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LLM in Legal Practice

LLM

Start dates: September 2023 / September 2024

Part time: 13 months

Location: Distance learning

Department(s): School of Law and Social Sciences

Overview
Course details
Careers
Entry requirements
How to apply
Tuition fees

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Overview

Our LLM in Legal Practice provides practising, qualified graduates with an additional qualification. With our legal practice postgraduate degree, you can pursue a speciality with support and advice from expert tutors; reflecting on your experience in your career so far. 

The programme recognises your professional achievements and helps you to take them further. Graduates from England and Wales, or countries with a common law heritage, can convert their professional law qualification into a masters degree. Examples of these qualifications include PG Dip in Legal Practice, LPC (Legal Practice Course), BPTC (Bar Professional Training Course).

The course is taught online, so you can balance your learning with your personal and professional commitments. The course is ideal for:

  • solicitors
  • barristers
  • practising lawyers
  • those about to enter the legal profession.

Attend an open day or webinar Ask a question Order a prospectus

Female Legal Practice, LLM student practising in court on campus at Oxford Brookes University

Why Oxford Brookes University?

  • Personal guidance

    We pride ourselves on our friendly, collegial atmosphere. We regularly work with you individually and provide you with one-to-one support.

  • New perspectives

    Speak to people from various personal and professional backgrounds, from across the globe, and learn from their experiences. Including English solicitors and barristers, Pakistani advocates, Bahamian counsel and advocates, and Seychellian attorneys-at-law, as well as university lecturers in legal practice.

  • Boost employability

    You’ll get to research a specialism within a specialism, and stand out in your profession.

Course details

Course structure

This course has two modules: Advanced Legal Research Methods (ALRM) and the Dissertation. ALRM will help you to research and write at an advanced level, using legal sources. The module covers research design, researching relevant sources and materials, legal referencing, and citation.

You’ll think deeply about the writing process and the finished work, including how you might present your findings to different audiences. The 2,000-word essay you’ll write at the end of the module is good practise for the Dissertation.

For the Dissertation, you’ll research and write about an aspect of the legal profession in great detail. This is your chance to hone a niche within a niche. If you work in employment law, you might focus on workplace discrimination for example. Your tutor will help you decide what to research.

Male Legal Practice, LLM student in lecture on campus at Oxford Brookes University

Learning and teaching

We use a variety of teaching methods to provide a high quality learning experience. These include:

  • directed reading
  • narrated PowerPoints
  • eSeminars
  • video consultations with your supervisor. 

Assessment

Advanced Legal Research Methods (ALRM) module

You will be expected to engage with set reading and/or prepare certain aspects of the seminars, for example:

  • writing a preliminary case analysis
  • outlining an interesting research idea
  • preparing a 3 minute oral presentation.

Dissertation module

You will be required to engage with relevant primary and secondary materials using suitable research skills. You will receive feedback from your supervisor on your evolving research. This will be through supervision sessions and written comments on draft chapters.

You will have an academic supervisor who is a member of the Law School. We endeavour to match student research interests with supervisor expertise. So we ask you to give a brief initial indication of your research interest in the personal statement section of your application. You can meet/communicate with your supervisor either in Oxford or via email or Skype.

Study modules

Taught modules

Compulsory modules

Advanced Legal Research Methods

You’ll hone the research and writing skills needed to carry out legal research at an advanced level. These include research design, searching for relevant sources and materials, legal referencing and citation skills. You’ll think about the process of writing, as well as the end product, including presenting findings to different audiences. You’ll consider the distinctive features of legal research and approaches and research methodologies you might use. The work you do in this module gives you excellent preparation for your dissertation.

Final project

Compulsory modules

Dissertation

Your dissertation of up to 12,000 words is an extended, supervised piece of work on a particular area of legal practice set out in the research project, which you’ll agree on in consultation with your tutors. It’s your opportunity to gain knowledge and insight through sustained research, and to demonstrate your ability to explore and present legal arguments.

Please note: As our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, the modules you can choose from may vary from those shown here. The structure of the course may also mean some modules are not available to you.

Research

Staff from the School of Law carry out advanced research at the international level across a range of topics relevant to legal practice both in the UK and internationally. This includes:

  • commissioned work for state bodies
  • publications in leading journals in law and cognate disciplines
  • scholarly monographs.

We have particular strengths in the law of the small jurisdictions with a common law inheritance, through the Small Jurisdictions Service, and in international law. 

Recent student topics have included:

  • The regulation of banking in the UK – to split or not to split?
  • How can Europe achieve a unified system for the protection of patents?
  • Does the established nature of the Church of England provide a model for other faith based jurisdictions?
  • How compatible are the powers in the Digital Economy Act 2010 relating to disconnection of internet access for repeat copyright infringers with European Union Law and human rights law?
Female Legal Practice, LLM researcher reading a book in accommodation at Oxford Brookes University

Careers

This course allows you to develop specific expertise within your legal field. A recent graduate, who works in employment law, has pursued a specialism in religious discrimination. Another has covered the increase in remote trials during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the implications this has on the right to a fair trial. 

You’ll be confident in overcoming complicated legal challenges with new and interesting ideas. Your research skills and your ability to understand complex policies will be useful in many professions. 

Our academic staff will help you explore your career options, and they’ll support you in taking the next steps. 

Entry requirements

International qualifications and equivalences

How to apply

Application process


Apply now

Tuition fees

Please see the fees note
Home (UK) distance learning
£3,600
International distance learning
£5,200
Home (UK) distance learning
£3,800
International distance learning
£5,450

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Tuition fees

2023 / 24
Home (UK) distance learning
£3,600
International distance learning
£5,200
2024 / 25
Home (UK) distance learning
£3,800
International distance learning
£5,450

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

+44 (0)1865 483088

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Fees quoted are for the first year only. If you are studying a course that lasts longer than one year, your fees will increase each year.

The following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support. 

How and when to pay

Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.

  • For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
  • For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page

Additional costs

Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.

Funding your studies

Financial support and scholarships

Featured funding opportunities available for this course.

Postgraduate Master's Loan - England

All financial support and scholarships

View all funding opportunities for this course

Programme changes:
On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been published on the website. For more information, please visit our changes to programmes page.