Solicitors’ Practice Programme (SPP) LLM/PGDip

Key information

The Solicitors Practice Programme (SPP) prepares you for the Solicitors Qualifying Examinations (SQE) 1 and 2. It delivers comprehensive legal knowledge and practical skills training for the examinations within a realistic context. It also offers an LLM option, giving you a solid foundation for a career as a solicitor.

Benefits of this course

The Solicitors Practice Programme is designed for those aspiring to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales.

Training to be a solicitor is an exciting, yet challenging undertaking. The Law School has been training solicitors for decades, many of whom have gone on to achieve prized positions in the legal world, so you can be assured that we have the ideal programme to help you excel in the SQE and prepare you for a career as a solicitor.

Over two 10-week terms, you will follow a carefully structured programme taught in small groups by qualified lawyers and covering the requisite material to prepare for the SQE 1 and SQE 2 respectively, equivalent to a Postgraduate Diploma.

If you select the Master of Laws (LLM) pathway, this will be followed by an additional five-week elective term and submission of a legal practice research project to deepen your understanding of an area of legal practice that is of particular interest to you.

Who is this course for?

This course is for holders of undergraduate UK law degrees (or non-Law graduates with a GDL) who wish to qualify as solicitors in England and Wales and who wish to achieve an internationally recognised academic qualification as well as preparing for the SQE 1 and SQE 2 assessments.

You will build on your existing legal knowledge and will acquire the knowledge and skills required both for the SQE assessments and for practising as a solicitor.

Teaching and assessment

The whole programme takes a real-world approach, encouraging you from the start to consider the scenarios you work with as real cases involving real clients.

This will help you to develop commercial awareness, and to take into account practical considerations as you would need to do when advising on a transaction or dispute.

The course is a full-time blended programme which means that you will typically have a mix of face-to-face teaching together with online preparation and consolidation activities each week. You will also be expected to do a significant amount of personal study each week, engaging in reading and research, online activities, and preparing for classes.

To enter the course, you must have: A UK honours degree in law normally with a classification of 2.1 or above; OR A UK honours degree in a subject other than law with a classification of 2:1 or above AND a UK Graduate Diploma in Law (or equivalent graduate or postgraduate course that covers the necessary foundations of legal knowledge), normally with an average of at least 50% OR An overseas degree (in any subject) with a classification equivalent to 2:1 or above AND a UK Graduate Diploma in Law (or equivalent graduate or postgraduate course that covers the necessary foundations of legal knowledge), normally with an average of at least 50%.