Diploma in In-House Practice

Course Objectives
This course is designed to provide in-house lawyers or aspiring in-house lawyers with a bird’s eye view of the varied, challenging, and stimulating work that confronts those working in business and the public sector. A significant number of solicitors are employed in-house and the trend is set to continue. The in-house role has evolved from a traditional role of ‘head of legal’ to a more dynamic, high-level and business oriented position. Feedback from in-house lawyers confirms that you are obliged to ‘wear many hats’, negotiate with a variety of stakeholders and may need to alter your mindset as you are removed from the relative comfort zone of practice. This course will address such issues as how to be a lawyer in a business environment or in a public sector role? How to manage the expectations of business, and juggle competing interests of various stakeholders? When to seek advice from external counsel?  An added benefit of the course is the training that will be provided to develop business and interpersonal skills required to participate effectively in any organisation. 

Course Structure
The course runs over seven months and is divided into four modules. At the end of each module there is an intensive workshop which will incorporate hands-on skills sessions and case study tutorials in smaller groups facilitated by experienced practitioners, many of whom work in-house.

• Module One:  Introduction to the role of in-house lawyer
  Topics will include the following; importance of defining your role in-house, the need for clarity to determine what are you responsible for e.g. legal compliance, company secretary, regulatory role, privilege, ethics and conflict, knowledge management.  Regulation of in-house lawyers, ethics & privilege, Akzo Noble, building a network, using and managing external advisors/counsel.
• Skills sessions: Internal negotiations & negotiation techniques, communication skills, chairing Board Meetings, structuring training to non-lawyers.
• Module Two:  Commercial law
  Topics in this module will include fundamental legal contract provisions; core legal principles that assist contract negotiations, from pre-contract stage through to enforcement and exit issues; e-Commerce; IT contracts; cloud computing; intellectual property; procurement law and practice; tendering; and outsourcing.
• Skills sessions: Accounting including interpreting accounts and reading financial statement; drafting contracts; supplier agreements; making a tender bid.
• Module Three: Governance
  Topics in this module will include a general overview of corporate governance; regulation and compliance; specific sectors such as financial services, banking and telecommunications; the ODCE; Competition Authority; Anti- money laundering legislation; directors’ duties; the role of non executive directors; management of board meetings; and company secretarial matters. It will also involve risk analysis and assessment and management of risk.
• Skills sessions: Setting up a compliance function in a business; effective time management; report writing & writing skills; case study scenarios on regulation and compliance.
• Module Four: Discrete legal topics, data protection employment law, disputes. Data protection: Assessment and management; what and how do you protect data? Employment law & human resource management: interaction between HR and legal function; redundancies; exiting strategies; importance of proper communication and records.
• Skills sessions:Mock examination paper run through.

Workshops
Typically workshops are ‘hands-on’ sessions conducted in smaller groups that consolidate the learning process and promote a deeper understanding of course materials. All students, regardless of their standard method of accessing the course, are strongly recommended to attend onsite for the following workshop sessions:

• Saturday 19 November 2011, 11.00am to 5.00pm
• Saturday 28 January 2012, 11.00am to 5.00pm
• Saturday 24 March 2012, 11.00am to 5.00pm
• Saturday 28 April 2012, 11.00am to 2.00pm

We also strongly recommend that you attend onsite for the introductory lectures on Tuesday 11 October 2011.  

Who Should Attend
Whether you are currently employed as a General Counsel, Head Legal, Corporate Attorney or in a general in-house role in the private or public sector and you are keen to develop skills and further your legal knowledge, this course will be of interest and benefit to you. This is also a very useful course for those who aspire to a career in-house outside of private practice. This diploma is open to solicitors, barristers and trainees and attorneys. It is not open to non-lawyers.

Delivery Method: Blended learning via webcasting resource
All lectures will take place in the Education Centre in Blackhall Place. However to facilitate those students unable to attend onsite on a weekly basis, lectures will also be webcast ‘live’ on our secure internet site. This means that students can decide to attend the onsite lecture or, alternatively, to access the lecture online via the course website for such courses. In addition, lectures will be archived within the course website for the duration of the course and can be viewed at a later date on demand by all students. We encourage students to either attend onsite or watch the lectures live so they keep up with lectures and to only use the ‘catch up’ on demand facility as a default. We want to give the remote student an authentic lecture theatre experience therefore we have customized our design to include an instant message feature whereby those watching live webcasts can send messages via the webcast page to the course leader/course tutor in the lecture theatre and their question will be put to the lecturer. Courses that are running in the green hall will be podcast recordings, which mean that the audio recordings will be available on moodle.

If you intend to rely on the webcasting resource, we ask that you ensure prior to the application process that your home/office PC is compatible with the relevant software. This requires a very straightforward test, go to: http://diplomalaw.learnonline.ie/course/view.php

Username: testwebcast
Password: testwebcast

If you cannot view the webcast follow the instructions provided. There may be local factors such as 'firewalls' and we suggest that at first instance you check with your IT provider.

Lecturers
Lecturers will comprise lawyers from private practice who regularly deal with in-house work and therefore can contextualise their lectures. In addition, to consolidate the learning process, experienced in-house lawyers from both the public and private sector will talk about their own experiences. They will share their enthusiasm for their work and demonstrate the breadth and variety of such work, thus adding a deeper dimension to the course. 

Please note: If you are not a qualified solicitor, trainee or barrister – you must send a CV & cover letter for approval. Such applications are subject to a supplemental fee, which amounts to a supplement of €150 in respect of a diploma application and a supplement of €75 in respect of a certificate application.

For further information on this course, contact the Diploma team - diplomateam@lawsociety.ie