Sesame 210 online - The Open University

Grads willre-shape lawIssue 210 August/September 2002 Sesame 7NewsBy Yvonne CookA“very significant milestone in legalhistory” has been passed with thegraduation of the Open University’sfirst law students, according to CherieBooth, QC.Speaking at a ceremony to honour the 107graduates who have just received their LLB(Bachelor of Laws) degree, Ms Booth said thatshe expected the influx of OU graduates toinfluence the legal profession in the same waythey had earlier influenced fields like science,geology, astronomy, psychology, sociology andcomputing.“The traditional model of a good law studentis a very narrow one in respect of gender, age,ethnicity, social experience and social interests,”she said, adding “the wider the socialexperience of those learned in the law, the betterfor both the development of the law and forclients and scholars.”Urging graduates to put their law degreesto use in serving society, she continued: “Formany this will mean becoming a solicitor orbarrister, but for others it will mean corporateor local government work, legal work withcharities or further legal scholarship andresearch.“It is worthy of note that some of the greatestpeople of vision and reforming capabilityof the last millennium, like Sir Thomas More,Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, havebeen lawyers.”The OU is now the largest law school in theUK, with nearly 3,000 registered students, saidProfessor Gary Slapper, its head. It waslaunched almost exactly five years ago in conjunctionwith the College of Law, at an eventalso attended by Cherie Booth.The first batch of OU law graduates rangein age from their 20s to their 60s; some areplanning to enter the law as a profession, somehope to apply their legal knowledge to work ina different sphere; some were studying forinterest. Sesame spoke to a few of them at theceremony at the Commonwealth Club inLondon:Victoria Scoble had a longstanding ambitionto become a solicitor, but there was whatseemed an insuperable problem – she had nodegree, no A levels, no GCSEs. Following aserious neck injury in a car crash at the age of10, she could not attend school and had lessonswith a private tutor at home, but missed outon a great deal of her education.“I wanted to train in the law but with noeducation I thought that was it,” she toldSesame. “Then I saw an advert for the OpenUniversity’s new law programme, which saidyou didn’t need any qualifications. I thought‘this is my one and only chance. I have nothingto lose and everything to gain’.”Studying full-time at home Victoria, 28,achieved her LLB degree in three years, eventhough when she started she didn’t know howto write an essay: “I rang up my first tutor andsaid ‘can you tell me what I have to do to writean essay?’ There was a dead silence on thephone – then he was really, really helpful.”Cherie Booth (centre) meets the Vice Chancellor Professor Brenda Gourley (left) and Gary Slapper (right), head of theLaw ProgrammeAs a successful OU law graduate Victoriahas a guaranteed place at the College of Lawwhich she will take up in September, whereshe will spend a year studying full-time.Following that she already has a two-yeartraining place organised with a firm whereshe can pursue her particular area of interest,commercial law litigation.Ian Birnie’s law degree has helped him inpreparing the evidence for a high-profilemurder case, he says. A Detective-Inspectorwith Grampian Police who sponsored hisstudy, Ian, 39, started his OU degree studyingtechnology but switched when the law programmewas launched because law was morerelevant to his work. “I now have a far widerappreciation of the legal side of things,” hesaid. He hopes his law degree will help him indeveloping his interest in European policing.“The police force today is not just concernedwith our own little areas, we are looking todevelop strategies Europe-wide, even worldwide.”Dr Karen Blessing had some trouble findingtime to study for her law degree – as Scotland’sonly skin pathologist her expertise is much indemand. Karen, who lives in Aberdeen butworks at Glasgow’s Western Infirmary,specialises in the diagnosis of melanoma, atype of skin cancer. “As an expert I sometimesget asked to defend people in medical negligencecases, and I have found the law degreerelevant to this,” she said.More information about studying law isavailable at: http://oubs-courses.open. ac.uk/law/Ladies who lunch – Arts Faculty stafftake a breakOpen Day always boasts somethingfor everyone – including thethousands who want informationon OU study seen (above) at SouthRegion’s course choice fair, and(left) in the Cedar Lawn marqueeFront page picture: MuddlesChildren’s Theatre Group enjoy thedrama of a game of footballbetween performancesTwins Rocky and Aman Nti, 10, experiment with volcanoes in the Earth Sciences areaThe old andthe new –Alex Nikel ofWoad WorksMorrisDancers triesringing thechangesGuest entertainers included the Seewen Brass Band from Switzerland