2013.06.27
Here is a partial report on the information session for the Keio University Law School, held on Saturday, June 15, 2013.
[Information Session Overview]
Date and Time: Saturday, June 15, 2013, 10:00 to 11:30 AM
Venue: South School Building Hall, Mita Campus
Osaka City Campus (simulcast)
[Information Session Agenda]
1. Opening Remarks
2. Greeting from the Dean of the Law School
3. Curriculum Overview
4. About the 2014 Entrance Examination System
6. Introduction of Current Students
7. Q&A Session
Introduction of a Legal Practitioner...
Takayoshi Sugawara
(Professor, Keio University Law School)
From the Keio University Law School entrance examination information session held on Saturday, June 15, 2013, we present an excerpt of the lecture by Takayoshi Sugawara , who is active as both a faculty member and a lawyer. We hope this will be a helpful reference for everyone aspiring to join the legal profession.
I will now speak about legal practitioners. Please also refer to pages 26-27 of the pamphlet you have. In my case, I did not originally aspire to be a lawyer; I started my career as a company employee. After working in sales planning and marketing, I passed the bar examination while still employed and transitioned to a legal career about 10 years after joining the workforce.
At that time, it was the era of what was called the "old bar examination." It was an examination system where approximately 30,000 people challenged it each year, and about 29,500 of them would fail. Furthermore, preparatory schools for the exam were still in their developing stages and not yet fully established. In such circumstances, I believe I was able to enter this world, studying almost entirely on my own, solely thanks to the Judicial Research Office. At that time, Keio University had an institution called the "Judicial Research Office." I would go there on weekends to study in seminars with young practitioners and successful candidates, and participate in practice exam sessions. The reason I was able to pass the bar examination relatively quickly while working as an ordinary businessman was because of my studies at this Judicial Research Office.
The lawyers who came from this Judicial Research Office have now become a major force supporting the "Mita Law Association." Perhaps influenced by this, it is no exaggeration to say that the good traditions of the Judicial Research Office have been directly inherited by the current Keio University Law School. Regarding the Mita Law Association, we have introduced it in a roundtable discussion format on the two-page spread of pages 28-29 of the pamphlet, so please take a look. If you all join Keio University, you can become members of the Mita Law Association, and of course, we will also provide support for passing the bar examination. After you pass, we will also assist with job placement, and once you become active as a legal practitioner, you will have opportunities to mutually improve and rely on each other within this personal network. In that sense as well, I believe there are significant advantages to studying at Keio University.
I would like to talk a little about how legal practitioners view the law from their perspective.
Since legal practitioners are not legislators, they concentrate on interpreting and applying the articles of existing laws. In legal interpretation, simply stating "I think this way / it should be this way" is merely expressing a personal opinion, and in the world of practitioners, such an argument is unlikely to be accepted. Based on the facts at hand, what is required is the objectivity and logic of the text of the articles, and the validity of the results from the interpretation and application of the law.
Our job is to persuade the other party (the judge in a courtroom setting) through this process. The greatest mission of a practitioner-faculty member at a law school is to bridge the gap between practical and theoretical education, thereby training legal professionals equipped with advanced specialized knowledge and sufficient professional ethics. Many practitioners have gathered at Keio University's Law School, and we conduct our lectures reflecting this practical sense.
In the study of law, the conclusion is not what is most important. Rather, the logical path to that conclusion is what matters. Of course, it would be problematic if the conclusion were to break the common sense of daily life. As lawyers, we must provide a legal basis for that common sense. Therefore, lawyers are required to have qualities such as: 1) a sense of justice and fairness, 2) the ability to accurately understand the purpose of the law, 3) mastery of techniques like manipulating articles and interpreting/applying the law, and 4) the ability to foresee the validity of the outcome in resolving a case.
To acquire these qualities, the presence of abilities such as comprehension, reasoning, judgment, analysis, logic, and expression is essential. After entering law school, you must develop these abilities (especially comprehension, reasoning, judgment, and logic) through constant study. The royal road to learning law is to read the articles of law aloud and carefully read the basic texts. This is true for constitutional law, civil law, criminal law, procedural law, and also for commercial law and economic law, which I currently teach. I would also like to mention that the education at Keio University Law School is conducted from this perspective.
There is also a situation where we are considering whether the legal training system should be reviewed. However, I believe that the fact that law schools are the main route for legal training in our country will not waver in the slightest for the time being. Therefore, as those of us involved in education at the law school, we wish to study together with all of you with pride and responsibility. Earlier, Dean Katayama spoke about "learning while teaching, teaching while learning." This is a good tradition of Keio University, which means "not to distinguish between teacher and student." It is not an attitude where faculty unilaterally teach and students unilaterally learn, but rather one where we learn together, teach each other, and strive to improve one another. We hope that those who study at the law school will also fully enjoy collaborating with the faculty based on the spirit of "learning while teaching, teaching while learning" and grow into better legal professionals.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I did not originally want to enter this profession, but now I feel truly glad that I became a lawyer. Being a lawyer is a rewarding and good job. This is because the more you strive, the more you will be thanked and appreciated by the people around you. I hope that we can help you attain that profession starting next year.
Introduction of Current Students
From the Keio University Law School entrance examination information session held on Saturday, June 15, 2013, we introduce the voices of students currently enrolled in our law school (hereinafter, Keio Law School) who are aspiring to become legal professionals. We hope this will be a helpful reference for those aiming to enter Keio Law School.
