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Master of Laws Solicitors' Practice
Why choose Herts?
- Work-Related Learning: Real-life scenarios inform your teaching and you can gain client-facing qualifying work experience in our award-winning pro-bono Law Clinic.
- Teaching Excellence: You will be taught by experts, including practising barristers and solicitors who will train you to work on authentic, client-based scenarios at our Law Court Building, inclusive of a full-scale replica Crown Court room.
- Exceptional student learning experience: 93% overall satisfaction score in Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (2023), and ranked 2nd for Law in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES, Advance HE, 2023).
Professional Accreditations
The programme is aligned with the SRA’s assessment specifications for the SQE assessments. The SRA does not accredit or regulate SQE preparation courses.
About the course
The route to qualifying as a solicitor is changing, with the introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE). Following a transitional period, the SQE will eventually replace the existing LPC route to qualification.
The University of Hertfordshire’s LLM Solicitors’ Practice is designed to help you prepare for the SQE assessments, as well as to excel in professional legal practice.
The University of Hertfordshire is well known for its great links with industry and the professions, its first-class teaching, high-quality facilities and dedicated staff. Naturally, this course is no different. Taught by experts, including practising solicitors and barristers, it will equip you with all the up-to-date, transferable, interpersonal and practical skills you will need for your career in the legal profession.
Our innovative teaching methods utilise experiential learning to prepare you for practice, including in our state-of-the-art courtroom where you will develop your advocacy skills. We utilise a combination of blended learning techniques and assessment styles to mirror the different assessment styles of the SQE 1 and SQE 2 assessments, as well as helping you develop the skills you will need in professional legal practice. We limit class sizes to ensure that you receive the best teaching and pastoral support. From our friendly small-group Functioning Legal Knowledge sessions, where you have opportunities to ask our experienced practitioner teaching staff all your questions, to our coaching-style skills development sessions in our Qualifying Work Experience and Reflection and the Law modules, enabling flexibility and focus on the needs of the individual students.
In many cases work undertaken in the Law Clinic may count towards QWE hours, as well as being recognised as part of your LLM award, depending on which stream of the Solicitors’ Practice Project you choose to undertake.
Programme delivery
The course is practice-focused, with live interactive workshops in which you will apply your growing legal knowledge to realistic client scenarios. You will receive consistent feedback from a teaching staff of experienced practitioners, many of whom continue to practise as solicitors themselves. Lectures, recorded by our staff to help you prepare for the live workshops, are online, giving you flexibility to study these where and when you want.
The course fees include access to OUP’s specialist SQE preparation resources, including online manuals and practice questions to help you perfect your assessment technique for the SQE 1 assessments. There is also a strong emphasis on reflection as well as receiving individualised feedback from your tutors and peers. This will help you develop the legal and other professional skills that make candidates so attractive to law firms and other potential employers.
Assessments
The programme has a variety of assessments including single best answer tests, oral assessments, written coursework and reflective journals. Wherever possible assessments have been designed to mirror tasks that you might undertake in professional legal practice, whilst closely reflecting the SRA’s SQE assessment strategy, in order to prepare candidates for the centralised SQE assessments.
Programme outcomes
Successful students will leave the programme with an internationally recognised Master of Laws and be ready to undertake both the SQE 1 and SQE 2 assessments towards qualification as a solicitor of England and Wales. Graduates may also choose to pursue a role as a paralegal or other employment in the legal sector or industry.
Why choose this course?
The LLM Solicitors’ Practice and other SQE preparation courses offered by the University of Hertfordshire will offer many wonderful benefits to you.
- Inclusive and flexible: Study the whole LLM programme or a postgraduate diploma to help you prepare for the SQE 1 or SQE 2 assessments – it’s up to you. Blended learning helps you study where and when suits you.
- Certificated: If you follow the LLMSP programme, leave us with a prestigious Master's qualification, as well as being SQE-ready. If you undertake a SQE preparation course, leave us with a Postgraduate Certificate or Diploma.
- Affordable: If you study the LLMSP programme, you may be eligible for financial support from Student Finance England, so you can focus entirely on your studies to maximise your potential. Find out more about a Postgraduate Master's Loan on the Government website.
- Employability embedded: Opportunities to gain legal work experience will boost your CV and employability skills, as well as potentially counting towards your QWE hours and, if you study the LLM programme, your Master’s qualification too!
- CV-enhancing activities: An extensive array of co-curricular activities including trial advocacy, family mediation, client interviewing, debating, commercial awareness and mooting.
- Strong industry links: Hertfordshire Law School has close links with the Law Clinic and the Careers and Employment Service, providing you with the skills and support you need to make the most of your time on the programme and succeed in your chosen career.
- Fantastic facilities: We are one of the few providers of legal education in the country with a full-scale multi-million-pound replica Crown Courtroom which is fully equipped with the latest technology to enable you to perform your Advocacy skills and prepare you for practice.
- Teaching excellence: You’ll be taught by experienced practitioners in the legal field including practising solicitors, barristers and former judges as well as expert academics, all of whom understand the context of the modules in practice.
- Exceptional student learning experience: 93% overall satisfaction score in Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (2023), and ranked 3rd for Law in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES, 2024).
What will I study?
Throughout the academic year (September-August) you will be taught functioning legal knowledge in the relevant practice areas of assessment for SQE1. You will study modules in the following areas of legal knowledge:
- Business Law and Practice
- Dispute Resolution
- Property Practice
- Criminal Law and Practice
- Wills and the Administration of Estates
- Public Law, Legal Services and the Legal System
Also from September-August, you will be given opportunities to develop the skills assessed in SQE2, namely:
- Oral skills (client interviewing and advocacy)
- Case and matter analysis with practical legal research
- Legal drafting
- Legal writing
These will be developed through practise with real life clients in our award-winning Law Clinic and through various pro-bono activities and initiatives currently run with our partners including assistance at court.
There is a strong emphasis on individual feedback from your tutors and peers, and on self-reflection, to help you develop lifelong skills in preparation for professional legal practice, as well as for the assessments.
You will also undertake supported independent study to complete a solicitors' practice project to showcase your knowledge, professional ethics and employability skills and enhance your CV. You can enhance your academic research skills whilst further deepening your understanding of a practice area of functioning legal knowledge of your choice. You will be given the opportunity to demonstrate your development by submitting a professional reflective portfolio/journal where you can map your achievements through the year, against the SRA's Statement of Solicitor Competence.
Further course information
| Course fact sheets | |
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| LLM Solicitors Practice Factsheet | Download |
| Programme specifications | |
|---|---|
| LLM Solicitors Practice | Download |
| Additional information | |
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Sandwich placement or study abroad year |
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Applications open to international and EU students |
Yes |