MA in Legal Practice Course
Get ahead of the rest. When you’re looking for your place in a law firm you compete with all other Legal Practice Course graduates. Competition is tough and times are hard. Now here’s a new programme from a top research-led university law school designed to set you apart from the crowd – the MA in Legal Practice at the University of Sheffield trains you to Masters standard, demonstrates your expertise in an area of law and practice, and gives you the vocational qualification you need in order to go on to qualify as a solicitor.
How does it work?
The Masters in Legal Practice leads on as a natural progression for our high achieving Legal Practice Course graduates.
Your first stage of academic training is over – you’ve gained either a qualifying law degree or have passed a graduate law conversion course. Now you’re looking for your vocational training by undertaking a Legal Practice Course. In joining Sheffield Law School’s LPC, you join a prestigious university department with, unusually, a thriving and longstanding expertise in the teaching of legal practice. This is England’s only Russell Group university to offer an LPC and as such, the course is well known and highly regarded by recruiting professionals. The Sheffield LPC is available on a full-time or part-time basis and offers flexibility to suit your needs, competitive fees and provides many elective subjects to tailor your requirements to large corporate law firms or to smaller regional practices.
The Sheffield LPC pass rate is very high and in addition, more than half our students achieve either Commendations or Distinctions. You are not required to commit to the Masters course at the beginning of the LPC. Instead, those who gain a Commendation or Distinction on the Sheffield Legal Practice Course are given the option of transferring to the Masters programme at the time they are informed of their LPC results.
In the Masters programme you spend a short time considering research methods and the skills you’ll need. Then, in consultation with your supervisor, you select an area of law and practice, develop a research plan and write up your dissertation.
How does it work for you?
Whether you already have a training contract or not at the time you join our LPC, the additional studies carried out during the Masters in Legal Practice will allow you to demonstrate to employers that you have the legal skills necessary to sustain in-depth research, marshal significant amounts of material, present your findings and express your views in a logical, coherent and persuasive manner. The Masters programme will also allow you to showcase your expertise in an area of law and practice that is of interest to you and to potential employers.
Throughout your time here you are taught by skilled university teachers many of whom are also legal professionals with many years’ experience in practice. The legal teaching and training you receive here is informed by new, cutting-edge academic research carried out by professors and lecturing staff within this top university law school. There’s just no substitute for that.
We offer you considerable flexibility, not only in relation to the subject area of your dissertation, but also in the structure of the programme. The elements that go to make up the additional credits to upgrade your LPC to a Masters degree can be completed on a full-time (6 months) or part-time (10 months) basis, irrespective of whether your LPC studies were full-time or part-time.