Advice about postgraduate law - Law Conversion vs Masters degree

Hi there,

I'm an international undergraduate student from Australia who is interested in studying law. I'm about to finish my undergraduate degree where I'll double major in international relations and politics, and I also have a grounding in economics (if they allowed you to triple up, I'd have a minor). My Australian university is well regarded if that matters, somewhere between 60-100 in the world depending who you ask. And yes, I know they're poor indicators, but its hard to demonstrate otherwise haha. I'm investigating my opportunities to do a one year postgrad course at UEA specifically (where I did my time as an abroad student) but really anywhere that is reasonably well regarded.

However, I have the option of applying for either a Graduate Diploma in Law, or a full on Masters in Law, and I'm not sure which would be more beneficial. I have a basic grounding in Australian law having studied it at school, and would definitely ensure that I did as much work before I arrived to get myself up to speed as I could, but would doing an LLM with no legal undergrad be a waste? Would I not have the necessary background knowledge? Also, what would my career prospects be like? Would I be looking at applying for internships and apprenticeships if I was interested in working in the corporate world after I finished my degree?

Honestly, any and all advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

Reply 1

Cal-lum

From my knowledge the GDL would be far more beneficial than a masters.

Reply 2

squeakysquirrel

Original post by jamesedm

My boyfriend is a solicitor in one of the magic circle firms.

You can do the GDL and you can do the masters in Law. There are no jobs at the end of it - if you want to work here - I cannot speak for anywhere else. To be accepted onto the GDL - you just need a 2:1 or its equivalent Getting internships is difficult, getting training contract near impossible unless you have Mummy and Daddy contacts. Law schools here are churning out "lawyers" ten to the dozen with no hope of employment - harsh but true and I challenge anyone to contradict me.

Reply 3

kka25

Original post by jamesedm

The GDL it is for you if you want to be a lawyer. Did you find any Masters conversion courses for non-law graduates?

Why the UK OP if you don't mind me asking? I'm sure Australia has a cheaper alternative?

Reply 4

jamesedm

Original post by Cal-lum

From my knowledge the GDL would be far more beneficial than a masters.

Thanks for the advice mate, appreciate it!

Reply 5

jamesedm

Original post by squeakysquirrel

That was depressing, but I'd heard that too tbh. I think I'll have the grades, but it's a large financial commitment for me obviously as an international student, despite the fact I have UK citizenship, studying in a foreign country for the past three years means I don't qualify for local tuition.... I'm not sure, I may have a decent contact in a UK firm, I'll have a chat to him and see what he says about it, maybe I'll have to look at studying something else perhaps.

Reply 6

jamesedm

Original post by kka25

Yeah UEA offers Masters applications for non-law graduates, so I figure no harm in applying if its a better option than a GDL.

It's not actually cheaper surprisingly, a masters course in Australia would be 3 years, and there are only two universities which offer worthwhile courses in my state, tuition starts at $75,000 for one, and is over $120,000 for the other. I've also always wanted to go back to living in the UK in all honesty, and I figure a degree would help. Cheers for the advice!