University News Last updated 12 April 2012
.jpg "Athina Ouranidou at the CALS Launch")
A ground-breaking centre – that offers some of the most challenging student placements at any British university – has been officially launched.
The Centre for American Legal Studies (CALS), part of Birmingham City University’s School of Law, has been established as a centre of excellence for the study of US law and offers the unique American Legal Practice programme; the largest student internship of its kind in the UK.
Dr Jon Yorke, the Director of CALS, said: “The event was not only a celebration of the work already undertaken on American law by the School, including collaborations with attorney’s offices and organisations across the country, but is also launching pad for future exciting educational and professional initiatives.”
The official launch of CALS was held at Birmingham law firm, Squire Sanders, and was attended by professionals representing all areas of the legal profession, including senior colleagues from the United States. Professor of American Law, Julian Killingley, conferred the honour of ‘CALS Visiting Professor’ on James Kousouros and ‘CALS Visiting Practitioner’ on Mr Mark George QC, who both chaired discussions and gave address at the launch.
Amongst the attendees of the event was final year LLB student, Athina Ouranidou, a mature student from Greece, who was previously a dress designer before making the bold design to change course to study law.
“Ever since I can remember, I wanted to become a lawyer and to work against the death penalty. When I researched this further, I found out that there is a dedicated team of distinguished tutors and experts in this area of law, such as Professor Killingley at Birmingham City University. Consequently, it became obvious that I should definitely study here,” said Athina.
She maintains a passion for art which she imaginatively incorporates in her pro-bono work and has been recognised for her personal commitment and innovative work, by being awarded second place for ‘Best Contribution by an Individual Student’ in the LawWorks and Attorney General Student Awards 2012. She also writes about her work and experiences on her own blog.
Athina continued: “The Faculty of Law gives students amazing opportunities to complete internships in America. It is a dream of my own to work against the death penalty, so the fact I can work towards gaining a placement at the prestigious Lauro Law Firm, based in New York with CALS is something has proved that I made the right choice to study here.
“The studying is demanding but there is a fierce competition in the real world so it is good that they “train” us to be professionals from the very beginning.”
CALS offers a range of courses covering different aspects of US law and the Centre’s American Legal Practice Programme also offers one of the most demanding but rewarding internships in the sector, with placement students experiencing the high-octane challenges of stateside law first-hand.
For further information about CALS, you can visit The School of Law website.