Author: Mohamed Nawfal (article originally taken from uniclues.com)
Course: xxx
Studying law is really about understanding the different laws that exist in Singapore so that you can look at a situation and decide whether someone is liable for breaking that law. In that way, it prepares you to be a lawyer in the future, when you have a client who needs your advice. To answer your question directly, a huge bulk of studying for law constitutes reading cases and knowing how cases were decided, because you need to have this knowledge to decide what law could be infringed and whether the law has actually been infringed. This knowledge comes from your readings.
I chose law because after doing some community service work last year, I realised how important the law was in our society, given that all of us are protected by the law but so many are not aware of what rights exactly are being protected. I was also interested in seeing how one black and white regulation can still lead to so many grey areas and in seeing how one situation can have so many different interpretations.
There were definitely other degrees on my mind, because I tend to be interested in a wide variety of things. I was interested in pursuing a degree in life sciences, because I was (and still am) passionate about learning biology, and I also had considered business, although it was something I ultimately did not apply for.
I would say that you can never really know if you are interested in studying law, because before university, no one has actually studied law before (unless you come from the UK and did law for A levels). However, I would say if you enjoy knowing how to solve problems for people and learning about the different rights that are protected in our society, law would be a good fit for you.
Honestly, I slowly discovered my passion for reading law only during the law application process because the tests and interviews made me realise how much value there was in reading law and how reading law was a challenge that I wanted to tackle.
“I am a bad example to follow honestly but also a good example of how you don’t need to have everything figured out before trying for big things.”
People always told me that they thought I was suited for law school because I was never one to back down from something I believed in strongly. I also knew that since I was comfortable with public speaking and in speaking up for things I believe in, I knew that the presentation and class participation aspect of law school would not be a big issue for me. However, just because you are soft spoken or shy does not mean that you do not have the skills to be a good lawyer.
A good lawyer/law student should be able to write clearly and do extensive research for them to have a solid argument. These skills, along with how to present properly, are things that you will be taught and you will have the opportunity to develop. I would say that you would be suited for law school if you have a passion for reading law and the drive to pursue it.
The skills you picked up in GP are quite important! Law is such a huge and at times, confusing, subject so being clear, concise and to the point is always important. A good way for you to know if you have the skills is honestly to look at how you felt during the admissions test and how you approached the problem. In law, having logical arguments grounded in evidence and explanation is the only way you can have a good argument, so if answering the admissions test questions were a big problem for you then that is something you have to improve on.
However, I would say the most important skill to have is being able to understand content easily and quickly. You can do this by reading more essay-like articles and just by reading more to get used to the amount of reading you have to do in law school.
One more practical skill you need to have is how to type quickly! Since all exams are done on the computer, having quick and accurate typing is SO important so that you can cover all the content you need to cover while also having your professors understand what you are typing. You can try typing tests online and seeing what your typing speed is. A lot of the A+ students I know typed approximately 3400 words in 1 hour so you do the math. (You should be hitting a minimum of 2000+ words an hour if you want to get a minimum B+ though)
I took BCME! I do not think it hindered me, just that I did not have a lot of practice writing long reports and essays before coming to law school. This did not feel like a setback though, because being a science student also generally means you know how to directly answer questions simply. Each subject combination has its own advantages, just make sure you learn what your weaknesses are and then work on it.
Life at SMU law can really differ based on the kind of person you are. There are people who spend every day in the law library, or people who never step foot in it the entire semester. One thing for sure is that you always have to study, it’s just a matter of where and how much.
“Having a life outside of law school is also very possible, it’s really how well you manage your time.”
I’m lucky to say that the people I’ve become friends with here are the best, because we can study very hard together and we can also mess around together. They are also very generous with their notes, which is helpful. There will be people of all kinds in law school, and there would definitely be people who you end up closer to. It would be good if you have close friends in law school but I would say that you don’t have to be close to only law students if you are good at studying on your own and you don’t mind studying something completely different from your group of friends.
