About Practical Law

What we do!

Practical Training for European Legal Practitioners

Our Mission

To properly and professionally utilise funding from the European Union under the Justice Programme (2014-2020), in order to meet the common training needs of legal practitioners in the era of increased cross-border application of law and procedure.

Our Vision

To provide high quality, practical training modules for European lawyers, in core skills and the correct application of important cross-border EU laws, in small groups with the best trainers from across the EU.

Our Process

To create interesting and relevant practical scenarios with which to train legal skills, and to apply aspects of EU law; to provide the best trainers, irrespective of the national systems in which they operate; to attract interested, knowledge-hungry practitioners.
What we can achieve!

01 Practical

The Practical Law Academy uses factual scenarios to teach core legal skills

02 Talented

The trainers on the Practical Law Academy have extensive experience teaching skills across the world

03 Fun

Training in small groups, participants on the Practical Law Academy weekend will learn and have a lot of fun doing it
Good solutions for Legal Training Needs

The Practical Law Academy is co-financed by the 2016 Justice Programme of the European Union, and is being realised by the Institute of Advanced Legal Skills as the project coordinator, in partnership with the Budapest Bar Association, the Czech Bar Association, the Finnish Bar Association and the University of Warsaw.
During 2018 and 2019, eight training programmes will be provided in cities across the Central and Eastern and Northern regions of the European Union. The training programmes are designed for lawyers and members of the judiciaries of the Member States, primarily but not exclusively in the CEE region, with the general aims being to improve important lawyer skills and abilities to apply EU law effectively, with additional objectives including the desire to encourage the cross-border delivery of legal training to practitioners from different Member States.

Each training programme will be centred around a carefully-designed practical legal dispute, drafted by legal training experts. During the course of each training, participants will use this case scenario to improve core legal skills for both lawyers and judges and develop a clear understanding of specific and applicable elements of EU law relevant to the dispute. Each training programme will be delivered over a weekend, to take account of participants’ work commitments, and will account for 30 hours of practical training in skills and the application of EU law. Working with national bar associations, the programme aims to facilitate cross-border training by striving to ensure continuing professional development points are available for participants.

Each training will provide participants with the option to focus on elements of either criminal practice or commercial practice, depending on their personal choice at the time of registration. All trainings will be provided by highly experienced national trainers, applying the Hempel method of advocacy training, with all practical training taking place in small groups. For participants from outside the host country of each training, the Institute of Advanced Legal Skills will provide logistical advice on arranging flights and booking hotels.

Trainings

lawyers

judges

years

The Advocacy Academy [predecessor to the Practical Law Academy] was an extremely valuable experience. It helped to develop and improve litigation-strategy planning, written advocacy and oral advocacy. These skills are crucial in legal practice, but they are often neglected during law studies or vocational training. The legal skills and substantive knowledge focused on during the course are extremely useful for lawyers from any jurisdiction.

Filip Balcerzak

Polish Adwokat, Participant

The Advocacy Academy [predecessor to the Practical Law Academy] was an extremely valuable experience. It helped to develop and improve litigation-strategy planning, written advocacy and oral advocacy. These skills are crucial in legal practice, but they are often neglected during law studies or vocational training. The legal skills and substantive knowledge focused on during the course are extremely useful for lawyers from any jurisdiction.

Filip Balcerzak

Polish Adwokat, Participant

The Project   Partners
The members of the Practical Law Academy Consortium.