Legal Practice Course (LPC) 

Overview

Our Legal Practice Course (LPC) has been designed to ensure that you are fully prepared to meet the demands of the modern legal profession. The course is taught in the heart of the legal profession at our campus in Gray's Inn, Holborn. We help you to master the vital skills and knowledge you need to be a successful solicitor.

We also allow you to develop your interest in a particular specialist area of law by offering a range of vocational electives.

On successful completion of the course you will be awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice. As our LPC is taught at Masters level rather than at degree level, you can convert your final award into an LLM Professional in Legal Practice by writing an additional dissertation.

Why the City LPC?

  • Benefit from expert legal training -all our tutors have strong practice experience
  • Strengthen your knowledge by learning at Masters level rather than degree level Enhance your legal skills with expert face-to-face teaching four days a week and one-to-one support from the Training Contracts Advisory Service
  • Improve your legal skills by undertaking pro bono work with a partnership organisation
  • Gain an LLM in Professional Legal Practice simply by undertaking an additional dissertation


 

Course Fees:

  • Full-time EU: £12,500
  • Full-time Non EU: £12,500

How to Apply

Entry Requirements

This is a postgraduate course with basic entry requirements prescribed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA, formerly the Law Society). Most students will have a UK honours degree in law, normally Second Class or above.

However, students can hold a degree in another subject, with a further qualification in law such as the Graduate Diploma in Law or the Graduate Entry LLB in Law. The SRA can advise on non-standard qualifications. Before enrolling on the course, all students must meet SRA requirements for evidence of completion of the academic stage of legal training and become SRA student members.

How do we make our decision?

In reaching selection decisions we will take account of the following:

  • Your academic profile and achievement
  • The strength of personal reasons for wishing to take the course
  • Evidence of your motivation to become a solicitor (work experience, training contract applications)
       

Visa Requirements

The way that you apply may vary depending on the length of your course at City, there are different rules for:

  • Students on courses of more than 6 months
  • Students on courses of less than 6 months
  • Students on a pre-sessional English Language course

For more information see our main Visa page.

When and Where

Course Content

The Legal Practice Course is comprised of Stages One and Stage Two. Stage One gives you the key skills and knowledge you need to go on to be a trainee solicitor and Stage Two allows you to enhance your knowledge in three particular specialist areas of law.

Written and developed in consultation with practitioners in a number of core areas our LPC focuses on giving you the practical legal skills you really need.

Course Structure

Stage One

In each element of Stage One you will develop the relevant legal skills and knowledge required of all trainee solicitors/work based learners.

  • Professional Conduct and Regulation
    (including Solicitors' Accounts)
  • Taxation
  • Wills and Administration of Estates

Core Practice Areas:
  • Business Law and Practice
  • Civil and Criminal Litigation
  • Property Law and Practice

Skills subjects:
  • Advocacy
  • Interviewing and Advising
  • Legal Drafting
  • Legal Writing
  • Practical Legal Research

Stage Two

Stage Two is designed to give you the detailed knowledge and skills required in your chosen three vocational electives.

You can choose all three from one of our specialist clusters or you can mix and match between clusters.

Commercial Cluster
  • Advanced Civil Litigation
  • Commercial Dispute Resolution
  • Commercial Law and Practice
  • Equity Finance
  • Mergers, Acquisitions and Takeovers

Litigation Cluster
  • Advanced Civil Litigation
  • Commercial Dispute Resolution
  • Employment Law and Practice
  • Family Law and Practice

Hybrid Cluster:
  • Advanced Civil Litigation
  • Commercial Law and Practice
  • Employment Law and Practice
  • Private Client

The range of elective subjects offered in any one year is subject to availability and demand.

Teaching and Assessment

Teaching

The LPC marks the start of your professional legal career and so you are expected to attend and work as if you were in practice. Our course closely replicates the demands and disciplines of practice through realistic and engaging scenarios.

In addition to the core knowledge and legal subjects, we focus on professional behaviours and commercial awareness.The tasks you undertake are designed to provide you with transferable skills that can be applied in a variety of contexts.


Our Stage One and Stage Two timetables consist of:

  • Four days teaching each week (up to around 16 hours class contact time)
  • One day for preparation, professional development and research each week
  • 20 plus hours of private study and preparation work each week

You are taught in large group sessions, workshops with up to a maximum of 16 students and skills sessions with up to a maximum of eight students.

You will have the choice of being taught in either the morning or the afternoon, giving you the flexibility to shape your study around your personal commitments.

Our quality teaching staff bring a wide range of experience of practice to our course. They have direct and continuing experience in practice and have expert knowledge in a wide range of subjects.

On enrolment, you will receive a complete set of materials, manuals and standard practitioner texts for the stage you are studying. The training materials reflect the work you will do during the early years of practice and are made available to you both in hard copy and online.

Assessment   

The whole of both Stages One and Two is assessable and all assessments are open-book.

All assessments are based on realistic exercises that reproduce the demands of practice and reflect the work done on the course.

Advocacy and Interviewing and Advising have oral assessments that are performed live with actors playing the role of client and/or witness. Interviewing and Advising requires some follow-up written work, and Legal Drafting, Legal Writing and Practical Legal Research have written assessments that respectively require you to prepare a piece of drafting, write a letter of advice and produce a research report.

Feedback, including self-assessment and peer assessment, is central to the development of your legal skills, and your own professional (and even personal) development.


In order to make sure that our feedback is useful to you, we ensure that:

  • All of our staff are fully trained in giving effective feedback
  • The criteria for all skills modules are highlighted for students in the introductory stages
  • All skills-based small group sessions focus on one or more assessment criteria

Opportunities  

You are encouraged to participate in the Client Interviewing mediation and cross-course mooting competitions in order to build confidence and hone your professional skills. The course also benefits from a close relationship with our sister school, Cass Business School, which enables us to offer you exclusive lectures on business-related subjects and commercial issues.

Fees

  • Full-time EU: £12,500
  • Full-time Non EU: £12,500

Funding

For up-to-date information about tuition fees, living costs and financial support, visit Undergraduate Fees and Finance or Postgraduate Fees and Finance.

For further information and ideas about funding your course, visit Financing your study.

Find out more about City University London

Stages One and Two
Applicants wishing to complete BOTH Stage One and Stage Two of the Legal Practice Course with The City Law School need to make ONE application through the Central Applications Board www.lawcabs.ac.uk

You will not need to submit a separate application for Stage Two.

Stage One
All applicants wishing to complete Stage One ONLY at The City Law School need to make ONE application through the Central Applications Board www.lawcabs.ac.uk

Stage Two
All applications for Stage Two to take one or two or three electives at the School should be made directly to The City Law School and NOT the Central Applications Board.

To apply, please email lpc@city.ac.uk.
All applications open in early October

For further information visit: www.lawcabs.ac.uk