Hi guys. I'm an Australian barrister of 9 years standing. I have an upper 2:1 LLB from the University of New South Wales (considered by many to be one of Australia's best law schools) and an upper 2:1 BA(Hons) from the same university). I have also had a book published by LexisNexis Butterworths on insolvency law (which has been very well received by the profession). I am confident I could obtain a number of references from fellow barristers and also judges. I have been reading the Cambridge and Oxford websites for their BCL and LLM degree respectively and they seem to stress academic performance quite heavily. Do you think my post grad experience and writing would be taken into account? Or would i just be wasting my time without a first?

We would all like to have firsts, but I think we would all also like to have your post-education experience and accomplishments. I don't think you would be wasting your time at all with those two applications. Whether it will be enough is difficult to say, but, if your question is whether you stand a good chance, I would say, yes, you have a good application, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see you admitted by either program, especially if you get well-written references.

Many thanks P_Martini

I would have thought you stand a good chance. Based on my exerpeince, University name is important. I know a very good applicant who was rejected from Oxf for what, I can only suppose, was lack of intenrational reputation of the university he studied at (Bond). References are also likely to be important, but that said, the applicant I referred to had at least one reference for a judge and this did not help him.

Thanks Bells. that's very useful

I'd imagine you'd have a good shot, and I do actually know of an ex-City solicitor with a 2:1 from Bristol, who was admitted to the BCL. It may not, with all your experience, be the most useful way of using your year. If it is primarily with a view to satisfying visa requirements (as a British student, I'm only vaguely familiar with the changes), the Cam LLM timetable (no tutorials, earlier exams), is considered more amenable to applying to chambers.

Thanks banjo for that very useful anecdote

Hi mate

I am an Australian who will be attending Oxford this September to study for the BCL. I completed a JD from Melbourne University and as that course does not award honours, I was also unsure about whether I had the grades to get in. The advice I received at the time and the advice that I give you is to just apply and see what happens - you have nothing to lose. I applied and to my surprise I got accepted!

Also on another note, I did not apply to Cambridge but although you could get references from fellow barristers and judges, from memory Oxford only accepts written references from your university lecturers. This is so that they can, amongst other things, attest to your academic ability.

Thanks mate. Good luck in your course and congrats