Whether you are a first-year student just joining the Law School, a wiser second-year or a third-year worried about the prospect of leaving the cosy confines of the Law School, we find ourselves asking many questions and the one that plagues most law students is: Will I enter the legal profession? Should this be our main focus, and if not, then what? Time at University flies by, so why are we
worried so much about the ‘next step’? Should we not be enjoying our degree for the intellect it provides while we are here?

Within our ‘critical law school’ we study the legal world as problematic, fraught with bias and sometimes in need of change. We claim a critical method of teaching and analysis, centred on the idea of ‘not reading black letter law’. Yet, at the end of term we fret about assessments, attempting to achieve the ‘magic’ mark that will make our degree worth while. In doing this, we lose sight of the intellect the assignment was supposed to provide.

There is no escaping the fact that those wanting to enter the legal profession need a good degree mark. In my time at Kent Law School, the law degree has been described as a ‘means to an end’ and an often-asked question is: ‘What do I need to do to gain a top mark?’ Whatever happened to: ‘How can I get the most intellectual stimulation out of this module?’ We should be expending our money and energy on enjoying our degree and honing our skills in researching topics of interest, not trying to best play the system in search of a legal career.

Alternative to law?
What for those of us not entering the legal profession? Where is the help for those of us ‘deviating from the norm’? During my three years here I can recollect only one talk put on by the Law School regarding choices available outside law, in which I expressed my interest in not taking the compulsory modules; I was told this was not a good idea. Ignoring the advice, I have gained far more from
my degree programme and made the right career choice for myself. Students should not be blinkered into thinking a law degree equals a career in law, but there appears to be a lack support and advice in this area. It was once the case that people entered Law School simply to enjoy reading law. It appears that our Law School has missed the most fundamental point, which is that some
of us are not here to prepare for a career in law, but to perfect the skills we will need in future careers and to enjoy the time we have. It seems that somewhere along the line we have unfortunately lost this ethos, and it is time we got it back.

Claire Hunt graduated with a Law and Criminology BA