July 1, 2009

Mitchell in London Final Dispatch

The housing

Most students stayed in the Nido Student Living Center, where many shared double rooms with another Mitchell student and others stayed in single rooms.  The rooms had their own bathrooms, and the single rooms had kitchenettes.  The center is situated close to the King’s Cross tube station and is a secure building, with around-the-clock security guards at the front desk.

The school

BPP Law School is situated close to the River Thames, next to the Waterloo tube station.  It is a modern and beautiful facility, and our program occupies the fourth floor of the building.  Professors brief us in the large lecture room, and we break up into large rooms for our small-group sessions.  Each room is provided coffee, hot tea, juice, and biscuits.  Each day we would walk three minutes to the River Thames and have lunch on the river while discussing the hot-button issues of the morning sessions and observing vibrant London life.

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The course 

Our Comparative Corporate Governance course continued with two guest speakers who briefed us on the U.K. system of corporate governance. The first was Donald Lilly, a London barrister who specializes in litigation and advice in the fields of corporate insolvency, company law, commercial litigation, and public law in the U.K. The second speaker was Sabeen Obaidullah, a barrister and lecturer at BPP Law School, where we studied, and former legal officer in a multinational upstream oil and gas company listed on the U.K. stock exchange. Professors Lilly and Obaidulla briefed us on the corporate structure in the U.K. and compared it to that in the U.S., as represented by William Mitchell Professor Thuy Vo. 

A field trip

On Tuesday, June 23, we visited the Bank of England, where we toured the bank’s museum and learned how the bank sets interest rates to keep inflation low, issues banknotes, and works to maintain a stable financial system.

Final thoughts 

We ended the course with a reception at the beautiful King’s Arms pub, two blocks from school. I was sorry to see the program end. It was a fantastic program in which I learned a lot. Class discussion was always insightful, and each student was very active in his/her learning. We worked hard for these six credits, but we were also given the opportunity to relax and explore the beautiful city of London. The courses were interesting, relevant, and involved. We literally got the best of both worlds: the benefits of William Mitchell faculty and staff, as well as amazing professors and speakers from all over the world and the invigorating location of the city of London.

» Read Mitchell in London Dispatch #1

» Read Mitchell in London Dispatch #2