University programme proposition

The Future Lawyer | Rifat Sheikh | 29 October 2026

Stop chasing clients. Become the lawyer they seek out.

A ten-session, on-site employability programme that teaches law students how lawyers win clients, with the skills each student gains recorded at the end of every session.

In the AI era, being legally capable is the baseline. Commercial capability is the career.

Experience behind the teaching

Rifat Sheikh co-founded a regulated, multi-department London law firm and was its Head of Business Development & Marketing for 15 years, building legal departments across several locations and designing the referral systems that fed them across the private, public and third sectors. Throughout, he taught, nurtured and guided senior and junior professionals in how work is won and kept. He is the co-founder of REACH LAW, AI governance and regulatory intelligence infrastructure for UK regulated law firms, and writes regularly on AI, regulation and accountability in legal practice. Rifat is not a solicitor, and that is the point: he teaches the commercial engine of legal practice that solicitors rarely articulate and academics have not lived.

35%revenue growth

40%client retention increase

30%client satisfaction uplift

15 yearsperiod of these results, as Head of BD & Marketing

The programme

Ten weekly sessions across one semester: six taught modules and four build sessions, 90 to 120 minutes each, on campus.
Every session is part lecture, part workshop, part Q&A, and ends with each student's Skills Record.
Learning gain measured at sessions 1, 5 and 10 across eight skills, with a TEF-ready cohort report.
Every student leaves with their own Client Manual, a Skills Record portfolio and an Employability Statement.

Fees

Option	Fee (excluding VAT)	Includes
Semester Programme (on site)	£7,500 per semester	10 weekly sessions; all materials and templates; Skills Record for every student; learning gain measurement; attendance registers; mid-programme update; cohort report; certificates; travel within London
Annual Partnership (on site)	£15,000 per academic year	Two Semester Programmes, plus alumni seats in any module at no extra cost and a year-end outcomes report
Additional cohort	£7,500 per semester	A second cohort of up to 25 in the same semester, on another weekly slot
Introductory session	£400 on campus	A 40-minute introduction for students or staff, credited in full against a Semester Programme booked within three months

Availability. I take one partner institution per teaching day, Monday to Thursday, so that each receives my full commitment.

Educational programme: not an accredited qualification, an SRA-approved course or a guarantee of employment.

Discuss your cohort: [email protected] | 07572 382 995 | linkedin.com/in/rifatsheikh