Dear All

I am completely new to this message board so bear with me if I make mistakes.

So, I am marrying a Canadian citizen in July 2010 and moving to Canada this year. I have a 2.1 from King's College in England (which is a University of London institution) and a Distinction for my LPC (Legal Practice Course) from Nottingham Trent University. I have applied to the NCA to have my qualifications assessed and they will reply back in March 2010 with their assesment.

I am so confused about whether I should:

(a) Fulfil the NCA's accreditation requirements and article OR

(b) Complete a LLM and then do a doctoral programme.

Personally, I like option (b) because my personal circumstances might change in the future i.e. having children and I think it would suit me to complete the LLM and do a doctoral programme. I think a thesis-based programme would suit me perfectly.

I can really see the NCA advising me to do 2 years worth of challenge exams and then pass those to qualify for articling. I really don't know if it will all be worth it in the end. Especially if I were to fail an exam!

Some advice would really be appreciated. Particulary, people's experiences of passing the challenge exams AND how easily they were able to secure articling positions.