How to best select my Year 2 law modules

Hello,

From anyone's experience, should i worry too much about my module choices for 2nd year law? I get 2 options (the 3rd is Tort) however I want to pursue a career as a barrister or solicitor and therefore want to select modules best-suited to those lines of work. Additionally, my goal is to eventually be able to work outside of the UK.

One that is explicitly recommended for aspiring barristers and solicitors is 'Evidence for the practitioner' which I am highly considering taking.

Other options include: 'Human rights law', 'Property issues in practice', 'Street law', 'Inquests', 'Jurisprudence', 'Law and literature', 'Gender, sexuality and law', 'Animal law', 'A legal lens: seeing the law differently', 'Law, film and popular culture' and 'Regulating innovation: law technology and governance'.

Reply 1

Crazy Jamie

I'm not convinced that there is any particular module that in and of itself will make it more likely that you get a training contract or pupillage. Certainly from the perspective of pupillage, the vast majority of sets don't ask for a breakdown of your modules for your degree at all, and those that do are unlikely to be swayed by your specific module choices. The Evidence module could be useful in that it could give you a bit of a head start when it comes to understanding practical litigation issues, which you'll obviously study in any event at postgraduate level and in practice. But I wouldn't pick it solely for that reason.

My advice with these sorts of questions is to pick modules that you are interested in and/or that you stand the best chance of getting a high mark in. Those two often overlap because you are largely more likely to do better in modules that interest you, but there are also times when certain modules will be known as 'soft' modules that are a bit easier than others. I wouldn't be hesitant at all about going for one of those. Ultimately when it comes to paper applications, the overwhelmingly most important thing is your degree classification. When it comes to being a barrister or solicitor, you learn the vast majority of the law and procedure that you need for those roles whilst doing those roles. Building that knowledge beforehand can be useful to a degree, but your main focus when it comes to choosing modules should be choosing modules where you stand the best chance of getting high grades, because there is nothing more important overall at undergraduate than the degree classification you come out with.

Reply 2

Stiffy Byng

From that list, I would suggest that you pick from Evidence, Property, Human Rights, Tech Regulation, and Jurisprudence. The others are fluff.

Reply 3

UoL Students

Official Rep

Original post

by rodham.stefani

Hello,
From anyone's experience, should i worry too much about my module choices for 2nd year law? I get 2 options (the 3rd is Tort) however I want to pursue a career as a barrister or solicitor and therefore want to select modules best-suited to those lines of work. Additionally, my goal is to eventually be able to work outside of the UK.
One that is explicitly recommended for aspiring barristers and solicitors is 'Evidence for the practitioner' which I am highly considering taking.
Other options include: 'Human rights law', 'Property issues in practice', 'Street law', 'Inquests', 'Jurisprudence', 'Law and literature', 'Gender, sexuality and law', 'Animal law', 'A legal lens: seeing the law differently', 'Law, film and popular culture' and 'Regulating innovation: law technology and governance'.

Hello,

When it comes to optional modules I would highly advise that you select modules which interest you and those in areas you potentially want to specialise in further down the line. If the options interest you, you are much more likely to enjoy them and engage in the studying which should mean you are much more likely to get a higher grade at the end.

There are no particular modules which will make you more likely to succeed in the legal profession, in order to boost your chances of getting a training contract or pupillage you need to go above and beyond outside of academia and this is where the extracurricular activities come into play. It is also worth mentioning that if you expand to areas outside of law, this can also be really advantageous for so many different reasons.

I hope this helps, if you have any further questions please do let me know.

Charlie
Law LLB Student