne’s hard choice. Nevertheless, with the rise of mediation, the preponderance of women in some of the legal professions and the acknowledgment of an ethic and a skill of care in legal practice, there is, we argue, increasing recognition of a form of “women’s practice” in law which accommodates not only our list of archetypes, but others not yet named. Ashley, in the academy, may be one of the large number of women academics designing, teaching and assessing applied and practitioner-focused law. She may be a former practitioner, bringing those experiences and that identity to her role. She may be one of the (smaller?) proportion of women designing, teaching and assessing pure, or academically socio-legal law courses, where here students may be destined for a wide variety of roles in life. There is alleged to be a feminisation of legal education, in contrast to a perceived inherent masculinity in (some forms of) legal practice. In what way does this manifest itself for Emma and her contemporaries. Is the academy “safer” in some way, for women, than practice? Does the female legal academic in particular have a responsibility to her students to embody Christabel or Yvonne, or to debate the situations of Portia, She-Hulk and Louisa? Can she – yet – be herself?
Refection in action is captured through a year-long litigation simulation exercise for experience... more Refection in action is captured through a year-long litigation simulation exercise for experienced practising lawyers, in which they could experiment in a 'safe' space, followed by an ongoing reflective writing project which required them to reflect on action and on their practice.
Analyses the approach of the courts to their jurisdiction to make an order for security for costs... more Analyses the approach of the courts to their jurisdiction to make an order for security for costs against an impecunious company under the Companies Act 1985 s.726 and under the CPR r.25.13(2)(c). Compares the courts' interpretation of the two jurisdictions with regard to their extent, their application to counterclaims and interim proceedings, the standard of proof of impecuniosity required, and the circumstances taken into account by the courts when exercising each jurisdiction. Assesses the likely impact of the repeal of s.726 expected on October 1, 2009.
This presentation is given by a group of academics from Nottingham Law school, the law faculty of... more This presentation is given by a group of academics from Nottingham Law school, the law faculty of Nottingham Trent University in the UK. Nottingham Law School is unique in the UK in providing the postgraduate vocational stage for three legal professions (solicitors, barristers and trade mark attorneys) as well as academic undergraduate and postgraduate courses. In addition, its staff teach junior and senior practising lawyers in a range of contexts, including internationally and through videoconferencing. Client interviewing pervades the law school's provision. Members of the panel represent the breadth of the school's activities. This panel presentation takes the theme of "variation" to explore a number of aspects of teaching and assessing interviewing skills. Those variations will be mapped against three dimensions: the lawyer dimension, the client dimension and the teaching dimension. Within each dimension we will discuss, drawing on research literature and on o...
Portia succeeded as a lawyer by pretending to be a man. Gwyneth Bebb, the first woman with a firs... more Portia succeeded as a lawyer by pretending to be a man. Gwyneth Bebb, the first woman with a first class law degree from Oxford, fought the Law Society. Child-bearing, ultimately, prevented her becoming the first woman called to the bar. Christabel Pankhurst got her law degree in 1906, and was a political prisoner by 1907. Lt Col Yvonne Bradley faced a dilemma: disbarred if she did, court-martialled if she didn’t. She-Hulk is a superhero who also runs her own law firm. Emma is the new lecturer down the corridor. In a university where 67% of the LLB students are women, but the University Challenge team is male. Is it her responsibility to be Portia, Louisa, Christabel or Yvonne? Discussion about the place of women in the legal professions (or in some of them) encompasses Portia’s assumed masculinity and Louisa’s drop out but only rarely Christabel’s cause making or Yvonne’s hard choice. Nevertheless, with the rise of mediation, the preponderance of women in some of the legal professions and the acknowledgment of an ethic and a skill of care in legal practice, there is, we argue, increasing recognition of a form of “women’s practice” in law which accommodates not only our list of archetypes, but others not yet named. Ashley, in the academy, may be one of the large number of women academics designing, teaching and assessing applied and practitioner-focused law. She may be a former practitioner, bringing those experiences and that identity to her role. She may be one of the (smaller?) proportion of women designing, teaching and assessing pure, or academically socio-legal law courses, where here students may be destined for a wide variety of roles in life. There is alleged to be a feminisation of legal education, in contrast to a perceived inherent masculinity in (some forms of) legal practice. In what way does this manifest itself for Emma and her contemporaries. Is the academy “safer” in some way, for women, than practice? Does the female legal academic in particular have a responsibility to her students to embody Christabel or Yvonne, or to debate the situations of Portia, She-Hulk and Louisa? Can she – yet – be herself?
In: Critical Perspectives on Professional Learning, The Metropole Hotel, Leeds, 11 January 2010.
The value of legal education The value of work place learning, alongside or instead of the class... more The value of legal education
The value of work place learning, alongside or instead of the class room
Learning and teaching within the legal services organisation: a collaborative clinic
Increasingly, organisations are focussing on the learning and teaching that takes place within the workplace. This may be for pragmatic reasons, because of changes in regulatory structure (such as the SRA’s outcome 7.6 or the introduction of the CILEx competency framework) or following the introduction of new educational routes (such as apprenticeship). The LETR final report endorsed collaborative consistency between “what is learned in formal education and what is learned in the workplace” and recommended distinct support for supervisors of periods of supervised practice across the sector.
Drawing on experiences from the SRA’s work-based learning pilot (supporting and assessing achievement of “day one” competences in the workplace context), this interactive 60 minute workshop will use both collaborative sharing of problems and solutions amongst practitioners and academics, as well as DVD and other material to promote effectiveness in:
• Supporting workplace learning generally;
• Developing useful in-organisation CPD activity.
