Law Conversion LLM

Intro

Our postgraduate qualifying law courses expand the knowledge of those working in the justice,
social and consumer sectors, as well as supporting a move to a career as a barrister or solicitor.

Recognised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the bar Standards Board, this course enables graduates in non-law related studies to convert to a career in law.

Experienced lecturers will support you through this practice-led, skills-based course, integrating guest talks from local practitioners and judges.

Extracurricular activities, such as mooting, client interviewing and pro bono work, allow you to develop practical skills in legal research, problem-solving, critical analysis and communication.

Classes are taught in small groups of exclusively postgraduate law students by enthusiastic, expert lecturers who are committed to research and teaching excellence. You can take this course either full-time or part-time.

Key facts

Location Brighton: Moulsecoomb

Full-time 1 year
Part-time 2 years

This course is recognised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board

Both part-time and full-time routes are eligible for the UK Government's postgraduate loan

Applying for this course – full-time
Full-time students apply through the Central Applications Board. Find out more in the entry criteria section further down this page

Applying for this course – part-time
Part-time students can apply direct to the university. See link below to apply

Book your open day place

Apply online

Please review the entry requirements carefully and if you have any questions do get in touch with us.

Apply now for your place

Course content

Course structure

This course is taught full-time (two days a week) or part-time (one day a week).

Before you start this course, you need to complete a programme of preliminary reading. The programme begins in September with a module on the English legal system, which provides you with the foundation needed to underpin your legal studies.

Teaching methods include lectures, seminars and workshops. You will be assessed through coursework and exams.

Syllabus

Contract Law
The rules relating to the formation, operation and termination of contracts, including the remedies available to the parties and the doctrine of privity of contract; an outline of the law of restitution.

Criminal Law
The general foundations of criminal liability and defences; the major criminal offences (eg homicide, non-fatal offences against the person, theft) and their constituent elements.

Equity and Trusts
The relationship between equity and the common law; types of trust, the role of trustees and consequences of a breach of trust; nature and scope of equitable rights and equitable remedies.

European Union Law
The constitutional framework of the EU; the implementation and enforcement of EU law (including the free movement of workers, competition law, consumer protection law); the relationship between EU law and national law.

Land Law
The foundation concepts of land law; the relationship between the common law and equitable rights; the scope, nature and effect of estates and interests in land; registered and unregistered conveyancing; co-ownership; the essentials of landlord and tenant.

Law of Torts
The foundations of tortious liability, including vicarious and joint liability and remedies in respect of torts; the principal torts (eg negligence, trespass, nuisance, defamation) and their constituent elements.

Legal System, Method and Skills
Sources, personnel and structure of the English legal system; civil and criminal process; access to justice; the impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on the English legal system.

Public Law
Constitutional legal principles; the basic features and characteristics of the UK's constitution; civil liberties; administrative law, including judicial review.

Dissertation
The final project involves researching for and writing a 15,000-word dissertation on an area of law that you are particularly interested in.

Claire-Michelle Smyth

Dr Claire-Michelle Smyth, LLM, is your course leader. Claire-Michelle graduated with a PhD from Queens University Belfast where her research centred on social and economic rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Claire-Michelle’s main interests are in equity and trusts, and human rights law. She has published extensively in this area and regularly attends national and international conferences discussing her research.

Find out more about Claire.

Careers

Career prospects

As this is a qualifying law course, you will be able to progress directly to the vocational stage of training: the Legal Practice Course if you want to become a solicitor or the Bar Professional Training Course if you want to become a barrister.

The good communication, problem-solving, analytical and research skills developed during your law degree are needed not only by the legal profession but also are relevant to many alternative careers. Graduates may seek careers in areas such as banking, insurance and Civil Service.

The Brighton Business School has strong links with the local legal profession and encourages you to complete vacation placements with solicitors’ firms, mini pupillages with barristers’ chambers and internships with other institutions.

Recent Law graduates have joined companies in roles such as:

Alpha Shindara Legal, Legal Secretary
Aston Bond, Solicitor
Bennett Griffin, Trainee Solicitor
Bernard Chill & Axtell Solicitors, Trainee Solicitor
Blake Morgan LLP, Litigation Paralegal
BlueBay Asset Management, Compliance Intern
Carmelite Chambers, Barrister
Financial Ombudsman Service, Adjudicator
Fox William, Trainee Solicitor
G2 Legal, Junior Consultant
Howlett Clarke, Legal Assistant
Mayo Wynne Baxter, Paralegal
Nationwide, Fraud Analyst
Turpin Miller, Solicitor

Other successful graduates can also pursue careers in occupations within the justice sector, the prosecution service, the police and social services.

