This episode welcomes Karen Watton (QMUL) and Prof. Emily Allbon (City St Georges University) to talk us through what is meant by legal design and how it can benefit both law students and the public.
The law is for everyone but structures can make it hard for everyone to access the legal system. Legal design is an increasingly popular methodology, helping to improve the mindset and output that lawyers can give.
In this episode Karen Watton (Queen Mary University of London) and Professor Emily Allbon (City St Georges University) explain the important role that legal design has in creating systems around the law that work for the end user. This episode discusses the design thinking methodology, the skills students can gain from looking at things afresh and examining a legal scenario from the perspective of the end user.
We always encourage listeners to undertake practical actions after listening to the episode. Here are a few suggestions.
- Learn to pay attention. One trick is to take an everyday object e.g. a biro lid and draw it 50 times.
- Learn how to listen actively. Practice listening actively.
- Look at an agreement you just made (e.g. an app or gym membership) and think about how helpful that was for you. How could it be improved?
Useful resources
- Law Bore https://lawbore.net/ - a website directory of law for undergraduate law students.
- Home - Design the Law Nepal
- Coltsfoot Vale - The Land Law Story Map – the land law story map.
- Tl;dr - https://tldr.legal/home which includes an interactive map on Kyla’s Essay Journey.
- The Brexit Comic Strip Brexit: The Comic Strip - tl;dr - The Less Textual Legal Gallery
- Design in Legal Education - The Book - Design in Legal Education
- THE LEGAL DESIGN BOOK – Doing Law In The 21st Century – featuring qLegal’s case study in the field work section.
- Privacy Policy – Ambessa Play – A children’s privacy policy.
- Expanding Legal Design at qLegal: From volunteering to curriculum - qLegal – A news story about qLegal’s legal design module at Queen Mary University of London.
