Law School Post Grad

[Rollofrockandsand]

DS is in final year at a RG uni and likely to gain a high 2:1 or 1st. Having played with the idea for ages he has decided to seriously consider Law.

I suspect he’s too late to apply for training contracts to cover the fees and he’s behind a lot of the kids who have have seriously considered law from early days.

We know a lot of lawyers and he has an excellent CV so far and I’m confident he will be able to get some meaningful work experience

Now to the point. He’s considering BPP or university of Law in London. He will be able to live at home and will need to also get a PT job for his spending money

However I will cover the fees. I can’t quite work out from the websites what they’ll be. There seems to be the LLM with SQE1 and then you prepare for SQE 2. Plus the exams cost extra.

how long is the course altogether for non grads. I know under the old system was 2 years

Also other there other places to study he should consider?

His current plan is to try for Magic Circle but with a more realistic aim for Silver Circle / West End and then possibly in-house

My son is in the process of applying for training contracts (he is studying law at a RG, top 10 law school) and got a First in his first year. Typically, second year students apply for summer vacation schemes and at lots of top tier firms this is part of the assessment process for a training contract. They then apply for training contracts before they start their third year. They are fiendishly competitive. He has spent hours and hours writing applications, doing online assessments, in person assessments and assessment centres. He currently has a 3 week vac scheme at a magic circle firm and a large regional firm. My nerves are shredded by the whole process! He has met people on assessment centres from some top unis with great results who are on their 5th term of applying. It's brutal.

Exam costs from the website:

The SQE1 exam cost is £1,888 (£944 for FLK1 and £944 for FLK2), while the SQE2 exam cost is £2,902. Kaplan offers the SQE1 exam twice a year, in January and July, at test centres in the UK and across the rest of the world.

Non-law graduates do two years training pre-training contract. PGDL- 1 year and then SQE1 and 2.

Yes whilst it is technically possible to do it in a shorter time period because technically you can do the sqe exam without studying law, the reality is he needs to do a year studying law first. So it’s still really two years for snon law graduate. Some law firms have fast track sqe arrangements but they run mid year so it isn’t really possible to shorten the process.

its a big fucking mess and just as expensive as before (if not more) I would not advise trying to do the sqe without studying a law “conversion” (to use the old terminology) first. Particularly since you get three attempts only at passing the sqe.

That’s literally just to sit the exam. Not to take the sqe preparation course

OP asked about exam costs as well as the courses. Happy to provide that information. Problem?

Thanks for that, I’m aware it’s incredibly competitive. He has done a placement year as part of his degree in a very competitive sector and has some seriously impressive high level leadership experience and has done a lot of things you wouldn’t expect from someone his age so I’m confident he has a good chance as anyone. We have a lot of senior lawyers in the family and friends so he’s going in with an open mind. They just don’t know the current training process!

Yes of course. That’s what I’m asking really. It seems to be a full year LLM plus SQE 1 which is about £15500 plus exam costs for SQE1 and 2. We thought it was still 2 years like it was with the conversion plus LPC

Perfect just wanted to confirm that

Do not pay law school fees out of own pocket. He should get a TC first so they pay the fees. I'm a lawyer and I know dozens of people from law school who self funded and never got a TC. The qualification is not transferable to anything else really so it's an expensive waste of money if you don't qualify

We are obviously looking at both options. He has only seriously considered it recently. He actually has a grad scheme lined up in another sector. Law has always been on the radar but more seriously now

It sounds like he has got some great experience and of course, lots of solicitors are noon-law grads. Rather than self-fund the conversion and SQE, I would suggest he applies for a TC. This year's application round has closed as I understand it from my son, so he'll need to look at applying from September.

Not especially helpful to suggest not funding himself as he is in his final year so unless he wanted to take a year out just applying for TCs (in practice probably applying for vac schemes to set up fir TCs), then he will want to crack on. Given that his mother can fund his conversion, it makes sense to crack on and hope to score a TC to fund the sqe 1 and 2.

Having said which, getting a TC is horribly tricky, especially for generic male applicants so be braced for a long haul.

My own son, who graduated summer 2024, recently mentioned an interest in qualifying as a lawyer and there is no way I'd fund his law school fees. I told him: you've missed this year's application window so plan for next year and be prepared for 4 years to qualification (best case) plus another 4-5 years establishing a decent career before getting married/having kids.

OP concentrate on finals and get the predicted first in the bag. Start the grad scheme while applying in the next round for TCs. Once TC is in the bag with funding for the BPP, either continue with the grad scheme for the academic year or ditch the grad scheme and travel.

