Why is avoiding maths so common in the profession?

Law students, law teachers and legal practitioners alike are often open to declare that they are largely innumerate. This always strikes me as a strange admission to make bearing in mind the central role that mathematics plays in various aspects of the work that goes on within legal practice, and one that would never be thought of as acceptable if made in the context of language literacy. Why then do so many people involved in legal learning and practice baulk at the idea of dealing confidently and proficiently with numbers? And does the existence of such a culture cause any significant problems for the profession and those that it is supposed to serve?

Mathematic anxiety

Undeniably some of the difficulties in dealing with mathematical tasks arise as a result of a lack of numerical skills. And so the argument runs that this fault falls at the feet of the primary and secondary education system, and that this deficiency is not something which can be appropriately addressed within the limits of a law school - we are in the practice of teaching law don't you know! But this mindset is short-sighted and misses a key point about a major source of mathematical difficulty for our students: that for many, it is the anxiety associated with the numerical task itself which is the barrier to success, rather than any significant deficiency in actual numerical skills.

High levels of maths anxiety, added to the entrenched maths avoidance strategies executed by students and staff alike, have led to the development of a culture within our law schools that perpetuates the myth that the studies of law and mathematics are diametrically opposed. This is a culture that must be challenged if we are to deliver market-savvy products that equip our students to become the legal practitioners of a changing professional landscape.

Such a challenge must be met too if law schools are to fully engage with the regulatory requirements set down in the Quality Assurance Agency's Benchmark Statement for Law and if the deficiencies identified in the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) relating to commercial awareness are to be addressed.

Impact on clients

And what about the impact upon clients in all of this? Of course maths anxiety and maths avoidance strategies, along with any actual innumeracy on the part of practitioners, will inevitably have an impact on the quality of services provided to clients. Indeed research in this field suggests that where we have a practitioner with reduced numerical skills there is a very real danger that the legal reasoning processes adopted by that practitioner will be less robust where they are being asked to deal with a mathematical element within the reasoning process. In particular, such practitioners are clearly under-equipped to identify any idiosyncrasies in the numerical data upon which they are being asked to base their legal decisions, and this can result in very real and significant impacts for their clients.

So what can be done to challenge the status quo? First of all the professional market must be more vocal in their demand for a stream of law students who are equipped with good numerical skills. Law schools, like any other businesses, are market-driven and what the market demands, the market will eventually get. Secondly, law schools must be more creative in the provision of curricular and extra-curricular activities designed to improve students' numeracy skills while also supporting students to overcome their maths anxiety when dealing with numbers in a legal context. And finally, law schools must offer staff training to develop legally relevant numerical skills within the academy in order to provide staff with the tools necessary to deliver the innovative curriculum required.

Louise Taylor is a senior lecturer in law at Nottingham Law School

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