Law is a competitive and specialized profession, requiring a lifetime commitment to learning. Whether you are a fresh graduate or have 40 years in the business, keeping up to date with legal advancements is a must. Free online law courses can be a great asset to take advantage of during lock-down. If you’re a lawyer or becoming one, now is the time to invest in yourself, especially with the coronavirus lockdowns providing lawyers and workers across all professions with some increased free time and flexibility to pursue learning.
What’s the Point in Taking Law Courses During Lockdown?
The legal industry, at least in the short term, is being reshaped by the current global pandemic, with new opportunities and threats arising. Finding clients and staying profitable has never been so much of a challenge for law firms and individuals. َccording to a survey by the Law Society’s Law Management Section, law firms are forecasting a 10-20% drop in revenue over the period 2020-2021. Even courts and judges are adjusting their practices to better match the circumstances of the pandemic. Consequently, over the past few months, many top law firms have been forced to make pay cuts, furloughs, and layoffs.
Nevertheless, certain practice areas have grown, such as those in trusts and estates, with demand commonly surging for these practice areas during times of economic downturn. Moreover, due to Covid-driven lifestyle changes, and the stamp duty holiday, law firms with conveyancing and property departments have grown along with the housing market.
While face-to-face interactions between lawyers and clients have decreased, remote working opportunities have increased, with well-established legal giants with pre-existing online presences shifting focus on maintaining contact with clients via their online platforms, and newcomers such as Legamart providing online networking opportunities for lawyers across different jurisdictions.
If you are a new graduate, a junior lawyer, a senior lawyer, or a business person looking to improve your legal knowledge, boost your CV, or gain new business skills to run your business, we have searched to find the right course or service for you. Read below to find out more.
Free Online Law Courses
We have gathered some free law courses to take during covid to help you make the most of this period and increase your legal knowledge while taking advantage of all opportunities to improve your ability to get hired.
As the world’s most successful lawyers would tell you, learning never really stops. Although entry requirements vary amongst employers, top employers including companies such as Kirkland & Ellis, Latham and Watkins, DLA Piper, Baker Mckenzie, and Clifford Chance have high entry requirements for candidates, hiring individuals with top educational backgrounds, including those who have attended ivy league universities.
Some insights from Vault’s 100 most selective law firms show that Williams and Connolly seek super smart, driven and academically outstanding candidates with a personal and professional fit, while Wachtell admits that nearly everyone there has attended a top 10 law school. Munger, Tolles, and Olsen admit that high grades are a must but intellectual depth and examples of leadership are more important than anything else.
Although education is not a replacement for experience, educational qualifications are in high demand when it comes to the legal field, helping you appear more attractive to employers. Online courses are a great way to showcase an interest in and commitment to the law, letting individuals stand out when applying for jobs and training contracts.
The legal industry is highly over-saturated, with supply being well beyond demand, thus every bit of education counts. Here we have selected some of the top free legal courses that will help you make your CV stand out to employers.
Introductory Business Law
The aim of this free law course, offered by study.com, is to help those who have only just entered law school save time and money on their degree program by studying the basics of business law online. Topics include the US constitution and business, contract law, third party rights, breach of contract, sales contracts, tort law, consumer protection, debtor and creditor rights, and more. For further information or to sign up, visit study.com https://study.com/academy/course/business-law-course.html .
Suitable For: Students of Law
Free Harvard Law Course: Contract Law
Harvard’s free law course on contract law, run by Charles Fried who has been teaching at Harvard for over 50 years and written extensively on contracts, used a story-telling approach to approach the topic, fully engaging the learner. This course covers units such as interpretation, agency, partnerships, corporations, and government regulation. The aim is to introduce the range of issues that arise when entering and enforcing contracts, with an introduction to contracts and also an analysis of the purpose and significance of contracts. It also investigated fraud, mistakes, one-sided promises, and frustrations as well as how contracts can create rights for third parties. You can sign up for this course on the Edx website https://www.edx.org/course/contract-law-from-trust-to-promise-to-contract.
