Legal Practice

Entry requirements

Applicants must have a qualifying law degree (2:2 or above) which satisfies the requirements of the Law Society of England and Wales.

Months of entry

September

Course content

Our combined LLM and LPC course is your chance to study a professional qualification as part of the vocational stage of training necessary to become admitted as a solicitor You’ll gain skills in legal interviews, research, writing, drafting and advocacy and show competency in the areas of professional conduct and regulation, accounts, financial services and markets, taxation and human rights.

The aims of the course are to prepare you for work-based learning and provide you with a general foundation for practice.

As an LLM Law student you’ll be able to attend cJAM, our alternative careers fair, where you get face-to-face time with up to 30 successful industry professionals with work placement opportunities.

You’ll also be able to take advantage of opportunities to participate in the School’s Pro Bono Law Clinic and Mediation Clinic giving you a ‘real life’ insight in to legal practice.

Why study with us

• You’ll study in a highly practical learning environment, designed to prepare you for real-life legal situations, and get excellent individual support to maximise your potential and career aspirations.
• You’ll cover an introductory section, all core practice areas and three electives and there’s a strong emphasis on enhancing your commercial awareness and personal and professional development, to prepare you for employment in a competitive business place.
• You’ll acquire transferable skills such as team working, numeracy, communication, presentation, IT, critical thinking and problem-solving.

What you'll do

• At cJAM you’ll hear from keynote industry speakers, who’ll share their personal career journey, and you’ll benefit from informal networking opportunities and a chance to pitch for a placement.
• The School’s teaching environment is designed to stimulate learning and the course is delivered through a series of interactive large and small group sessions, where the focus is on student centred learning.
• You’ll be able to use our dedicated moot court room which contains a mock-up of a real court room with latest audio-visual technology.

Learning and assessment

Core practice areas and elective subjects are assessed by unseen open book application-based examinations. The legal skills elements are assessed as appropriate, for instance a role-play interview, district judge appointment.

The majority of small group teaching sessions take place in the impressive Harris Building, the home of our School. For large group teaching, we make use of the many modern lecture theatres across campus all of which have state-of-the-art audio-visual support and presentation facilities.

There are a number of dedicated skills development rooms with recording and play back facilities within the School. There’s a resource room for the use of LPC students, equipped with IT facilities and a range of practitioner and academic texts.

The Library contains a dedicated Law Library and our extensive e-law library facility gives you access to many legal and academic and practitioner sources on campus and remotely.

Industry links

The School has excellent links with the law profession, police and probation services and you’ll benefit from regular visits and talks from leading practitioners, academics, barristers, solicitors and judges. Our annual careers fair attracts solicitors’ practices, the CPS and other public sector employers, such as local authorities.

Professional Body Requirements

From September 2021, the way in which solicitors qualify is changing. The current route which sees students undertake a Qualifying Law Degree, plus the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and a Period of Recognised Training is being replaced with the Solicitors Qualification Examination (SQE).

The SQE will be divided into two assessments; SQE 1 and SQE 2. SQE 1 will comprise of two 180 questions examinations, which will test applicant’s knowledge and understanding of the subjects included within the Functioning Legal Knowledge. SQE 2 will comprise of skills-based assessments, which will test applicant’s competence to deal with tasks a new qualified solicitor may undertake. In addition to the SQE assessments, applicants will need to undertake a period of Qualifying Work Experience and also pass a character and suitability test before they can be admitted to the profession.

Both SQE assessments will be run centrally and the cost to sit these assessments currently stands around £3,000 - £4,500 for both SQE 1 and 2. This cost is solely to sit the assessments and does not include any training or preparation.

The School of Justice will continue to provide high quality postgraduate, professional legal education in the form of SQE ‘facing’, ‘focussed’ programmes which are currently under development. In the interim, for students who commenced on either an LLB undergraduate degree or GDL prior to September 2021, the LPC will remain a valid route to qualification. The School of Justice will continue to recruit onto the LLM in Legal Practice for the foreseeable future [or change as appropriate].

Further information on the SQE can be found at https://www.sra.org.uk/ together with decision trees to help students who can qualify under either regime.