Following on from the career advice thread...

....would anyone be willing to offer an opinion on the various types of
LLM there are about? (I already have a BSc and I am currently working,
so I'd be doing it Distance Learning)

I think I'd prefer to just do generic "Law" but given that it's quite
rare, I'm wondering if Commercial/Contract/International/IT Law might
be a better option? Does doing one of them force you into
specalisation pretty early on or much like degrees in general, does it
often not matter what you do one in as long as you've got one?

My main two reasons for doing it a
1) It will be useful advancing my current career, as well as being
quite an interesting topic. Along these lines I wouldn't necessarily
need to go on to doing a Legal Practice Course etc, but...
2) It provides a useful exit route from IT should the industry go to
the wall again. Along those lines, the ability to become a solicitor
would be useful. (Much though I quite like the idea of prosecuting
someone for something high-profile at the Old Bailey, that just comes
from reading too much Rumpole as a kid :-)

I was going to start with an A-Level in Law for starters, but it seems
*hard* to take A-Levels as a private candidate these days (Cue tales
of "When I were a lad...") and most places seem not to care too much
if you have one or not.

Thanks.

"Ryan O'Connell" wrote in message
om...
...would anyone be willing to offer an opinion on the various types of
LLM there are about? (I already have a BSc and I am currently working,
so I'd be doing it Distance Learning)

I think I'd prefer to just do generic "Law" but given that it's quite
rare, I'm wondering if Commercial/Contract/International/IT Law might
be a better option? Does doing one of them force you into
specalisation pretty early on or much like degrees in general, does it
often not matter what you do one in as long as you've got one?

My main two reasons for doing it a
1) It will be useful advancing my current career, as well as being
quite an interesting topic. Along these lines I wouldn't necessarily
need to go on to doing a Legal Practice Course etc, but...
2) It provides a useful exit route from IT should the industry go to
the wall again. Along those lines, the ability to become a solicitor
would be useful. (Much though I quite like the idea of prosecuting
someone for something high-profile at the Old Bailey, that just comes
from reading too much Rumpole as a kid :-)

I was going to start with an A-Level in Law for starters, but it seems
*hard* to take A-Levels as a private candidate these days (Cue tales
of "When I were a lad...") and most places seem not to care too much
if you have one or not.

Thanks.


I think all this depends on where you see yourself going. You say that an
LLM would advance your current career - presumably you have good grounds for
saying that, but I am generally sceptical of this as a reason. I have taught
on LLM's for nearly 20 years, and on the basis of what i have seen of my own
students I think that LLM's are overrated in this regard.

If you are contemplating the possibility of becoming a solicitor later, even
if you are not at all sure that you want to do it, then you need to get
through the Academic Stage of Legal Training, which involves doing the
so-called Foundation Subjects. These are not generally included in LLM's,
because they are normally in undergraduate law degrees, so most LLM's will
not help you
in this regard. A few places, including Leeds, where I used to teach, do
have LLM's which are designed for this purpose. However, this is a two-year
full-time course, whereas, if you simply want the Foundation Subjects you
might be better off doing the Common Professional Exam, also known as the
Diploma in Legal Practice, which is one year full-time or two years
part-time. It's generally reckoned a horrendous experience, but it does give
you the Foundation Subjects. I stress that you cannot do LPC/BVC without
having done the Foundation Subjects.

If you still want to do an LLM, then I suggest you go for what interests
you - I do not believe that you will constrain your choice very much. I do
not know where you are in the country, but most big Universities (real ones,
not disguised polytechnics) have reasonable LLM programmes with quite a
decent range of choice.

I hope this helps.


Andrew McGee

"Andrew McGee" wrote in message ...
"Ryan O'Connell" wrote in message
om...
...would anyone be willing to offer an opinion on the various types of
LLM there are about? (I already have a BSc and I am currently working,
so I'd be doing it Distance Learning)

If you are contemplating the possibility of becoming a solicitor later, even
if you are not at all sure that you want to do it, then you need to get
through the Academic Stage of Legal Training, which involves doing the
so-called Foundation Subjects. These are not generally included in LLM's,
because they are normally in undergraduate law degrees, so most LLM's will
not help you in this regard.

Ah, it seems I'd got myself confused by looking at the combined
LLM/GDL courses you mentioned - it appears just a straight "Graduate
Dimploma in Law" is more inline with what I'm after. Thanks.