This would mirror what my own DS did. He had a grad scheme lined up with an investment back, decided after finals that he might quite like commercial law (had never previously shown any interest), started the banking grad scheme and applied to Magic Circle firms. By the end of December he had two offers of TCs from two of those firms having been offered vac schemes in December. He chose to travel for the rest of the year - had a fab time - and returned to the UK refreshed and ready to start at BPP in late August/ September. He did have a first from Oxford but the banking experience was clearly a big bonus too.

If your DS's grad scheme is in the financial sector that would be a definite good.

I am a solicitor mother with 4 solicitor children (2 qualified last year) and we know people doing the SQE course at present.

There are no right or wrong answers as to if a parent should fund the post grad studies.

If you can afford it you could pay the fees for a PGDL year and then the SQE year. Even though in theory you do not need an LLB or law conversion (PGDL) if you do not have those no one is likely to hire you and firms who sponsor trainees but them through the 2 years post grad just as under the LPC systen before SQE.

BPP or ULaw are where 80% of people go. My children used BPP and the City Consortium firms use BPP. I slightly prefer BPP but both are fine.

1. For someone with a parent who will pay the fees my advice is to pay for the PGDL without masters in year 1 and then pay for the SQE1/2 course without masters in year 2. (The only reason to do a masters is to get a student loan -= this kind of masters).
2. For someone who will need a student loan (£12k or whatever the amount is - masters loan) then I advise he books on the PGDL with SQE1 masters as that will take him up to part way through year 2 using the masters loan for fees or most of the fees. Then you would have to pay the SQE1 fees about 16 months after he starts the course and then fund the add on SQE2 course and fees shortly after taking him up to the period of the 2 academic years.

In my view it would be best to apply now. There is a kind of UCAS for law post grad - the Central Applications Board. Applications opened in October 2024 for entry in Sept 2025 and as long as he can pay he is likely to get a place as he is on course for a 2/1 in his degree. He will have to write a kind of personal statement and also indicate exactly which course he is wanting (see my options 1 and 2 above) . There is a closing date but as long as he applies around Easter time or a bit after he should be fine and some people apply very late. He will almost certainly get a place so I think my twins just put one choice down of institution (in their case BPP). He should also apply like mad from Aug or September once the new application season for law firms and other places open. I applied to 139 firms and had 25 interviews in year 3 of my LLB before getting a training contract a very long time ago in a very very difficult recessionary period. No one would do as many these days but it can take 3 or 4 years of putting in applications to get something so he definitely should not waste the summer 2025 and Autumn 2025 and then also apply the year after during his SQE year too.

one of my DC was considering this. He also has 2.1 from an RG and we have lawyers in the family, one of whom did a conversion and now works in a great firm in London earning a lot of money. DC has changed their mind which I am incredibly relieved about.

It is two years.

You still need to do either an LLM or PGDL type course so that you have the basics of the various key legal areas.

You then do SQE 1 which in most cases will be very difficult to do without doing the SQE preparation course. In most cases that course will take a year or the best part of a year since the slightly shorter courses (circa 6 months) start mid year so you can't just run them on when you finish the legal course in July.

Some law firms have fast track courses for their trainees and a few of them start the TC and then put their whole cohort through a firm specific SQE prep course all together.

So for a non law graduate without a training contract effectively you are still completing two academic years prior to commencing work.

You then also have to do SQE 2

Yes, the SQE1 and SQE2 courses and exams are usually done in the second academic year - you cannot book the SQE2 exam until you pass the SQE1 exam. (My post above saying then you have to pay the SQE1 fees should have read - have to pay the SQE1 exam fees).

Thank you everyone, this is really helpful information

As a PP mentioned, the masters (LLM) bit is really only so that students who are not funded either by a firm or a parent, can get a student loan. However it increases the cost and is not a requisite part of the qualification.

If you are prepared to pay for him, then just sign up for the PGDL (ie the conversion law degree). For the PGDL, any provider is fine, so I'd use one close to home to save on living costs. He can then apply for TCs during that year.

If he gets a TC in a City firm, then the firm will usually specify a provider in central London (usually BPP) for the SQE as they will focus on corporate and commercial subjects.

The SQE is tough and he might hear horror stories, but don't let that put him off.

Tell him not to focus just on the top 5 Magic Circle firms only. Those at number 15 - 20 are also very presitigious but have a good work/life balance. Salaries might not be as high, but are certainly very good indeed (c £100,000 for newly qualified)

To add...you can also do the PGDL online which might be cheaper