What can a lawyer learn from an

English teacher? And what does an

English teacher need to know about
the law?
Laura Stamps

Introduction
Words are the lawyer's tools of trade
Lord Denning

Lawyers are people with high verbal skills in

their own language and this is what they are
looking for in English too.

About me
Ive been teaching legal English courses at The London School of
English for four years:
English for Young Lawyers
English for Commercial Lawyers
TOLES exam Test of Legal English Skills

Aims of the workshop

What are the main differences between the legal system in
England and Wales and those of other countries?
Whats special about legal English?
Which typical classroom activities are appropriate for
teaching legal English?

Who is the typical legal English

student?
More likely to deal with civil than criminal law in some
countries, being a criminal lawyer is a risky job
Often in-house, commercial lawyers
Need English to communicate with foreign clients
May want to do an LLM in their field

How much do you need to know

about the law to teach legal English?
Dont worry about trying to learn everything -lawyers never
do, they have reference books
Whats useful is to have a concept of how the English legal
system differs from others

Why might these aspects of the legal

profession seem strange to students?

Common law
Solicitors and barristers
Judges
Magistrates
Freehold and leasehold

Why might these aspects of the legal

profession seem strange to students?
Common law
Different to civil law- greater emphasis on case law
Students often assume that there is no written law in the UK,
when in fact there are many written statutes

Why might these aspects of the legal

profession seem strange to students?
Solicitors and barristers
This division of the legal profession doesnt exist in civil law
jurisdictions
The traditional barristers wig and gown is the source of much
amusement and fascination

Why might these aspects of the legal

profession seem strange to students?
Judges
Separate career path in many countries dont be surprised if
one of your students is a judge in their mid-twenties!
Students are often surprised by how much discussion there is
between the judge and the counsels: The English system is
adversarial rather than inquisitorial

Why might these aspects of the legal

profession seem strange to students?
Magistrates
In civil law systems, a magistrate is a qualified judge in a
superior court
In common law systems, a magistrate is a layperson who only
works as a magistrate a few days a year yet has the power
to impose a 12-month prison sentence or a 5000 fine!

Why might these aspects of the legal

profession seem strange to students?
Freehold and leasehold
The common law of the landlord-tenant relation evolved
in England during the Middle Ages. That law still retains many
archaic terms and principles pertinent to a feudal social order
and an agrarian economy, where land was the primary
economic asset and ownership of land was the primary source
of rank and status

Why might these aspects of the legal

profession seem strange to students?
Freehold and leasehold
Most buyers in the UK happily buy a leasehold property without
thinking, as you can
buy or sell the property
alter it
leave it to someone in your will
and ground-rent is nominal

Key differences between legal and

general English
What do these words mean in general and legal English?

offence
express
material
several
outstanding
undertake
discovery
notice
consideration

Key differences between legal and

general English
Now, with some context:
offence
She received a custodial sentence after being convicted of an
offence.

express
There are express and implied terms in the contract.
material
He was ordered to pay a material contribution towards costs.

Key differences between legal and

general English
several
The tenants had joint and several liability for paying the rent.
outstanding
I have written to my client to request them to pay the
outstanding sums.
undertake
I undertake to carry out the task.

Key differences between legal and

general English
discovery
In a civil trial, one party may order the discovery of documents.
notice
Party A shall notice Party B on receipt of the documents.

consideration
English contracts need an element of consideration in order to
be legally valid.

And how would you explain them to learners?

Key differences between legal and

general English
From a local government letter concerning taxation on housing
A claim for exemption from the abovementioned taxation, which
in the case of a dwelling that houses not more than a single
family, the value of that dwelling shall not exceed 45,000 or the
fair market value, whichever is less, may be filed with this office
within 30 days of receipt of this notice.
TOLES

Key differences between legal and

general English
You may not have to pay this tax if you file a claim for exemption
within the correct time limits and both of the following
conditions apply:
a) your property is worth 45, 000 or less, and
b) only one family lives in the property
If you want to make a claim for exemption, you must send your
claim to this office within 30 days from the day you received this
letter. [The day you received the letter will count as day one]
TOLES

Key overlaps between legal and

general English
Students also need good general English
They need to be able to explain legal terms in general English
Grammar focus more on complex structures than tenses e.g.
present simple is used throughout contracts
Since Lord Woolfs 1998 reforms there has been a move to
clarify legal English
www.plainenglish.co.uk

