What is the “Q” for?

How do Law Students Develop Commercial Awareness? Listening to the Student Voice on the Roles of the Law School and the Law Student in Developing Commercial Awareness

“…44 Omitting commercial awareness from the undergraduate degree potentially excludes students from accessing these opportunities as well as vacancies arising later. Huxley-Binns ( 2011 ) predicted (correctly) that many law students would become paralegals without doing the LPC; paralegals also need to be commercially aware. The introduction of the SQE means that including commercial awareness in the undergraduate curriculum will perhaps be even more critical.…”

“…The conceptual literature focused on commercial awareness meaning an understanding of the law firm as a business. Huxley-Binns ( 2011 , p. 304) argued that, for law students to succeed in the legal profession, legal education should include an understanding of business issues such as ‘profit and loss…client relations, strategy, mission.’ Law firm websites and professional journals 16 provide additional insight into what commercial awareness means, and focus on an understanding of current affairs, business matters and how political, economic, social and technological issues impact on clients and their sectors. As a result of the systematic literature review, the author suggested that, in a legal setting, commercial awareness meant understanding: (1) law firms, their clients and the sectors in which they operate; (2) how external influences (political, social, economic and technological) impact on law firms, clients and their respective sectors and the advice law firms provide; (3) that the legal rights and remedies of clients may not always best suit their objectives; and (4) that a law firm is a business - lawyers need to make money to stay in business.…”