Qualifying Law Degree – Oral Presentation

Entry into the legal profession in England and Wales involves three stages of training: the Academic stage followed by the Vocational training stage and then the ‘practical training’ stage.

The University of London LLB is recognised as a Qualifying Law Degree and the completion of the Academic stage of legal training in England and Wales so long as certain specific conditions are met. Students must demonstrate the attainment of various skills including legal research, oral communication and IT skills through production of a satisfactory Laws Skills Portfolio.

Final year students are currently undertaking their oral presentations which are conducted in one of three ways:

1. At their institution – If you are studying at a recognised teaching institution you may conduct your oral presentation at your institution in front of an audience.
2. In London – Students can attend a presentation session at Stewart House in London, where you will be able to do your presentation in the presence of a University of London academic.
3. Video Conference – Students who are not studying at an institution and who are not able to attend the London session are offered an opportunity to do the presentation via Skype with a University of London academic.

Below are 8 top tips on conducting an effective oral presentation:

1. Practice your presentation in advance. Do not simply sit down and read through it but stand up and deliver out aloud, as if to an audience, as you will be doing during the real thing;
2. Plan a beginning, middle and end to your presentation:
• Introduce the subject area and the main points you will be addressing;
• Present the components of your argument in a coherent and logical fashion;
• Conclude by summarising your talk and if appropriate you may add one or two comments e.g. directing the audience to other work in the area.
3. Time yourself. If you run over time then edit your presentation accordingly;
4. Make sure you do not have too many slides. Keep them simple. For a 10 minute presentation you should need no more than six to eight slides;
5. Remember: the slides are there to keep your audience in step with you, not to impart large amounts of extra information. It can be useful to put full references to cases or statutes on the slides;
6. Remember that your slides are not there for you to read from but to help reinforce points that are directed towards your audience;
7. If you are being filmed then we suggest using slides with white text on a black background to avoid glare;
8. Before your presentation you could consider a trial run with another student who can direct you as to where you should be standing.