Nottingham Law School revalidates LPC as LLM

The Legal Practice Course has for over twenty years been an important stepping stone on the way to becoming a lawyer. The skills, practical understanding and insight it provides students ensures a measured transition from the academic stage of learning to the training contract. Without the LPC, students would lack much of the context necessary to make sense of the practice of law.

However, much of the knowledge and the skills acquired during the LPC is relevant in a wider context, for instance, the ability to communicate effectively and persuasively or the differing business media recognised by law.

Further, the teaching and learning that takes place on the LPC is at a recognised level for the purposes of learning credits within the Higher Education framework. Nottingham Law School has, therefore, sought to enhance these elements of its LPC by having it successfully revalidated as an LLM. This involved both internal approval and approval by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, as the relevant regulator. In this way students continue to benefit from all the advantages of an LPC but also receive a recognised qualification in its own right.

True to the spirit of the outcomes of the LPC, NLS LLM Legal Practice Course has achieved this by the introduction of a professional legal practice module, the contents of which will focus on commercial awareness and the workings of and developments in the legal profession. In turn, this will prepare students to submit a project on a topic of their own choice linked either to the legal profession or the practice of law.

NLS's LPC has always been about choice. This continues with the new course. Those students who would prefer can elect to undertake a dissertation alternative and submit a longer piece of work than the project. It is also possible to opt-out of the Master's qualification and receive, instead, a post-graduate diploma in law, as has always been the case.

However, every student on the course will be able to participate in the professional legal practice module and receive the benefits it offers. Each of these choices is in keeping with the flexibility currently offered on the NLS LPC.

Whichever route is chosen, students have the opportunity to explore and research topics relevant to the legal profession and the practice of law; in turn, this will equip them with greater insight and understanding into the workings of law beyond the traditional topic-focused elements of the LPC to date.

One criticism which has been levelled at the LPC over the years is that it lacks the intellectual depth of either a law degree or a Graduate Diploma in Law. The great advantage of this development at NLS is that students will be able to undertake meaningful research and analysis which is both of interest and of use to them.

For those students intending to pursue a career as a solicitor, the LPC provides an important foundation. The added value provided by this new development will mean that students at NLS will be better placed to compete for employment opportunities and will take away with them an internationally recognised qualification.

Jason Ellis is principal lecturer and course leader of the full-time LPC, Nottingham Law School

www.ntu.ac.uk/nls