Legal Practice LLM

Why study this course?

The LLM in Legal Practice aims to prepare you for employment as a trainee solicitor and to provide you with a solid foundation for subsequent practice as a solicitor. In addition, this course offers you an opportunity to extend your research in an area of interest within legal practice, through a research module and a dissertation. This course can be studied full-time or part-time (in the day or in the evening).

More about this course

This course provides graduates who have completed the academic stage of legal training with the professional stage of training required to qualify as a solicitor. We have a long-standing reputation for training solicitors and were one of the first universities to be validated to run the Legal Practice Course.

The course imitates the nature of the work you would encounter in legal practice and follows clients through various legal transactions and court hearings. It builds on the substantive law that you will have already learnt and includes the study of both law and procedure in the major areas of practice.

You’ll also learn the everyday skills of legal research, interviewing, writing, drafting and advocacy to prepare you for your subsequent professional training and for practice as a solicitor.

In addition, we aim to help you apply academic understanding and research techniques to the analysis of law, policy and practice within your chosen area for the final LLM qualification. You’ll also learn how to produce analytical, creative and original research that demonstrates the relationships between substantive law, policy, socio-economic context and legal practice.

The combined qualifications of the Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (LPC) and the LLM in Legal Practice are designed to enhance your career prospects, demonstrate your research capabilities and knowledge of a particular legal area, whatever branch of law you intend to follow.

The course has dedicated facilities. These include an LPC resource room (with its practitioner library and IT resources) and teaching rooms with audio-visual recording facilities. Materials and case studies are provided within the course fee.

_Assessment

Assessment methods for the Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice (LPC) are designed to reflect how solicitors work today, and include skills assessments and open book examinations.

You will also complete coursework and a dissertation to obtain your final LLM in Legal Practice.

_{Professional accreditation}

London Metropolitan University is an SRA (Solicitor Regulation Authority) approved LPC provider.

Accelerated study

Completed the BVC or BPTC in the last five years?

If you have, you can apply for prior learning credit on our course, providing you with an opportunity to qualify as a solicitor (subject to obtaining a training contract) by undertaking a portion of the regular LLM in Legal Practice. In this way you can complete our LLM within one year (part-time), with a degree of flexibility regarding class times.

Students who have successfully completed the BVC/BPTC are eligible to apply for exemption from attendance and assessment in the following subjects and skills which are part of the LLM: Litigation; advocacy; drafting; practical legal research (BVC graduates only) and two of the three vocational electives.

Modular structure

Modules and module details (including, but not limited to, location and time) are subject to change over time.

Year 1 modules include:

• Advocacy Skills (core, 0 credits)
• Business Law and Practice (core, 24 credits)
• Drafting Skills (core, 2.25 credits)
• Legal Practice Dissertation (core, 60 credits)
• Legal Research Methodology (core, 20 credits)
• Legal Writing Skills (core, 2.25 credits)
• Litigation (core, 39.5 credits)
• Professional Conduct and Regulation (core, 1.5 credits)
• Property Law and Practice (core, 24 credits)
• Research Skills (core, 2.75 credits)
• Solicitors Accounts (core, 6 credits)
• Wills and Administration of Estates (core, 2 credits)
• Child Law and Practice (option, 13.5 credits)
• Civil and Commercial Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (option, 13.5 credits)
• Commercial Law and Practice (option, 13.5 credits)
• Employment Law and Practice (option, 13.5 credits)
• Family Law and Practice (option, 13.5 credits)
• Housing Law and Practice (option, 13.5 credits)
• Immigration Law and Practice (option, 13.5 credits)
• Intellectual Property Law and Practice (option, 13.5 credits)
• Interviewing Skills (option, 5.5 credits)

After the course

The Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice (LPC) qualifies you to enter into a training contract with a firm of solicitors or an in-house legal department. The LLM in Legal Practice further enhances your employment prospects. The course also provides a good grounding for practice as a paralegal, in local or health authorities, in local or central government, in commerce either in company secretarial/governance/ regulatory areas or if you aspire to being on a board of directors.

Additional costs

Please note, in addition to the tuition fee there may be additional costs for things like equipment, materials, printing, textbooks, trips or professional body fees.

Additionally, there may be other activities that are not formally part of your course and not required to complete your course, but which you may find helpful (for example, optional field trips). The costs of these are additional to your tuition fee and the fees set out above and will be notified when the activity is being arranged.

How to apply

If you are applying for place on the one year full-time course, you must do so through the Central Applications Board (Law Cabs).

If you are applying for a place on the two year part-time course, use the apply button to begin your application.

When to apply

You are advised to apply as early as possible as applications will only be considered if there are places available on the course.

Visit the Legal Practice LLM page on the London Metropolitan University website for more details!