Legal Practice LLM

Study a career-enhancing postgraduate Legal Practice course. Learn from an award-winning teaching team. Qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales.

Skills Boost NE Discount

Learning and teaching in 2020

Overview

LLM Legal Practice is a full Masters course which includes the Legal Practice Course (LPC) – the vocational qualification you need to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales.

The course mixes taught elements with independent research, and will set you on track for a successful career in law by helping you develop valuable skills employers look for, including ‘Business Law and Practice’, ‘Litigation and Advocacy’.

The topic of your project will be designed to fit both your personal interests and the supervisory expertise of Sunderland’s tutors.

Why us?

Internationally excellent' research in Law according to the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF)
Watch our Studying Law at Sunderland webcast

Sunderland Student Law Clinic: A professionally supervised service, offering free legal advice and assistance to the general public. Students gain real-world experience, such as improving their client interviewing skills.

Joining us in 2020

We are pleased to welcome you to Sunderland Law School as you start the academic year 2020/21.

In your first week of the course, you will be introduced to your Programme Leader and Personal Tutor, David Sixsmith, and our Head of Clinic, Catherine Arnold and her clinic team. Your law course will be delivered using a hybrid model which combines face-to-face and online teaching to ensure that you can undertake your course with us and keep safe. We use the latest in digital technology to support the teaching of our law courses, and this enables you to develop your knowledge and skills through a variety of different learning experiences. Your recorded lectures allow you to view your sessions ‘on demand’ – enabling you to re-watch, pause and rewind your lectures as and when you choose.

During your first semester, you’ll receive weekly face-to-face sessions and participate in a range of online learning activities. These sessions will be specifically designed to develop your legal knowledge and a wide range of key legal and practice-related skills. Your timetable will detail when your face-to-face teaching and live online lectures and classes will take place.

An important part of your course is the work that you will do in the Sunderland Student Law Clinic. You will have a comprehensive induction into clinic practices as well as core Drafting, practical research, and interviewing skills in addition to introducing you to CLIO – our online client management system which will become a vital part of your work in clinic. You will work in firms with other students under the supervision of Qualified Solicitors who will support you with your learning and development.

You’ll meet the law team, your colleagues in your firms and have the opportunity to get involved in a range of extra-curricular activities. For example, you can get involved with Client Interviewing, Client Negotiation and Mooting competitions as well as the Freedom law clinic programme, which is a national programme which focuses on Criminal law and Human Rights cases- if you have time. You can get involved in running our Sunderland Student Law Journal, and you can present at our staff and student research conference. We will continue to review the position on social-distancing and as the conditions develop will adapt our approach accordingly. The team will make sure you are aware of any changes that impact you.

At Sunderland Law School, we are dedicated to providing exceptional student support to all of our law students. So rest assured, we will ensure that during your time with Sunderland Law School, you will receive high quality teaching and a wide range of experiences that will develop your knowledge and skills, preparing you for the career you want.

Course structure

A typical week for you will include weekly three-hour workshops. These are interactive and require a high level of preparation. The research project and dissertation are supervised by your tutor.

Compared to an undergraduate course, you will find that this Masters course requires a higher level of independent working. You will encounter a range of practical supervised and portfolio assessments across the programme followed by an extended piece of researched coursework for your Legal Practice Project.

Semester 1

Business Law and Practice (includes Taxation and Business Accounts) (25 credits)
Property Law and Practice (20 credits)
Optional module of your choice (10 credits)

Semester 2

Litigation and Advocacy (20 credits)
Wills and Administration of Estates (15 credits)
Solicitors’ Accounts (5 credits)
Two optional modules of your choice (20 credits)
Optional modules Commercial Contracts (10 credits)
Commercial Property (10 credits)
Employment Law and Practice (10 credits)
Family Law and Practice (10 credits) Housing Law and Practice (10 credits)
Advanced Personal Injury Litigation (10 credits)

Semester 3

Legal Practice Project (60 credits)

Some modules have prerequisites. Read more about what this means in our Help and Advice article.

