LLM Legal Practice

USW is proud to be a Top 50 Law School (Guardian League Tables), and the LLM offers you the opportunity to gain an internationally recognised LLM qualification in addition to your Legal Practice Course (LPC).

The LLM incorporates a programme of study and assessment approved by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), which you must complete if you want to qualify as a solicitor.

You will develop an in-depth understanding of business and property law, litigation and court procedure, and enhance your ability to engage in critical academic study and research by way of a research project, helping you to develop the professional and reflective skills necessary for practice.

The full-time and part-time LLM Legal Practice is eligible for the Government’s postgraduate loan, unlike a standalone LPC. The LLM is also available as a 60-credit top-up course for LPC graduates from any institution in England and Wales to convert your LPC to the LLM Legal Practice.

Teaching

The taught element of the Legal Practice Research Project requires student to attend for one day per month (6 hours per day, a total of 42 hours) for seven months between September and March. Each day will entail a series of lectures and seminars which will outline the various legal research methodologies available to you for your Legal Practice Research Project, how to develop a research proposal and research project, and will also look to develop your research, critical thinking, referencing and academic writing skills.

Stage One and Two is taught through briefing sessions and practice sessions, completing practical law file exercises and replicating real-life legal scenarios. If you study full-time, you will attend approximately 16 hours of classes each week. LLM part-time students have approximately eight hours of classes delivered on one day per week.

Outside these formal sessions, all LLM students are expected to carry out preparatory work and research for file exercises. In order to maximise the time devoted to practical exercises and provide optimum flexibility for personal study, the majority of lectures and briefing sessions are delivered online using Panopto software.

CAREERS

The LLM Legal Practice, and in particular, the LPC element of this course, is a requirement for qualification as a solicitor and develops the skills you will need on entering the profession.

LLB (Hons) degree usually of class 2:2 or above, or all subjects of the Common Professional Examination, or a combined studies degree including the core law subjects prescribed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Students who have reached the appropriate level of qualification with the Institute of Legal Executives are also eligible for consideration for admission to the course.