Law? What was I thinking?!

I last posted a blog post in 2015, which is crazy that I've managed to be sidetracked for so long!  In 2015, I graduated with my LLB and was fortunate to secure a job as a trainee paralegal within a Scottish-wide firm. The role as a trainee paralegal was within the Conveyancing department and I learned a huge amount skills and knowledge on the job that I had no previous experience in and which the LLB did not prepare you for.  I have now started the Diploma in Legal Practice and boy, it is hard transitioning from the daily grind of 9 to 5 to getting back into studying again! I would say though that it was the better way round because I have a clearer understanding of what will be expected of as a trainee solicitor and of how things actually work in practice.  What I have noticed so far is that the Diploma can teach you all the skills and knowledge and processes and form filling you need for the job, but without any work experience (and even with some if it was...

It wasn't until I had to resit my third year at university that I really wished I had learnt the IRAC method sooner. We were taught how to use the IRAC method back in first year and although I did try to use it, I just couldn't understand it because I was so set in my own writing style. For those of you who haven't heard of it or don't know what it stands for, it can be understood as follows: I = ISSUE = what is the legal problem? R = RULE = what does the law say about this legal problem? A = APPLICATION = apply the law to the problem, sometimes look at all of the alternative options  C = CONCLUSION = which solution is the best one based on the rules? Explain and conclude!  It took me three years (yes - THREE YEARS!) to get my head around this but it boosted my grades because there was a better and clearer structure to all my essays and exam answers.  I already had my own structure and style of writing out which sometimes worked dependent on the subject and t...

Yesterday was the first day of my final (and most important) year of university. I have been so excited to get back into the swing of things but there is one thing that has been stressing me out; the dreaded dissertation. At the moment, I have a good idea of what I need to do and although I have done some research during my summer I feel like I still have so much to do. By November 14th, I must have a final title and structure. This doesn't feel that far away at all even though I have roughly six weeks. I am lacking in motivation. I have a lot of enthusiasm for the subjects I have taken and can't wait to get my teeth into those but the dissertation really is holding me back. Even choosing a topic I find interesting and exciting isn't helping me to get started properly. Today, I cleared my desk - bought to increase productivity and motivation - hung up some clothes to clear my room of clutter, and started listening to Andrew Johnson's Beat Procrastination medita...

This post is completely inspired by the MTV show called Catfish, and also from a personal experience where I witnessed first-hand the issue of the increasingly common activity of catfishing. It also will look at the laws governing copyright infringements and identity/personality theft but not in the sense that they are commonly known for. This is focusing on "fake" people who have become masks for real people who pretend to be these people.  A catfish itself has been defined colloquially as " someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances." The activity was brought to light through the documentary which is, of course, called Catfish and it is now a popular MTV show. It follows individuals who are in online relationships with someone over Facebook. They have never met the person but have fallen for them emotionally through their contact with eac...

Today, I was called to court as a witness for a case which has been adjourned three times in the year and a half since it happened. This was all very exciting to someone who is studying law and I thought it would have been good to see the court from a witness' perspective. I was treating it as a kind of experiment even though it was a real case. However, the excitement was short lived as it was dropped before I could even give evidence and be questioned :( very disappointed! This post isn't about the case or seeing the court from a witness' point of view, no. This is actually about the lack of tea/coffee facilities in the Aberdeen Justice of the Peace court! I know for a fact that tea/coffee facilities exist in both the Sheriff Court and the High Court Annex. If I recall, they are quite reasonable. Why is it, then, that the Justice of the Peace court do not provide such comforts? I know it is a smaller court, but that is no excuse. There was plenty of space in the witn...

At school, we were once visited by a local Reverend every Monday morning for about a month. He had interesting theories about sex and relationships. He first  claimed oreo cookies were like sex. To explain this further, he described his favourite method of eating them; breaking them in half, and eating the filling in the middle first before eating the biscuits. Apparently, this is similar to sex in that it should be savoured and time and care should be taken in order to enjoy the experience. Jumping right in and not taking time to savour the moment means you can't appreciate it.  His second theory was that baking a cake is like a relationship and sex. He described that a cake has layers, just like a relationship. The first layer is trust, and bonding. The second layer I can't recall but it had something to do with relationship building. The best part of the cake is the icing - SEX! Without the first two layers, sex will not be such an enjoyable experience. On Thursd...

Just back from London and completely forgot I had created a blawg! I think this is the perfect opportunity to get started with it and to tell others what a fantastic time I had and what a large range of skills I have acquired as well as excellent advice from City solicitors/trainees. It certainly made me realise that law is something I want to stick with, and to keep working hard at and being one out of 103 chosen to attend (out of 850 applicants!), it was certainly a superb experience that I would recommend to anyone to apply for next year! CSET is the City Solicitors' Educational Trust who sponsor the event with TARGETevents. It runs once a year and roughly 100 students will win a place over nearly a thousand, I was lucky to get my place! It focuses on commercial law. I arrived on Monday morning at Euston at 8AM after a 10 hour train journey from Aberdeen and met some other girls out of the 103 people invited before setting off on the strange new world known as the tube ...