Facilities

You’ll be based at the Sir Tom Cowie Campus at St Peter’s, on the banks of the River Wear. The campus is within minutes’ walking distance from the coast. Here, you’ll have access to excellent library resources and comprehensive facilities.

Entry requirements

Our typical offer is:

Qualification	Minimum grade
a Canadian bachelor's degree	GPA 2.40
a USA bachelor's degree	GPA 2.5

If your qualification is not listed above, please contact the Student Administration team at studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk for further advice.

We require applicants to hold 2:2 in a Qualified Law Degree or equivalent, or a 2:2 in any discipline followed by successful completion of a Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL).

We also welcome applications from Fellows of the Institute of Legal Executives (FILEX) or those with an appropriate level of relevant professional experience.

If English is not your first language, please see our English language requirements.

Is your qualification not displaying here? For international qualifications, search our full list of international entry requirements for this course.

Fees and finance

The annual fee for this course is:

£9,750 if you are from the UK / EU / international

If you are not sure whether you qualify as a UK, EU or international student, find out more in our Help and Advice article.

The Skills Boost North East Discount is a 20% waiver on the full cost of course fees for postgraduate taught Masters courses for any worker who has been furloughed, has been made redundant, or is likely to be made redundant and who has a local connection to the North East region. The discount is also available to anyone with a connection to the North East who graduated in academic year 2019/20 with an undergraduate degree from any university, or who has graduated with an undergraduate degree from a university in the North East in academic year 2019/20 and has been unable to secure full-time graduate employment due to pressures of Covid-19. Read more about the discount.

Take a look at the Your Finances section to find out about the scholarships and bursaries that may be available to you.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

Career ready

According to a report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), people with a postgraduate qualification earn an average of 27% more than graduates with just an undergraduate degree.

Securing your first job

This course is designed to prepare you to secure your first legal job or training contract. Two days of the induction programme are devoted to kick-start a specialised careers and employability programme. You will carry out a SWOT Analyses identifying your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats when it comes to securing your ideal first legal job.

You will then prepare your CV and a covering letter for a simulated training contract role before going through a mock assessment centre with your course mates and a personal interview with a small panel. This is to help you get to grips with the kind of recruitment processes you are likely to encounter.

The panel will use your SWOT Analysis to personalise their feedback from the day so that you can get the most from the experience and this will lead into a programme of activities throughout the year aimed at increasing your confidence to go out there and secure your first legal job.

Throughout the year, your Personal Tutor will work with you on individual job applications and will ensure you are signposted to other specialists in the university so that you get the best possible support and best possible chance to get your career off to a fantastic start.

Sunderland Student Law Clinic

A professionally supervised service, offering free legal advice and assistance from Sunderland Law School at the University of Sunderland.

The Sunderland Student Law Clinic offers a free and professional service focusing on areas where people may find it difficult to find or afford other legal services. At the same time, the Clinic provides an opportunity for students to gain valuable real-life experience and put theory into practice. Everything that the Clinic does is overseen by an experienced solicitor, ensuring a consistently high standard of legal advice throughout.

Meet the students

It has been an incredible journey which I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Matthew Ray
I appreciate that the University has a Mock Law Court available for students to use.

Numan Miah
The best aspect of the Law course was the standard of teaching.

Syed Ahmed

Meet the team

Related courses

Contact

Contact the Student Helpline for further information about studying at the University of Sunderland:

0191 515 3000

student.helpline@sunderland.ac.uk

View Programme Specifications for the Faculty of Business, Law and Tourism.

Page last updated: 21 September 2020

Sign up to receive emails about your subject area.

Keep me up to date relating to my interest in the University of Sunderland via:

Email

You may unsubscribe at any time.

Using Your Personal Information
The University of Sunderland is collecting this data in order for you to receive information on your chosen subject(s). Your information will be stored securely in our Customer Relationship Management system which is provided by a 3rd party and used only for the administration and provision of this information. Should you choose to opt in to further communications we will also use your information to facilitate other useful marketing information based on your preferences. Further information on how your data is stored and used can be found in our Privacy notice - marketing.