Research Skills Boot Camp: Preparing Law Students for Internships

• Main Authors: Gill, Charlotte, Sharma, Priyanka, Ishak, Yuyun W.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: research skills; information literacy; law; interships; singapore management university; li ka shing library; Library and Information Science
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/library_research/18; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=library_research
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Legal Internship is an integral part of legal education and is the first brush that a law student has with the legal profession outside the comfortable environs of law school. Since the inception of the law school at Singapore Management University (SMU) in 2007, law students are required to complete a 10 week compulsory internship as an essential part of their legal training pedagogy. The internship is intended to acquaint students with the practical workings of the legal system and the realities of law practice in the private and public sectors. The consistent message that we have received from practitioners over years has been that it is of utmost importance that law students are equipped with strong research skills. To address this need, the Li Ka Shing Library at SMU designed and conducted a series of legal internship prep sessions for law students. While participation in the sessions is voluntary, the sign up and attendance rates that we have seen have been very high- 100 percent registration (all available spots taken up) and 86 percent attendance. The primary aim of the sessions is to refresh the legal research skills of law students at the point of need – just before they begin their internship.