Professor Robert Webster’s ready smile and gregarious personality have been fixtures at Roger Williams School of Law since its founding, when he was invited to help establish the school’s international curriculum.
As part of that initiative, Webster founded a summer program that he said offers students an “all-access, behind-the-scenes” look at legal London.
Capped at 30 students, the program has two parts: one week of lectures given by barristers, solicitors, and members of the judiciary – “a team of rogues and rascals who were my colleagues on the bar,” said Webster – followed by two weeks of either a “pupilage” [internship] with a barrister selected from among some of the most successful chambers [law firms] of London; or a stint as a “minor marshal” [law clerk] sitting on the bench alongside a judge at Old Bailey, England’s most celebrated criminal court.
“It’s very hands-on; it’s designed to be a practical experience, well removed from the classroom,” Webster explained. “I want our students to leave with a real feeling for the legal culture of the mother country – a sort of ‘everything you ever wanted to know about the English legal system but were afraid to ask’ experience!”
Webster noted that, in the past ten years, Roger Williams and the London program have “grown up together,” giving the program a human dimension and level of personal commitment to students that “summer study in London” programs at other schools lack.
“Ours is the only law school in the U.S. with a program in the very heart of legal London, within the Honorable Society of the Inner Temple, one of the Four Inns of Court [the professional associations to one of which every English barrister must belong],” he said.
An ABA consultant recently judged the program “innovative and unique,” and students who have participated overwhelmingly sing its praises.
“I learned more than I thought possible in three weeks’ time,” said one. “The pupilage was valuable both educationally and socially. Since our legal history stems from England’s, it was interesting to observe the similarities and differences – where we’ve stayed the same and where we’ve diverged.”
“It’s one thing to learn about the American legal system,” another added, “but it’s something else altogether to compare it to a different system – that is an invaluable learning experience.”
Webster still maintains an active caseload of both international and domestic cases at his London “set of chambers,” with which he retains an of counsel relationship. His specialties include European Union law, human rights law, and media law.
Webster has taught at the renowned Inns of Court School of Law in London, the University of Salzburg, and Etvos Lorand University in Budapest, as well as McGeorge School of Law in California, where he headed the international graduate studies program and organized worldwide internships for participants. His continuing education presentations have been sought out across the Far East – notably in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong – where many of his former students are now in practice.
“I think I bring something very different to my subjects,” he said. “Most of my practice has been in European law. The European Union has created a unique legal order that defies any comparison.”
Webster says E.U.’s constantly evolving and expanding nature is something of a signpost for the future.
“If any one factor characterizes law as it’s practiced today, it’s globalization,” he said. “There’s been a really significant surge of interest in international law in recent years –
American students earning their LL.M.’s at overseas institutions; doing their internships outside the U.S.
“Plus there is so much trade between E.U. and the U.S.A. and the rest of the world that some knowledge of [the E.U.’s legal structure] and how it actually works is really essential hand-luggage for tomorrow’s lawyers! Of course I’m enormously biased, but I am of the very firm view that globalization is a force to be reckoned with. Its importance cannot be overestimated.”
