CAIRO: The American University in Cairo (AUC) has launched a new program for lawyers and law students to develop English language skills and to increase the pool of job opportunities available to them. The program, initiated by the School of Continuing Education (SCE), is designed to teach lawyers and students how to use English in a commercial law environment to enhance their preparedness to work with international agencies and corporations. The course develops listening, speaking, reading and writing in English, with emphasis on legal terminologies. Course materials are based on the Common European Framework of Reference for languages and produced through the collaboration of Translegal, a consortium of lawyer-linguists, and Cambridge ESOL, producer of the world's leading certificate programs in English. “Law curriculum in our country is primarily in Arabic,” said Magda Hayek, assistant director of English Studies Division of Scheduled Programs at SCE. She explained that while Arabic is an asset within the legal community worldwide, multinational companies need lawyers who are able to draft contracts in English. “We are not teaching law, we are teaching English for lawyers and law students, so that they will be able to use the language in their career,” added Hayek The program offers two kinds of certificates. The first is the Achievement Legal English Certificate (ALEC) which is given after the completion of the first three courses in the program. At this stage the attendees focus on spoken and written English and legal terminologies. The second certificate is the Career Legal English Certificate (CLEC), which is offered after the completion of six courses. This track takes lawyers to a higher level of English that will enable them to write cases and draft contracts. Upon completion of the curriculum, program graduates will have achieved standards of proficiency that are recognized by law firms worldwide. BM
