Course Details in 2026/27 Session

Module Title	LH Global Legal Services
School	Birmingham Law School
Department	Law
Module Code	08 28793
Module Lead	Julian Lonbay
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-24 hours Seminar-4 hours Project supervision-8 hours Guided independent study-164 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	The delivery of legal services is essential to facilitate transnational trade and the movement of goods, business, capital and persons around the world. The module looks at how lawyers have increasingly operated transnationally, and how the regulatory environments have reacted to this growth. This will mean understanding the factors that affect lawyers and clients engaged in cross-border legal practice and some particular substantive legal and policy issues. One of the factors covered will be how the legal professions are organised and trained. What is a lawyer? Differences in the training, capacity and roles and the extent of their “monopolies” colours views of lawyers that (try to) operate outside their ‘territory’. There are also differences in the stages of regulation (entry, conduct, discipline) to be explored, and an understanding to be gained about the four GATS modes of supply of services. Issues such as citizenship, recognition, scope of monopoly, law firm names and organisation, publicity rules, anti-bribery/corruption regulations all affect the viability of transborder practice of law. The module will also examine issues raised by the delivery of legal services by non–lawyers and how the various regulatory regimes react to this. The module will focus primarily on English-speaking jurisdictions (e.g. UK, Ireland, USA, Australia, Canada) but consideration will be given to some EEA Member States and other European States such as Turkey, Moldova, and Georgia. Throughout the module research on the provision of legal services will be reviewed and skills of critical thinking will be tested. Students should develop some of the tools necessary to critically evaluate what goes on in the delivery of legal services across borders.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Demonstrate knowledge of how legal services are regulated at the global, European and (some) national levels, including knowledge of relevant international law, (notable GATS, FTA’s) and EU, EEA and selected national laws) and related regulations, significant policy documents as well as academic literature Bring together and present coherently materials from primary and secondary sources which deal with the issues addressed in the module Make personal and reasoned judgements about the material covered in the module Interact with the other members of a learning group, giving and receiving information and ideas and modifying responses where appropriate
Assessment	28793-01 : Multiple Choice Test : Exam (School Arranged) - MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions) (50%) 28793-02 : Project Report : Coursework (50%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessments: (1) a Piece of Written Work (POW) 3,000 word (or equivalent) limit – (50%) (2) an MCT 90 mins (50%) Reassessment: This is a final year module.
Other
Reading List