A : Male, 2nd year, program for non-law graduates.
B : Male, 2nd year, program for non-law graduates.
C : Female, 3rd year, program for law graduates.
Q1: Among the many law schools, what was the deciding factor for choosing Keio Law School?
A : One was the existence of the workshop program. As someone with work experience, I wanted to acquire skills that would make me immediately effective, so the direct link between academics and practice was appealing. Also, Keio has an outstanding faculty. I felt it was highly cost-effective in that I could directly acquire primary legal information from professors who lead academic theories, professors whose books are used in law schools nationwide, professors who were involved in legislation itself, former judges who held important positions, and practitioners active on the front lines.
B : Since I was from a regional university and didn't know much about the Tokyo metropolitan area, I first selected a few candidates based on their high pass rates. And the reason I chose Keio Law School among them was that my academic advisor strongly recommended Keio for its high-quality education and excellent learning environment.
C : While the pass rate and excellent faculty were also reasons, the biggest deciding factor was seeing that the senior students who went to Keio Law School were studying in a very good atmosphere, having a lot of fun with their friends. At Keio Law School, there's no cutthroat competition; during breaks, students enjoyably study together, discussing class content and teaching each other things they don't understand. I think being able to study in a sometimes idyllic atmosphere is also a good thing about Keio.
Q2:
When did you start thinking about the LS entrance exams and begin preparing for them?
A
: I started preparing for the law school entrance exams about a year in advance, but since I was working, I was also considering a school where I could study at night, so I decided to apply to Keio at the last minute. As for specific study content, when I analyzed the entrance exam questions of top law schools, I found many questions that asked about fundamental points, such as what rights people had before the formation of the state and how that translates to modern times. So, I prepared by reading books on such topics and being conscious of them in my daily life.
B : Although I was in the Faculty of Law, I decided to aim for the legal profession later than others, in my third year of university, so I chose the program for non-law graduates to study from the basics. I started my exam preparation around May of my third year of university. I was not good at English, so I focused particularly on it. For the aptitude test, I started studying around September of my third year and just kept solving past problems. For the essay, it's difficult to judge for yourself whether your writing is correct or easy to read, so I recommend having others, like university professors or friends, read it.
C: I had been attending a prep school since my second year of university, but I was busy with clubs and English classes, so I consciously started my exam studies around the spring break after finishing my third year. From the end of April, I formed two independent study groups with friends, held practice sessions for the "Upper Three Laws" and "Lower Three Laws," and repeatedly wrote a total of 4 to 7 practice exams per week, twice a week. I think forming an independent study group with friends and having them critique my answers led to my success.
Q3: What are your impressions of the classes at Keio Law School?
A:
Since my undergraduate degree was in music, I remember struggling for the first six months as if I were listening to a foreign language. The amount of preparation required is large, so I remember being surprised at how the first semester ended with me just trying to keep up with class prep.
B: I graduated from a Faculty of Law, but the classes were completely different from undergraduate courses. At the law school, every class is conducted with case resolution in mind. Therefore, we are required to properly address the essence of legal articles and cases, which is stimulating every day. Every class is completely different compared to undergraduate studies. The amount of preparation is large, but I feel that if you can handle it, what you gain is also great.
C: For the required courses, the truly excellent faculty members teach intensively using the Socratic method, so I think the classes are very dense. As for elective courses, there are classes like "Railways and Criminal Law" and "Agriculture and Law," where we even do rice planting during class. There are also classes you can sometimes take in a relaxed and fun way, so I think the curriculum is well-balanced.
Q4: Finally, any advice for everyone applying to Keio Law School?
A: For working professionals in particular, I think the law school entrance exam is a source of worry, considering the tough social environment, financial burdens, time constraints, and the risk of career interruption. Even so, to put it in extreme terms, I sincerely believe, though I've only been studying for a year and a half, that a career interruption won't happen as long as you have the awareness of how the legal article you learned today connects to your work tomorrow. Keio has the curriculum for that, and the faculty will support you. I truly hope you will take the next step, take the exam, and enroll.
B: I think Keio's greatest appeal, more than anything, is its warm atmosphere and space. Only one person from my undergraduate university had ever come to Keio before, so I knew absolutely no one when I first enrolled. However, if I had any questions, not only the professors but also senior students from different universities would kindly teach me or edit my essays. I hope that those who are not from Keio will not worry and will please enroll.
C: As advice for students applying to the program for law graduates, I want you to solidify each piece of knowledge and study the important points thoroughly without any gaps. Everyone can write about the important points, so if you have a gap, you'll be the only one who can't write about it, you won't get points, and you'll fail. Knowledge that hasn't become second nature to you will cause you to hesitate about whether to write it during the exam, which is a waste of time. Vague knowledge gets mixed up with other knowledge, and you end up writing strange things, so I think it's better to rely on on-the-spot thinking in that case. I want you to study not by memorizing, like staring at the words and repeating them, but by broadly understanding and internalizing the background of the court's interpretation of articles, why such interpretations arise, the reasoning leading to the conclusion, what criticisms there were against it, and how those were overcome to reach the conclusion. In the end, there may be things you can't fully agree with, but if you struggle with them that much, you'll generally remember them because of the time you spent struggling, so I really want everyone to do their best.