Portia succeeded as a lawyer by pretending to be a man. Gwyneth Bebb, the first woman with a fir... more Portia succeeded as a lawyer by pretending to be a man.
Gwyneth Bebb, the first woman with a first class law degree from Oxford, fought the Law Society. Child-bearing, ultimately, prevented her becoming the first woman called to the bar.
Christabel Pankhurst got her law degree in 1906, and was a political prisoner by 1907.
Lt Col Yvonne Bradley faced a dilemma: disbarred if she did, court-martialled if she didn’t.
She-Hulk is a superhero who also runs her own law firm.
Emma is the new lecturer down the corridor. In a university where 67% of the LLB students are women, but the University Challenge team is male. Is it her responsibility to be Portia, Louisa, Christabel or Yvonne?
Discussion about the place of women in the legal professions (or in some of them) encompasses Portia’s assumed masculinity and Louisa’s drop out but only rarely Christabel’s cause making or Yvonne’s hard choice. Nevertheless, with the rise of mediation, the preponderance of women in some of the legal professions and the acknowledgment of an ethic and a skill of care in legal practice, there is, we argue, increasing recognition of a form of “women’s practice” in law which accommodates not only our list of archetypes, but others not yet named.
Ashley, in the academy, may be one of the large number of women academics designing, teaching and assessing applied and practitioner-focused law. She may be a former practitioner, bringing those experiences and that identity to her role. She may be one of the (smaller?) proportion of women designing, teaching and assessing pure, or academically socio-legal law courses, where here students may be destined for a wide variety of roles in life. There is alleged to be a feminisation of legal education, in contrast to a perceived inherent masculinity in (some forms of) legal practice. In what way does this manifest itself for Emma and her contemporaries. Is the academy “safer” in some way, for women, than practice? Does the female legal academic in particular have a responsibility to her students to embody Christabel or Yvonne, or to debate the situations of Portia, She-Hulk and Louisa? Can she – yet – be herself?
In 2011, the three largest professional regulators in England and Wales, the Bar Standards Board,... more In 2011, the three largest professional regulators in England and Wales, the Bar Standards Board, Solicitors Regulation Authority and ILEX Professional Standards commissioned the first wholesale research review of all legal services education and training since 1971. The report is the first stage of a wide-ranging review process that is designed to ensure that England and Wales has a system of legal services education and training (LSET) that is fit for the future, and one that advances the regulatory objectives of the Legal Services Act 2007 in the interests of society, consumers and justice.
The final report of the research team (Webb, Ching, Maharg and Sherr (2013) Setting Standards: The future of legal services education and training regulation in England and Wales, available at http://letr.org.uk/) has considerable synergy with the recent draft report of the ABA Task Force on legal Education. It makes a number of recommendations which include proposals to enhance the quality of lawyers’ performance (including strengthening requirements for education and training in legal ethics, values and professionalism, the development of management skills, communication skills, and equality and diversity; a more robust system of learning outcomes and standards and a new focus on continuing competence after qualification); to enhance career progression and mobility, and to encourage greater flexibility in design of pathways to qualification including more effective integration of classroom- and workplace-learning. This presentation will explore the research findings about the context, content and systems and structures of legal services education in England and Wales and share their implications.
Client interviewing is a core skill for legal practitioners in any jurisdiction. Increasingly, c... more Client interviewing is a core skill for legal practitioners in any jurisdiction. Increasingly, client relations are mediated across jurisdictions and cultures, languages and through technology (such as Skype). Effective performance combines concepts of memory, emotional intelligence, organisation, and understanding of the power within the client-lawyer, lawyer-client relationship in increasingly diverse contexts.
Nottingham Law School is unique in the UK in providing the postgraduate vocational stage for three legal professions (solicitors, barristers and trade mark attorneys) as well as academic undergraduate and postgraduate courses. In addition, its staff teach junior and senior practising lawyers in a range of contexts, including internationally and through videoconferencing. Client interviewing pervades the law school’s provision. Where staff work with qualified and practising lawyers, education additionally involves interrogating their espoused theories and theories in use in client interviewing practice.
This panel presentation will define a number of core themes and significant variations in experience, understanding and approach derived from these diverse contexts. The panel will also explore with members and with the audience their implications for increasingly globalised and cross-cultural interaction between clients and interviewing lawyers. Themes include:
• The lawyer dimension: the lawyer’s role; care, power, ethics and persuasion; different kinds of lawyer
• The client dimension: cultural expectation of the lawyer’s role; eye contact, language and register; addressing difficult areas which are sensitive for cultural or personal reasons;; inter-relationships with techniques of the cognitive interviewing of witnesses
• The teaching dimension: scenario design and client casting (including the development of standardised clients in a number of jurisdictions); different legal professions; novice, remedial and transformative learning in an interviewing context.
The idea that lawyers have an occult power over language is as old as the practice of law itself.... more The idea that lawyers have an occult power over language is as old as the practice of law itself. In her inaugural lecture Professor Jane Ching examined ways in which lawyers use language to prescribe, describe, translate and persuade, as well as ways in which lawyers need to be alert to shades of word use and nuances of expression.
Language - bizarre, inconsistent and infuriating (but infinitely flexible and expressive). A fundamental with which all law students must not only be equipped, but in which they must delight. Only then will they be sufficiently dangerous with words to exercise the occult power that their clients already believe them to have.