How good your professor is really depends on your luck, because some in demand professors only teach one class. However, the difference in teaching across professors is not hugely important, because you will only be graded against the other students your professor teaches.
With every faculty, there will be competition. Especially since how good of a lawyer you become is also based on how many cases you win against other people, the situation in law school can be the same if you let it get to your head. However, I would think that the grades you get are largely based on how good your work is, and not whether it’s better than others. The only time competition REALLY matters is moot, but even then the profs grade based on your own arguments, not whether your arguments are strictly better than your opponents.
In this regard, I’m quite sure you have heard of snakes. Snake culture is something which has become prominent in many faculties across all the universities. Please do not be a snake, because once you snake someone, word gets around very easily. At the same time, don’t trust everything that you hear because the person spreading the rumour can be a snake as well. While this sounds like you cannot trust anyone, the main thing you should do is to just focus on doing your work right and to only care about the opinions of the people who matter to you. If you are a good person, you will be with good people and then you can all help each other.
Usually, your professor for that subject will upload a list of book chapters, articles or cases (they will include cases 99.99% of the time) for you to read before coming to class, so that you can ask questions about how a certain case was decided if you need clarification. This also shows that you did your readings and the professor can give you more class participation marks!
With that said, law professors do not expect you to know how to do proper case readings from the very beginning. For SMU students, there is a module called Legal Research and Writing, which will teach you all about how you apply the law “in the real world”. This mod teaches you how to write case briefs, how to do research for cases properly, the format for preparing various legal documents such as legal memorandums and appellate briefs and, most significantly, how to moot! This module can be quite interesting because you apply the law you learn in other subjects (such as criminal law, tort law or contract law) to certain scenarios and write them in certain documents which real lawyers prepare for court.
In class, the professor will go through a topic with you and cover the different cases related to that topic (cases which you should already know about from your readings). Then, the professor can ask questions about the case or give you a hypothetical scenario for you to answer. These hypotheticals will be loosely based on the factual matrix of the cases given in the reading list, so knowing how a case was decided is important in deciding whether the hypothetical should have the same result. If you want to know more about the curriculum, visit the SMU Law website!
“Some skills I’ve picked up are how to read cases quickly, how to write clearly and also how to make good notes which work for me! I also had to learn how to type fast.”
Grading at SMU law is similar to the other SMU faculties, where the grades go from A+ to F. Each grade will correspond to a GPA! The professor also grades using a bell curve.
For most law modules, assessments come in the form of class participation, group presentations and exams.
Class participation is based on the quality and at times, quantity, of the questions or answers you contribute in class.
For group presentations, every law module typically involves your group presenting once in the whole semester. The presentation will usually be an answer to the question the professor has assigned to your group, and every group’s question is different, so you learn a lot from the presentations.
As for exams, the paper will usually include a hypothetical scenario for you to write about the various legal rights certain parties have in the scenario. Some final exams will also include an essay for you to write about the law and the academic debate that surrounds certain laws. It sounds like a lot, given that every law module will have these assessments, but it really is quite manageable because SMU does not have any lectures, so you have quite a lot of free time to self-study or meet with your groups. Each component carry their own weightage but final exams are usually 50% so you have to do well!
Also a side note about exam essays. Essays in year 1 are actually very rare, I’ve only had to do 3 exam essays so far, most people have only done. I would say don’t worry about it, because you will generally focus on answering hypotheticals well.
Being a BCME student, I was also worried about my writing being on par with the rest, and up till now I feel that my writing is not as good as it should be. However, you will definitely have your own strengths in other areas, so it is important to leverage on those while using the assignments to learn how to write better. I would advise reading good examples from your friends or seniors to see what kind of writing style you can adopt to improve your writing.
I would say grades are a clear indicator of whether you are coping, but it also comes down to how difficult it is for you to survive and how comfortable you feel. Of course, you will always feel stressed when it comes down to it, but at the same time you should have a sensing of whether you can actually survive. I would say that getting a B+ is an indicator that you can survive, but getting a B or C+ or lower does not mean you cannot survive either, it just means that you have to work harder for other components to do fine in the end.
