The Student Room Group
Discovering Higher and Degree Apprenticeships with UWE Bristol, get free advice >>
Discovering Higher and Degree Apprenticeships with UWE Bristol, get free advice >>
Discovering Higher and Degree Apprenticeships with UWE Bristol, get free advice >>

I want to become a law lecturer without an LLB; here are my options but advice needed

I have a Business and Management BSc degree, and will be doing an LLM to qualify me for a PhD to allow for an academic career in law. My initial choice was the Qualifying Law Degree (LLM) at Birkbeck College which is two years, but there are several one-year LLMs that I may be eligible for due to the multiple law modules I studied in my undergraduate.

What should my next step be? I don't have the money to do the full LLB and then an LLM, and I'm not considering the GDL as I don't want to practice. Do I need the qualifying law degree status with the LLM to undertake a PhD or will just a normal LLM, but without the LLB, be sufficient?
My first questions are why do you want to be a law lecturer, and what makes you think you'll be able to get a position doing it anyway?

You should check with the institutions/academics you want to do your PhD with what qualifications you need to start. I don't believe that having an LLB or an LLM is mandatory, but clearly doing research in law is going to be aided by having some reasonable legal knowledge to start with. As an example, I do have an LLB, and I'm currently doing a PhD, but I never did an LLM.

I think probably in my case I have a first, and I showed that I could do independent research, so they allowed me to do the PhD without having to do a masters first.

Even if you do get through that process, your major problem is actually getting law lecturing positions. My experience of this is that it is very competitive, you will be up against people with PhDs, educational experience and/or commercial experience. What you'll find is that there are a fair number of solicitors and barristers applying for such roles, so obviously difficult to compete with the kind of experience that they have.
I am slightly confused as to why you want to be a law lecturer but don't want to study law properly first?

Also, you will probably need the LLB or GDL in order to study for the (normal one year) LLM, but you don't need the LLM to do a PhD, as Typonaut says. You merely do an MPhil/PhD following your (first class, normally) law degree.

So rather than do the two-year QLD LLM > MPhil/PhD (5 years) why not do the GDL > MPhil/PhD (4 years) if your budget is tight. Also remember that Birkbeck wins more funding applications than nearly all of the UK universities, and has been giving away some great fully funded PhD studentships recently. So you would only need the cost of the GDL if you obtained a first on it. Although I would do the QLD LLM if I were you.

I have a law degree from Birkbeck, which I absolutely loved studying for. Perhaps you will too if you give it a try.

You'll enjoy Birkbeck's LLM (I have several friends who have read law like this), but if you want to have access to more options (and the chance of more academic writing, publication, experience of the law etc), I can recommend the LLB from there. I also notice that in the new QS Rankings, Birkbeck's school of law is ranked 14th in the UK, which is a bonus, I guess:

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2015/law-legal-studies#sorting=rank+region=+country=208+faculty=+stars=false+search=
Original post by typonaut
I'm currently doing a PhD, but I never did an LLM.

.


Typonaut, where are you researching for your PhD, may I ask?
Oxbridge offer Senior Status law degrees which are rigorously academic but done in the space of 2 years.
Original post by ABBK
I have a Business and Management BSc degree, and will be doing an LLM to qualify me for a PhD to allow for an academic career in law. My initial choice was the Qualifying Law Degree (LLM) at Birkbeck College which is two years, but there are several one-year LLMs that I may be eligible for due to the multiple law modules I studied in my undergraduate.

What should my next step be? I don't have the money to do the full LLB and then an LLM, and I'm not considering the GDL as I don't want to practice. Do I need the qualifying law degree status with the LLM to undertake a PhD or will just a normal LLM, but without the LLB, be sufficient?


You don't need an LL.B to lecture in Law. My friend is a professor at a Uni in the north of England. He did his undergrad in the states, 2 LL.M's and a Ph.D.

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you