This book has a single underlying theme: that being a skilled lawyer means much more than acquiring the capacity to manipulate legal rules. It means having the ability to deal with people and their problems as a competent, ethical and socially responsible lawyer. This in turn requires that skills are developed in a reflective and critical environment, through a combination of what we call ‘skills’ and ‘process’ learning.

The main skills we explore are the classic lawyering or ‘DRAIN’ skills – Drafting (and its underlying writing skills), Research (which we widen into a concept we call problem-solving), Advocacy, Interviewing and Negotiation. You will be expected to develop those skills by practising, by analysing your practice, and then practising some more. At this level we hope you will gain some real insights into the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of law in action.

The ‘process’ dimension takes us more deeply into the ‘why’ of lawyering. We shall ask you to draw on your experiences of the course and to reflect on our discussions of the practice of law, together with psychological, sociological, linguistic and management research which sheds light on what really happens in the law office and the courtroom. Through this, we hope you will be able to stand back from the skills and think about lawyering as something that is socially and culturally constructed. The lawyer plays an important role as a ‘gatekeeper to legal institutions and facilitator of a wide range of personal and economic transactions’.