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Is there anyone from UK who has gone to the US to study law?

Hello. I'm thinking of studying in the US for law instead of doing my degree in the UK but wanted advice from others who already have.

I know it may take longer to study in the US but I think I have a better chance of getting into a better American university than a UK one. :/

Reply 1

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Original post by Kitkat5

Are you looking to start your bachelors or postgraduate?

If the former then you need to know how drastically different the path of education is in the US.

In the UK we do the 3 year LLB then the one year LPC or BPTC to qualify as a solicitor or barrister following by a training position (one year to be a barrister and two for solicitor).

In the US they do a 4 year bachelors but that will be in pre-law probably for you where you'll do some law stuff but will have to do English, History, Sciences, Maths etc all over again. Then they do a 3 year JD (equivalent to the UK LLB) then the training position.

The degrees are NOT interchangeable. You cannot get an American JD and come back to the UK to practice without doing another year of university to study law for England & Wales called the GDL.

I recommend that you only go to the US if you're willing to commit to around 8 years of study before being fully qualified and being locked into working and practicing over there. Plus if you're doing A-Levels in the UK then you'll find lots of a pre-law bachelors in the US completely superfluous and a waste of time.