Bar Standards Board

Solicitors Regulation Authority

Skills development

CLOCK Legal Companion Scheme

The university is part of the CLOCK Time for Justice scheme. Students volunteer in the Brighton Family and County courts and assist litigants in person by accompanying them into hearings; helping them to fill in court forms and signposting to our legal and charitable partners. As well as enabling you to gain unique court experience, you will develop essential skills through assisting clients on many issues and build on links with local law firms.

Negotiating

Negotiation is a key lawyer skill – many legal disputes do not end up in the courts, but instead are resolved by some form of negotiated agreement. Our negotiation programme is an opportunity to prepare for a negotiation, and to apply and practise your negotiation skills. The programme is sponsored by solicitors’ firms who judge the final competition and the top teams go on to represent the University of Brighton at the national negotiation competition sponsored by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution.

Client interviewing

Our client interviewing skills programme enables students to develop the essential skill of interviewing clients, a key component of legal work. The programme culminates in an
internal competition, sponsored by a local law firm, and the winning students proceed to represent the university in the national Law Society competition.

In 2016 two of our Law with Business students, Fionnuala Richardson and Chloe Chatton, won the national competition and went on to represent England and Wales in the international competition, finishing third in the world.

University of Brighton Innocence Programme

Our University of Brighton Innocence Programme offers the opportunity to advise and investigate issues of potential wrongful criminal convictions. Students participate in real-life casework supervised by academics and working with practising lawyers, providing pro bono assistance to prisoners who maintain their innocence and have exhausted their appeal rights.

Work-related experience

Our dedicated Placements and Employability team provide a huge portfolio of employers offering business-related placement opportunities. They support all students find a placement.

They offer several services to improve your employability including CV and cover letter reviews, mock assessment centres, fast-track interviews and interview practice sessions.

They will also support you throughout your placement and act as referees if you are offered a permanent role, or wish to continue to a masters degree. The university will assist you in the application to visas if required.

JobTeaser

We are one of the first UK universities to use JobTeaser, a new online placements system presenting placement options in the UK and Europe. It gathers together all the job opportunities, events and resources you need to help you with your professional development.

Placement and recruitment events

Placement fairs are held twice a year involving companies from well-known names such as Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, Enterprise-Rent-a-Car and IBM, through to smaller and more local businesses.

Our regular Employability Weeks offer activities designed to enhance your employability, including LinkedIn workshops, sessions on working abroad, advice from the university’s volunteering service and support from the Careers team.

Careers advice

Our careers service provides help and advice from the very start of your studies, on subjects including careers counselling sessions, CV checking, mock interviews and advice on setting up your own business.

Mentoring – Momentum is our award-winning mentoring scheme. It pairs students with professionals who wish to share their experience. Students and their mentors meet regularly to exchange ideas. The scheme helps students to develop new skills and enhance their career prospects.

Starting your own business

Beepurple is the university’s entrepreneurship support network. They offer free support for any student or graduate with their business ideas, freelance plan or social enterprise project.

Beepurple run events throughout the academic year, designed to equip you with skills that will improve your employability and help you grow a successful business.

By taking part in beepurple activities, you will meet like-minded people, hear how other recent graduates have set up their own businesses and gain key enterprise skills that will help you stand out from the crowd.

Solicitors Qualifying Exam

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has announced it will be introducing the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). The earliest date for introduction is September 2020.

The SRA will be providing information and guidance about how to qualify in the new system so keep checking the SRA website.

At the moment, to become a solicitor you need to complete a qualifying law degree (or another degree followed by a Law Common Professional Examination/Postgraduate Diploma in Law) moving on to do the Legal Practice Course (LPC), and then a two-year period of recognised training, usually called a training contract.

The new proposal is that the SQE will consist of two parts; part one assessing legal knowledge, research and writing and the second part testing practical skills gained after completing a recognised period of training.

The SRA have confirmed that the SQE will not be in place until 2020 and have proposed that students who begin a qualifying law degree before 2020 will be able to use the old route to qualification.

We’re reviewing the curriculum of our qualifying law courses and will make changes as necessary to provide an integrated approach to preparing students for the SQE.

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Entry criteria

Entry requirements

The entry requirements listed here are our typical offer for this course if you wish to begin studying with us in 2019. They should be used as a general guide.

Degree and experience
Students applying for this course must fall into one of the following two categories:

1. You must have obtained a good honours degree awarded by a recognised UK or Republic of Ireland institution (at least 2:2 standard if you want to qualify as a barrister).