Ultimately, you need a 3.00 GPA to practice law but you should obviously get higher to secure a training contract from a firm! Average is typically around 3.3-3.4.
The two schools cannot be equals because each school has its own strengths. Furthermore, there are firms who prefer SMU graduates over NUS ones and vice versa. Ultimately, both schools give you an LLB degree, and it really depends on how well you did in school, not which school you came from. I would say you have to consider your own learning style. If you do not really like to participate in class and you like lecture-based studies, then NUS law is for you. However, if you like having in class discussions and you prefer self-study, SMU law would be a good fit.
I chose SMU over NUS because I liked the fact that we are a new law school with a different learning system. NUS has an established history and very notable alumni. However, a few of those notable alumni are now teaching at SMU!
“I like the fact that I can learn under such esteemed professors in a learning system where I am free to ask them questions instead of them lecturing me when I am completely lost.”
I would say that it is not true that SMU focuses more on corporate law, just that NUS has more professors who are experts at other areas of the law. However, which area of the law you expertise in all comes down to what grades you get for certain modules and where you intern at.
There are law firms who have preferences but if I recall correctly, a partner from a law firm who gave a talk at SMU law mentioned that there was 50-50 employment of NUS and SMU law graduates. There are also some firms that prefer SMU to NUS graduates and vice versa. Again, I believe it is more about your grades than what school you came from.
I cannot say whether the standard of our law program is “equal”, but I would say that SMU’s law program is quite comprehensive and that there is no better law school at this point. Given how much we have achieved despite our young age, I would say that SMU law has its own strengths, such as a good moot program.
It is true that there is an oversupply of lawyers. It is something which I have not thought about a lot because it is quite far in the future for me. From what I know, the main cause of this problem is that there are too many people studying law, leading to too much competition for training contracts. AI is also contributing to that by automating certain straightforward legal services like simple contract approval and vetting. Many lawyers in the UK who relied heavily on providing those services for survival were put out of their jobs. Here is an article on AI in the Legal Industry. However, many of these people actually leave very soon after starting their career because they cannot handle the workload. The harder bar exam and the 1 year TC aims to weed out those people so I would say that this problem is slowly being addressed. However, If you’re worried about this, I would say that having a more unique skill set would help you avoid this problem, especially if those skills involve IT skills!
I knew about the oversupply, but I still chose to do law because I realised my main reason for doing law was to get the skills, and not to become a lawyer at that point in time. I guess you just have to keep in mind why you are doing law and that becoming a practicing lawyer does not have to be the end goal for everyone.
“There are easier ways to earn money”
The reasons why I wanted to study law is because I wanted to pick up skills that law school inculcates, like oral skills, persuasive skills, writing skills, etc. If you are interested in studying law, I would ask you to really ask yourself why you want to do it, because if it’s for the money, then this place is not for you (there are other easier ways to earn money). Maybe you could check out lettersofthelaw.org to hear from law School graduates to decide for yourselves if law school is for you.
“If you find that it’s for the skills you pick up and for the content you will study, then this degree will be very worthwhile.”
Pick up a hobby! Like fishing
My advice would be to ensure that law school is not your whole life. Make sure you have a hobby as a stress outlet, and that you have a clear goal of how much you want to achieve in law school. Personally, I prioritize my CCA and having an all rounded campus life, so I was okay with not getting stellar grades. How much you work is really up to you, just make sure that you can survive.
As for the oversupply, the best way to beat it is to make sure you have other skills besides your law degree. Maybe going for coding classes, or taking a major in another faculty will help with this!
“Having leadership positions in your CCA also contributes to higher employability so you will likely be less affected by the oversupply.”
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the interviewees and do not reflect the official policy or position of any institution. They are also not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, class, individual or organisation.
The information contained in this website is intended to provide general guidance only. It should not be relied upon as professional advice and does not 100% guarantee admission into any course.
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