Even today, Cambridge has a more tranquil air than its lively counterpart Oxford in the Thames Valley, sitting on the edge of open Fenland and separated from the rest of England’s bustling urban centres by some distance. This is also a long way from today’s Cambridge Law School and its thriving business studies work but the past is always the key to the present.

The History of Cambridge Law School

Many of these early scholars were clergymen or involved with the Church in some form as this was the usual gateway to advancement in areas like the Civil Service or perhaps within the Royal Household. Law was taught at Cambridge from these very early days, offering fruitful career possibilities at a time when there were few other professional openings for those who wanted to climb the social order. The law may be called an ass at times but there were many who rode it on the road to success. Even today, the highest offices in the land are often occupied by lawyers, an example being former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who benefited from training in the art of making a case for or against a particular course of action.

Civil and Canon law were taught together at first but the Faculty of Canon Law was eventually shut down by King Henry VIII in 1535 when he took on the power of the Catholic Church in England, although he attoned for this at least in part by appointing the first Regius Professor of Civil Law in Cambridge around 1540. Subsequent law graduates of the University continued to work on ecclesiastical matters even after Henry’s Reformation but they also served in the field of international diplomacy. This underlines the reputation the Law School has gained in the fields of international and comparative law.

English law made its way onto the scene by being added to the curriculum in 1800 through the establishment of the Downing Professorship of the Laws of England. BA exams in law followed in 1858, along with a string of Professorships in a variety of legal fields such as Criminology and (more recently) Corporate Law and Intellectual Property. The professorial team is comprised of 16 professors supported by 10 readers and a string of other academics who together can cover much of the legal field, both national and international.

Why Cambridge Business Lawyers Choose Cambridge Law School…

This makes Cambridge Law School the largest and arguably the best of its kind in the country, with about six per cent of the University’s undergraduates studying there. Many of them will go on into the business world rather than the courtroom, if only because there are more opportunities for well-paid work. Successful QCs might command footballer-type incomes but many barristers only scratch an uncertain living from practising advocacy. A number of new buildings such as the Squire Law Library and the Institute for Criminology have been built in part through the generous support of benefactors from the business community such as Hambros Bank and the Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust, which shows the high regard the Law School has outside the narrow corridors of academia.

Networking is one of the key elements of a successful business career and this is facilitated by the University Law Society, open to all members of Cambridge University and especially those studying at the Law School to become Cambridge business lawyers.