Experience, support and opportunities

Law clinics

At Goldsmiths, you will learn the law in action, whilst helping local communities and developing crucial professional skills by participating in a wide range of Law Clinics:

• The University of London Refugee Law Clinic, which allows five of our LLB students every year to work on litigation involving fresh claims for asylum, under the supervision of experienced solicitors and leading law firms
• Our Law Clinics – on immigration, counter-terrorism, financial wrongdoing and suspects’ procedural rights – which we modelled upon observation of the work of pioneering Law Clinics at Stanford Law School and Berkeley Law
• The Exclusion Advocacy Clinic, coordinated by Southwark’s Community Harm and Exploitation Hub, where our students are given the unique opportunity to offer confidential representation at the point of school/college exclusion

Harvard Law School course

We are the first Law department in the UK to offer free access to Harvard Law School’s pioneering Zero-L course.

Taught by 18 leading Harvard Law faculty members, it has hours of video lectures, vocabulary, and periodic comprehension checks that you can take at your own pace.

Course modules cover a range of topics, including:

• Introduction to law and the legal profession
• History of the American Constitution
• Separation of powers and federalism
• Stages of litigation
• Citizenship rights (civics)

The course also provides you with instruction and practise in basic skills, including how to read a case.

Materials developed by Goldsmiths Law academics to support the delivery of Zero-L direct you to key areas of interest in the programme and give you support to understand how Zero-L strengthens your understanding of English law and helps you to develop legal skills.

Access to London's legal world

Being based 15 minutes away from central London means we embed regular visits to the UK Supreme Court, Parliament, the Inns of Court, the Law Society and City law firms.

We arrange for you to visit, or be taught by, law and technology experts working in top legal firms such as Facebook London, Linklaters or Mishcon de Reya LLP.

We bring you into contact with leading legal professionals, including from the Crown Prosecution Service, human rights NGOs such as Liberty, Big Brother Watch and Fair Trials, solicitors in small and medium-sized firms, as well as distinguished members of the judiciary.

We also encourage our diverse student body to pursue career opportunities in the Bar, including by embedding career orientation and advocacy workshops by one of the four historic Inns of Court, the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, in our legal skills module.

Studying and working abroad opportunities

A dedicated team will support you to gain international experience by studying and working abroad or undertaking virtual global opportunities. You can apply for funding towards the costs of international placements.

In recent years students have volunteered for NGOs in Sri Lanka and Greece, completed online Law summer schools at the University of Geneva and Amsterdam Law School, and studied the French language in Toulouse. Funding is reviewed on a yearly basis.

Workshops and podcast

You'll be continuously engaged with debating and analysing controversial socio-legal issues and initiatives that will empower you to raise awareness and effect change.

For example by contributions to the Better Human podcast, which is emerging as one of the leading law and politics podcasts in the UK and which we’re delighted to sponsor.

Or by taking part in human rights workshops in secondary schools in the UK as part of our Knowing Our Rights research project.

Working with others

You'll work closely with influential academic thinkers, eminent legal professionals – including our renowned Visiting Professors and leading organisations and institutions.

Our impactful research and appetite to shape public policy has allowed us to work with experts from a wide range of third sector organisations, professional associations, domestic and international institutions, pioneering think tanks and widely-recognised research centres, including:

• The UK Supreme Court
• Parliamentary Select Committees
• Honourable Society of the Inner Temple
• Wellcome Trust
• Stanford Law School, Berkeley Law and Loyola Law School (Los Angeles)
• The Law Commission
• British Academy
• Liberty
• Bar Human Rights Committee
• The Being Human festival
• Human Rights Lawyers’ Association
• European Parliament
• Council of Europe
• Big Brother Watch
• Doughty Street Chambers, Garden Court Chambers, 2 Hare Court and 1 Chancery Lane
• Linklaters LLP, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
• Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and Migrants’ Rights Network
• Oxford’s Bonavero Institute of Human Rights
• The Forensic Psychology Unit in Goldsmiths’ Psychology department
• Goldsmith’s Forensic Architecture

In tune with our rich heritage of creating leaders, believers, challengers and entrepreneurs, and a passion for human rights and social justice, Goldsmiths Law is an intellectual space for radical and creative thinking, launching you into 21st-century legal practice.

Pastoral support

A full-time academic staff member is assigned to each student as their Personal Tutor to provide wellbeing and academic support during your progression through the programme.

In addition to being available for ad hoc appointments throughout the year, Personal Tutors schedule several one-on-one and small group meetings to guide and facilitate your learning development and experience at Goldsmiths.

Through regular pastoral contact and teaching each tutee in at least one module while in the programme, Personal Tutors get to know each of their tutees well. This enables them to offer individualised pastoral support within the Department and referrals, if suitable, to additional wellbeing and academic support services that the College offers.

Moreover, due to the relatively small class sizes, all other staff members in the Department can get to know all of the students well and are always available for guidance and advice.