Comparing Legal and Business English

For business people, English is a tool of communication; so long
as they succeed in making someone understand the conditions
they want to set out, accuracy of speaking and writing does not
become a big issue.
Conversely, lawyers have to speak English on behalf of their
clientsIn other words, our priority is not to establish
worldwide business relationships but to gain the faith of
clients. For that purpose, our English shall be more accurate and
clearer than that of our clients and it shall be able to bear our
clients strict appraisal.
Naoki Kadotani, student on the Commercial Lawyers course at
The London School of English

Comparing Legal and Business English

A lot of overlap in terms of company law
Fewer buzzwords in legal lexis there is a lot of jargon but it
tends to have a concrete meaning
Legal terminology moves more slowly than that of business,
often to the point of being archaic

Links between other ESP courses

Which areas of the law would you look at in these ESP courses?

HR
Business
Medical English
Engineering

Links between other ESP courses

Which areas of the law would you look at in these ESP courses?
HR employment law
Business company law, compliance, M and A, duties of
directors, setting up a company, dissolution of companies
Medical English medical negligence cases, IP
Engineering IP, environmental law

What can I do in class?

How could you upgrade these typical classroom activities for a
legal English context?

Backs to the board/vocabulary cards

Role-plays
News and views presentation
Writing letters and emails
Discussing controversial topics

What can I do in class?

Backs to the board/vocabulary cards
This is ideal as there is so much vocabulary to learn
Upgrade with collocation, e.g. verb + noun, or word formation,
which is good for TOLES:

amend
repudiate
rescind
sever ship
veto

What can I do in class?

Backs to the board/vocabulary cards

amend amendment
repudiate repudiation
rescind rescission
sever - severance
ship shipment
veto veto

What can I do in class?

Role-plays
Mediation - Mediator with two parties in dispute (pick the
loudest, most opinionated students to be the mediators!)
Client and solicitor get the solicitor to explain legal terms in
general English
Negotiations for example, a takeover bid, or renegotiating
the terms of a draft contract

What can I do in class?

News and views presentation
Yes, about a story relevant to the law any crime story would
be good
Students can present a story from a British newspaper and
explain how it would work in their legal system, or vice-versa
Whole class discussion

What can I do in class?

Writing letters and emails
TOLES style writing:
Redraft short legal texts to make them more easily
understood by the client
Rewrite a letter to a client to make it more formal
Write an email to a friend to explain specific legal terms

What can I do in class?

Discussing controversial topics
Yes, these discussions really lend themselves to a class full of
lawyers!
Not only do class members give their own opinion, they also
compare the legal stance of their respective jurisdictions
Make it more formal by setting it up as an adversarial debate,
with the two sides taking it in turns to present their case, call
witnesses etc. Then the class becomes the jury

What can I do outside class?

Take them outside the classroom
To court! Its free and fascinating
To an employment tribunal
The Houses of Parliament is also a winner watch a debate in
the House of Lords

Tips
Learn as much as you can but remember that you can check
and get back to them
Spend time in court!
Get a really good legal dictionary
Do some of coursera.orgs free law courses
Have simple, memorable examples up your sleeve
Learn the names and sites of the official bodies, e.g HMRC for
tax law
Learn from your students!

Good news
The law is both interesting and directly relevant to our lives
A good grounding in legal knowledge will help you to deliver
other ESP courses
Lawyers are enjoyable to teach they enjoy studying and
using language
They very rarely live up to their smart-alec reputation they
dont try to deliberately baffle you or catch you out; theyre
looking for clarification
Many lawyers mainly want to improve their general English
the legal context is a bonus for them

Resources
Websites

www.plainenglish.co.uk
www.toleslegal.com
www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams/legal
www.coursera.org
www.justice.gov.uk

Resources
Useful for ESP
Tax law: www.hmrc.gov.uk
HR: www.cipd.co.uk
Company law:
www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house

Resources
Reference books
The Rule of Law, Tom Bingham
The Law Machine, Clare Dyer and Marcel Berlins
Oxford Dictionary of Law, Elizabeth A. Martin and Jonathan
Law
An Essential A-Z of Business Law, Catherine Mason
Cases that changed our lives, ed. Ian McDougall
Cases that changed our lives, Volume 2, ed. Ian McDougall
and James Wilson

Resources
Books for the classroom or self-study
Cambridge Professional English in Use: Law, Gillian D. Brown
and Sally Rice
Cambridge English, International Legal English, Amy KroisLindner, TransLegal and Jeremy Day

Any questions?

Thank you!
laura.stamps@londonschool.com