“Alan’s course on contract drafting was a major turn in my way of thinking and writing. The KISS principle is something that I remember to this day whenever I am looking at a new draft. Alan is an excellent teacher and such a positive person that makes you feel enthusiastic about drafting and re-drafting a wording until it sounds good. I believe the negotiations of any legal document would go more smoothly if Alan were to teach more legal professionals.”

—Ruxandra Musat (In-house lawyer, Bucharest)

“Alan offers individual training which is adapted to the lawyer’s particular needs. He is able to become familiar with the lawyer’s practice area and the applicable law including case law, in my case employment law. 

In April 2019, I did a two-week intensive individual course with Alan in London and since then I have had weekly Skype lessons with him. The contents of the training both in the intensive course and the Skype follow-up always relates to different aspects of German employment law. 

In addition, Alan‘s courses are very varied, so that even an eight-hour day passes quickly. I really enjoy my lessons with Alan and I have made really fast progress both in spoken and written English. I can unreservedly recommend the English training with Alan and I am very happy and grateful that he was recommended to me by another German lawyer whom Alan had trained. 

There is nothing more valuable than a good recommendation and this is definitely one. I would warmly encourage you to ask Alan for training and he is also an unbelievably kind and funny person.”

—Ann-Katrin Pfeifer (Employment lawyer at Vangard, Munich)

"I attended a basic and advanced contract drafting courses given by Alan Simmons. I believe that both trainings were extremely helpful as they were tailored for lawyers and included a large number of practical exercises and examples. 

Alan gives a lot of helpful drafting tips and individual feedback. He would pay special attention to each participant and I improved my drafting skills considerably with his help. I would strongly recommend his courses to each lawyer and each law firm.”

—Rebecca Kleytman (Legal Manager, Sofia)

“Last winter I decided to apply for a job as a lawyer in international law firm. Since a big part of the work is in English, I had to find a way to improve my English, generally speaking and with respect to specific law terms. I am glad that I found Alan, whom a friend of mine recommended. Alan turned out to be an excellent choice in the end.

The legal training course was more than helpful and also really interesting. You can feel that Alan really loves the English language and is very focused on getting you to a higher level. He has a lot of experience in teaching. You learn the legal English that you need in your day to day work as an international lawyer so that you have the tools to get your work done. 

The course includes an intense training in all relevant fields of communication-writing, reading, listening, speaking. In a first step he assessed my personal level of English and created a bespoke course program that exactly fit my needs. Furthermore, Alan was also very flexible, as I always had the opportunity to amend the course program based on my individual wishes during the course. 

A very important aspect of Alan’s teaching philosophy is that he does not just try to explain the English legal system, as so many teachers do. He rather tries to provide you with the essential tools so that you can explain the German legal system to a client or -more specifically -feel more comfortable in doing so. In my opinion, this is the essential part of the job of a German lawyer who advises English speaking clients on German related law matters. 

Therefore, he relies on role play games in which he plays the client, who has a legal issue and needs a legal advice. It was then my job to explain the German law and the legal problems to this client -both orally and (in a homework exercise) in writing. Afterwards he precisely reviewed what I said/what I wrote and gave me a detailed summary about the mistakes I made.

The course program also featured some grammar exercises, specifically designed to practice the "pitfalls" of English legal terminology. The work collocation exercises were my favourite. To round things up, Alan provided me with some listening and comprehension exercises, specifically designed for my preferred legal areas to expand my vocabulary in this regard. All in all, I can highly recommend Alan as a teacher. I have learned a lot that helps me to master my day to day work as a lawyer.”

—Dr Rouven Eichten (Corporate lawyer, Munich)

“English to the next level; great confidence boost. I actually took two courses with Alan. I first did a 3-day course with fellow non-native speakers (all lawyers) and then engaged him for a private tailor-made one-week course. Alan prepared this bespoke course with great diligence and understood exactly what it was I wanted to achieve.

Apart from practicing general conversation, punctuation and grammar, we inter alia reviewed, discussed and drafted contract provisions. Alan’s course really boosted my confidence. He is a great teacher. I can warmly recommend him to any fellow non-native speaking lawyer or other professional.”

—Senior corporate and M&A lawyer, Amsterdam)

“I attended a contract drafting and legal writing course delivered by Alan Simmons in 2006. I really enjoyed the course because it gave me a good chance to learn by redrafting clauses and legal correspondence, become more familiar with legal vocabulary in English and Alan gave me useful feedback on how to improve my writing that I can still apply nowadays.”

—Commercial lawyer at a law firm in Oslo

“Alan was good at involving all the participants. I liked the fact that we did each exercise by ourselves before reviewing it before the whole group when Alan would suggest some improvements and offer drafting tips. I learned a lot.”

“The course was extremely relevant for my daily work with a good mix of both speaking and writing exercises.”

“Extremely inspirational and competent trainer.”

—Tax lawyers at an international company in Oslo

“What I love most about Alan’s English lessons and what really sets him apart is that he is willing to dig into the subject that you want to talk about and that you need help with. Be it the latest developments on German patent law or a client meeting on a specific legal topic, Alan will prepare very helpful role plays for the specific situation and will have the substantial knowledge to talk about the individual subject so that you are much better prepared for the actual client meeting or presentation. 

You will get plenty of time to talk and improve your speaking skills without being interrupted while having a very helpful feedback session at the end of each lesson. On top of that, Alan manages to create a relaxed atmosphere where you feel comfortable talking. He will always find a way to adapt his schedule to yours even on short notice and I would definitely recommend him at any time to anyone looking for a nice and competent English teacher.”

—Patent Litigation lawyer at a law firm in Dusseldorf