Suitable For: Junior Lawyers
International Law
UCLouvain’s free law course on International Law teaches the learner how International Law is applied, created, and upheld in the modern world. International law refers to the law that governs the relationship between states, but also relates to what NGOs, international organizations, and other non-state actors do. No previous knowledge of international law is needed, however, students should have familiarity with legal concepts and language. The full syllabus can be viewed at https://www.edx.org/course/international-law
IP Law
The University of Pennsylvania offers a free law course on Intellectual Property Law and Policy. This is relevant for both Junior lawyers and business professionals. This free law course allows the student to understand the legal doctrines at the core of the innovation economy, learning how legal rights and information shape our lives. It covers the theory of IP law, how it works, and policy implications, covering patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Visit the website https://www.edx.org/course/intellectual-property-law-and-policy-part-1 to apply or view the syllabus.
Suitable For: Junior Lawyers and Business Professionals
Medical Law (Genetics)
This is a free Harvard law course on bioethics and the law, medicine, and ethics of reproductive technologies and genetics. This course includes interviews with individuals who have used IVF, surrogacy, and sperm donation, as well as bioethicists and journalists who study the ownership and use of genetic information, and Harvard staff who have performed research around disability law as this relates to reproductive technology. The aim of the content within this course is to show how legal reasoning can be applied to questions around reproduction, parenthood, and other issues surrounding human genetics. You can sign up for this fascinating course on the Edx website https://www.edx.org/course/bioethics-the-law-medicine-and-ethics-of-reproduct.
Suitable For: Junior Lawyers and Business Professionals
Online Mooting
Whilst not amongst free law courses to take during covid, online mooting groups provide a space where students can practice their legal skills and develop the crucial confidence required to succeed as a lawyer. This is particularly important now as physical classes are not taking place in many places of the world, and classes are predominantly online. An interesting yet small mooting group is Mooting online https://www.linkedin.com/company/mooting-online/about/, pay them a visit.
Suitable for: Students of Law
Diploma in Business and Legal Studies
This free online law course with certificate, offered by Alison, has been purely tailored for business professionals and managers looking to learn about how the law impacts their business. For long-term business success, it is essential for businesses and managers to understand the laws around their business. This helpful course teaches you about key areas of business and law, including HR management, corporate management, accounting, operations management, and the adversary system. It will cover topics such as important legal procedures, the main types of laws and how they are created, management styles, how to use key performance indicators, and more. You can sign up on Alison https://alison.com/course/diploma-in-business-and-legal-studies.
Suitable for: Business Professionals
Environmental Law
Academic Earth offers a free law course with certificate to help individuals learn about Environmental policy, covering topics such as environmental common law, water pollution, air pollution, and pollution control. It is useful for lawyers and business professionals alike, although it is recommended that business owners who significantly deal with environmental laws study a more thorough course covering all relevant topics in more depth. To access the materials, visit Academic Earth https://academicearth.org/law/.
Suitable for: All
Blogging Advice for Lawyers
Lexblog, which is run by lawyer turned tech entrepreneur Kevin, is a community of over 30,000 blog publishers. Its blog content provides advice, predominantly targeted towards senior lawyers. Topic themes include how lawyers can acquire more clients, how to effectively write a legal blog, publishing third-party content, and how to write your first blog in a law firm. It’s particularly useful for lawyers seeking to expand their client base or promote their business by blogging and taking advantage of legal tech. You can check out their articles on Lexblog https://kevin.lexblog.com/?s=corona.
Suitable For: Junior and Senior Lawyers
Well, that’s it. We hope you enjoyed this blog post and that you enjoy using these sites to expand your legal knowledge. This is not a successive list, so if you feel you have any suggestions which could be added to this list, don’t hesitate to contact the email address provided below.
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