Why did you become a Legal Skills Teacher?

'I graduated from the VU last year. I wanted to work at a university because it is a place that inspires me. As a Legal Skills Teacher, you try to train students concretely. Using a file or a particular assignment, you show students what they will later do in practice. I enjoy that.'

How do you work?

'In the Amsterdam Law Firm course, we always link our teaching to the other classes taught at the time. When students had criminal law in block 1, they also worked on a criminal law case in ALF. A teacher played the client and asked questions during an intake interview. In this way, students already experienced how to conduct a conversation with a client and how to do legal research in their first year. And develop arguments that might help the client win the case. Ultimately, they made an advice letter understandable to clients who needed legal knowledge.

The ALF course is not just another course. It's a crucial stepping stone that lays the foundation for your future legal career. You can be very knowledgeable about all the rules, but that does not necessarily make you a good lawyer, judge or scientist.'

What do students think of the course?

‘The course evaluations show that students feel a lot of bonding with each other and the teacher because of how this education is organised. Because we work with small groups of about 15 students, they get to know each other well. These are not lectures but activating teaching. I support students as they work on an assignment.

The skills classes are relatively frequent: twice 2 hours a week in the first year, once 2 hours a week in the second year. As a result, students get to know me well as a teacher. Moreover, we are mentors as well as teachers.'

What does mentorship entail?

'Our students can come to us with content-related ALF questions and study-related personal issues. We sometimes have conversations with students who are not feeling so well because we are often their first point of contact. Depending on their struggle, we refer them to the student advisers, education desk, exam committee or a student psychologist.'

You have won the Gascaria Master's Thesis Prize 2024. What does this award mean?

'This thesis prize is awarded for theses that bridge the gap between law and the humanities. For my thesis, Anima Mundi: Decolonising Property Theory to Fight Climate Change, I researched decolonial voices on climate change and property law. I studied African and Indian authors, among others, and Australian Aborigines for the broadest possible perspective on climate change. Climate change is a global issue, but generally, we look at it from a Western perspective. It might be better for the world to see ourselves as custodians of nature, as some indigenous peoples do.'

Do global perspectives play a role in skills education?

'In the first year, we focus mainly on Dutch law. In the second year, we start working on strategic climate litigation, i.e., bringing strategic climate cases to the European or international levels. We will integrate that perspective more and more into the education.'

What do you say to lawyers considering becoming Skills Teachers?

'I haven't regretted it for a second. You see students just out of high school grow up to be future lawyers. A person without any idea how law books work will pick up the right article from the Civil Code on autopilot after only 6 months. For any teacher, it is nice to see what kind of development students go through. Especially from the skills perspective, you can see that very well.'