Course curriculum

    1. Why do you need to know about current affairs?

    2. How do current affairs come up in interviews?

    3. What level of understanding do you need ?

    4. Is breadth or depth of commercial awareness more important?

    1. Reading about current affairs: newspapers

    2. Reading about current affairs: digests and data aggregators

    3. How to select news stories to discuss

    4. Techniques to develop your awareness and understanding of current affairs

    1. How to effectively discuss current affairs

    2. How to tailor your discussion to an interviewer

    3. How to link current affairs to a firm

    4. Common mistakes

    5. Advice from successful candidates

    1. Peter Watson's retail worked example

    2. Peter Watson's commercial real estate worked example

    3. Peter Watson's OpenAI/Sam Altman worked example

    4. Peter Watson's John Lewis worked example

    5. Examples of how Jake Schogger discussed news stories in his interviews

    6. What is the potential economic impact of tariffs?

    7. Examples of how Harry Clark discussed news stories in his interviews

    1. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from March 2025

    2. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from February 2025

    3. A review of 2024 and themes to look out for in 2025

    1. Legal industry trends from December 2024 - February 2025 (with Luke Mitchinson)

    2. Legal industry trends from September - November 2024 (with Luke Mitchinson)

    3. Trends relating to law firm ownership and growth (with large law firm founder Andrew Thompson)

    4. Artificial intelligence and the law (with leading media lawyer Andrew Thompson)

    5. Reflections on legal technology (with Jake Schogger)

    6. Reflections on legal technology (with Gordon Chung and Simranjeet Mann)

    7. Legal industry tends: 2020 and beyond

    1. Introduction to macroeconomics

    2. QUIZ ~ Macroeconomics

    1. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from October 2024

    2. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from September 2024

    3. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from June 2024

    4. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from April 2024

    5. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from March 2024

    6. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from February 2024

    7. A review of 2023 and key themes to look out for in 2024

    1. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from November 2023

    2. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from October 2023

    3. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from September 2023

    4. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from August 2023

    5. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from July 2023

    6. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from May and June 2023

    7. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from April 2023

    8. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from March 2023

    9. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from February 2023

    10. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from January 2023

    11. A review of 2022 and key themes to look out for in 2023

    1. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from November 2022

    2. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from October 2022

    3. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from September 2022

    4. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from August 2022

    5. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from July 2022

    6. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from June 2022

    7. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from May 2022

    8. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from April 2022

    9. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from March 2022

    10. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from February 2022

    11. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from January 2022

    12. A review of 2021 and key themes to look out for in 2022

    1. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from November 2021

    2. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from October 2021

    3. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from September 2021

    4. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from August 2021

    5. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from May 2021

    6. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from July 2021

    7. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from June 2021

    8. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from April 2021

    9. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from March 2021

    10. Spring Budget Update 2021

    11. Current affairs wrap up: business, legal and markets insights from February 2021

    12. A review of 2020 and key trends to look out for in 2021

    1. Recommended resources

    2. E-guide to commercial awareness

Discussing current affairs and industry trends

  • 76 lessons
  • 46 hours of video content

Why is this the best course on current affairs?

In short, because the instructors have unparalleled experience advising global businesses, senior professionals and aspiring lawyers on the implications of current affairs.

  • The most comprehensive online course specifically built to improve aspiring lawyers' understanding of current affairs.

  • Learn from an ex-stocker broker with 13+ years' experience advising global institutions on the implications of business trends and developments.

  • Our proximity to the recruitment process means we truly understand how current affairs come up in interviews, and therefore what you need to know.

  • We discuss hundreds of real life examples to enhance your understanding of how topical news stories link together and evolve.

  • The course includes a database of 1-hour monthly current affairs round ups dating back to 2021.

Instructors

Ex-stock broker and current affairs guru Peter Watson

Peter Watson has been a stockbroker, headhunter and entrepreneur for over 20 years. He writes and publishes the Watson's Daily blog on business and financial markets news, helping professionals and students alike to understand key trends and developments on a daily basis. Peter studied Law and Japanese at Cardiff University and so when he started working in the City, he had to "learn" economics and markets rapidly in a highly pressurised and competitive environment. He knows what you need to know and serves it up in an approachable way. Peter's markets knowledge comes from being a stockbroker for 13 years at four different investment banks in London and Tokyo, where he advised some of the world's biggest investors who traded on the UK, European and Japanese markets. He also advised CEOs and Chairmen of global blue-chip companies on investor trends and strategies. He has also been a City headhunter in finance and investment banking and a successful candidate in many different professions! www.watsonsdaily.com I @watsons_daily

Commercial Law Academy Founder & Ex-Freshfields Lawyer Jake Schogger

Jake Schogger is a qualified lawyer, career coach, entrepreneur, author, copywriter and consultant. He is the founder and CEO of City Career Series, a publishing company that has sold ~50,000 handbooks designed to help students secure City careers, including the critically acclaimed Commercial Law Handbook and Training Contract Handbook. He also founded Commercial Law Academy. He trained at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and now acts as a legal adviser to start-ups and scale-ups, whilst also working as a career coach and delivering career-related presentations at universities across the UK. In addition, Jake works with tech start-ups and runs a variety of his own businesses. Connect with Jake on LinkedIn via www.linkedin.com/in/jakeschogger

Leading media lawyer / co-founder of Lee & Thompson Andrew Thompson

Andrew Thompson co-founded Lee & Thompson with Robert Lee in 1983 and today is a consultant with the firm. In the early years of his career his key clients were independent record labels. In time, most of these were acquired by the major record companies and Andrew’s focus switched more to the representation of recording artists, songwriters and other artistic talent. He became one of the stand out figures in the music business, acting for many household names, and was rated by Chambers and Partners in 2022 as a Senior Statesman in Music Law. Andrew also has extensive experience within the sports world. He was heavily involved in the re-structuring of Moto GP and he has had a high profile in the development of more complex arrangements for the exploitation of image rights on behalf of footballers and other sports talent. For our full interview with Andrew, check out https://www.commerciallaw.academy/courses/alternative-careers

Course reviews

Hear what subscribers have said about this course

5 star rating

Great for building commercial awareness and keeping up to...

Darren Balasiu

I find the course very helpful in making sure I have a good understanding of commercial awareness and how to talk about current affairs. I think the current ...

Read More

I find the course very helpful in making sure I have a good understanding of commercial awareness and how to talk about current affairs. I think the current affairs wrap-up events are particularly good in keeping up-to-date with the most important news during a month. These events are great because you can just reserve one hour of your time to catch-up with the latest news if you have had a busy month and did not get the chance to check on the news.

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