Corporate Training

Since the early 2000’s Pericles has been providing successful corporate legal English training programs to both law firms (EPAM, Akin Gump, White & Case, Baker & McKenzie, Vegas Lex, BGP Litigation, etc.) and corporate legal and compliance departments (Severstal, InterRAO, Rostelecom, Rusal, Polyus, Abbott, etc.). The corporate form of education involves teaching courses to a company’s selected employees at the company’s premises in accordance with a schedule that best matches the corporate rhythm of life. Normally classes take place in the first half of the day and may be conducted once or twice a week depending on the company’s particular needs. We suggest that the minimum number of students in the group should not be less than six.

The corporate form of studies adds more flexibility, not only to the schedule, but also to the syllabus of the course, allowing you to emphasize certain topics and cover others more superficially depending on the specific demands of the company. For example, speaking about our Legal English course, the professor can adjust the program to the general level of the group making it more complicated and advanced, gearing it to slightly lower groups, or emphasizing one area of the law over another. For legal writing, as another example, while covering all the necessary elements of a world recognized legal writing curriculum, our professors can gear the assignments to the type of writing the students will most likely encounter in their legal practices, or make the problems slightly easier or more complex to accommodate the students’ legal experience and reasoning abilities.

Courses can be offered on a the regular, recommended schedule, or over extended hours to facilitate participants’ working schedules. However, please note that no matter how flexible Pericles can be in other respects, general requirements for (1) attendance, (2) participation and (3) homework will apply to every corporate student. Certificates can be provided only to those who successfully meet all three criteria. Honors certificates may be awarded to students whose work is outstanding.

Pericles is an organization run by lawyers, for lawyers. Unlike general legal English classes, which English schools often structure so as to carry on ad nauseam, without concrete aims and finishing points, Pericles believes that goals without deadlines are only wishes. Pericles believes in a structured curriculum, developed over our decades of experience in teaching Russian lawyers, and proven successful in building the particular English language legal skills needed for lawyers and legal support personnel to succeed in your organization.

Tailored Courses

We are often asked about courses tailored to a client’s particular organization. Although we recommend the standard courses that we have developed and that have proven successful for training Russian legal professionals in both law firms and companies, in some instances, Pericles can indeed offer such tailored courses. These are often shortened courses overviewing a subject area or providing a narrow set of skills than our standard courses. Because of the tailoring involved, however, please be aware that these courses are usually more expensive than Pericles’ regular courses, even if they impart less material or involve fewer contact hours. Also the lead time needed for planning such courses can be much higher, depending on the amount of tailoring involved.

Individual Tutorials

In addition to corporate courses taught in groups we also offer individual tutorials, usually in Legal English, Legal Writing or both. Depending on the needs of the company and its particular employee our professors can work out a program of studies which will allow to improve their general English oral and written skills, as well as to go deeply into specific areas of legal terminology, i.e. tax, litigation, contracts, etc. Or the classes can otherwise be more relaxed and targeted at development of communication skills. In any case the program will be unique because it will be taught by a native speaker and qualified lawyer at the same time. Some of our professors hold a certification as an English language teacher (TEFL, Teaching English as a Foreign Language).