2. Applicants with non-standard UK degrees or qualifications obtained overseas may need to obtain a Certificate of Academic Standing. Prospective barristers should obtain the certificate from the Bar Standards Board.

For non-native speakers of English
If English is not your first language, you will need English language proficiency equivalent to IELTS minimum 6.5 overall with 6.0 in the written test and a minimum of 5.5 in the other elements.

International students whose language skills do not match the IELTS scores set out here should consider applying for this course through the Extended Masters programme at the university's Language Institute.

International requirements

International requirements by country

Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma (Myanmar)
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guyana
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kosovo
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malawi
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian National Authority
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Syria
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visit our language institute

For English language preparation courses.

Visit our International College

For degree preparation courses.

How to apply

Applying for the full-time course

You should apply for the full-time course through the Central Applications Board. For details, see www.lawcabs.ac.uk. Note that the Central Applications Board refer to this course as the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL). If you have any queries regarding applications for the full-time course, please call 01273 642162 or contact the Central Applications Board at applications@lawcabs.ac.uk.

Fees

Course fees

UK/Europe (full-time)9,150 GBP

International (full-time)13,840 GBP

Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We offer a range of scholarships for postgraduate students. Bursaries and loans may also be available to you.

Find out more about postgraduate fees and funding.

Our LLM Law Conversion course, full-time and part-time, is eligible for the Government’s Postgraduate Master’s Loan Scheme.

Info

The fees listed here are for the academic year 2018–19.

Location

Local area

About Brighton

The city of Brighton & Hove is a forward-thinking place which leads the way in the arts, technology, sustainability and creativity. You'll find living here plays a key role in your learning experience.

Brighton is a leading centre for creative media technology, recently named the startup capital of the UK.

The city is home to a national 5G testbed and over 1,000 tech businesses. The digital sector is worth over £1bn a year to the local economy - as much as tourism.

All of our full-time undergraduate courses involve work-based learning - this could be through placements, live briefs and guest lectures. Many of these opportunities are provided by local businesses and organisations.

You can also enhance your experience by getting involved with city festivals and events such as the Brighton Festival, the Fringe, Brighton Digital Festival, Brighton Science Festival, Pride, the London to Brighton bike ride, the Brighton Marathon, and the Great Escape festival of new music to name but a few.

Campus where this course is taught

Moulsecoomb campus

Two miles north of Brighton seafront, Moulsecoomb is our largest campus. Subjects taught here include architecture, business, computing, construction, engineering, geography, product design, law and pharmacy.

On campus you will find professional-standard facilities including a flight simulator, trading room, design and digital media suites and specialist research laboratories, alongside the library, student centre, a nursery, fitness facilities and Students’ Union. There are excellent public transport links.

The Big Build
A major transformation of our Moulsecoomb campus began in summer 2018. By the time the Big Build is complete, there’ll be new halls of residence, academic building, and Students’ Union and fitness facilities – all created with sustainability, inclusivity and community in mind.

As the development grows it will provide many exciting learning opportunities for our students, ranging from live projects, placements and internships with the companies involved to guest lectures and site visits. Find out more...

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Accommodation

Brighton: Moulsecoomb

All eligible 2019-entry applicants are guaranteed an offer of university-managed accommodation.

Halls of residence
We have halls of residence across Brighton at Grand Parade, Moulsecoomb, Varley Park and Falmer.

You'll be prioritised for accommodation in the halls that are linked to your teaching base, subject to availability.
Moulsecoomb campus is linked to Varley Park and Moulsecoomb Place halls
- Varley Park offers a mix of room and catering options. Varley Park is around two miles from Moulsecoomb campus and four miles from the city centre. Public transport in the city is excellent, and there’s a shuttle bus between our Brighton campuses during term time.
- Moulsecoomb Place halls are all catered and are located right on campus.
- Find out more about our halls at Varley Park and Moulsecoomb Place.

Unihomes and unilets
Unihomes and unilets are student houses that we let to our students on behalf of private landlords. This option can work particularly well when you’re balancing learning with placements and other commitments. We have unihomes and unilet properties at locations across the city.

Find out more about our accommodation and confirm your eligibility.

Private renting
There's plenty of support if you opt for private rented accommodation. This is an option which offers choice and flexibility – enabling you to choose where you live and who with. We manage our own studenthomes database of properties. This lists accommodation offered by landlords who have signed up to our code of standards. Every summer we provide online events and resources, as well as other advice services, for students looking for a place to live and people to share with.