Hi everyone! I'm hoping you can help ease the confusion I have at the moment!

I'm commencing the BVC in September. I want to follow this up with an LLM, as an opportunity to develop a greater understanding of an area/areas I particularly enjoy, so that I have some acquired relevant specialised knowledge when I seek further experience and/or pupillage at sets dealing with such areas.

Based on what I've done so far, I have a preference for work in IP, family law, and even employment law seems like something that appeals to me. I also enjoy European law.

My confusion:

1. I want to deal in an area that allows me to be flexible in terms of securing pupillage as well as where I work. For instance, I've seen lots of LLMs for IP, but all the IP work at the bar seems to be down in London, which restricts the places I can apply to. I am concerned that because I'd be doing something a bit more specialist, I'll be casting a much smaller net and it will be harder for me to find pupillage. If anyone has any advice, I'd be grateful.

2. If I decide against an IP LLM, where can I do a good LLM that will allow me to focus on Family and/or Employment law (or areas linked to these)? Any recommendations would be most welcome.

Many thanks to any ppl with pointers! It's all sssooo confusing at the moment.

Confusedwannabe x

The first point I would make is that this, in my opinion, appears to be an illogical approach. If you are going to do a skills based, vocational course, why would you then optionally postpone using it in favour of going back to academic study- something which will only cause you to lose some of the skills you have just paid a healthy wad to develop? I understand the point that if you cant get pupillage or a TC you could then do something else to add another string to your bow but from my experience the most logical and the most welcome approach (confirmed by TC applicants and recruiters) is to continue with academic study before stopping it to look at vocational study.

That said, I am not the ultimate word on this and only speak from MY experiences so to continue to your questions:

1. As you have highlighted, IP, along with most of the commercial sphere, is primarily a London based practice area and so the majority of pupillages will be in London. Nevertheless, it is possible to find the work in other cities. I haven't looked but I imagine Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Notts etc all have firms who offer the service but i'd suggest you would have to practice it alongside some other areas. Essentially, the positive from specialising would be that you were an 'expert' of sorts and thus you could go to interview demonstrating an interest and ability in their practice areas (presuming you performed well on the LLM)- something many other candidates could only claim. You would be casting your net over a smaller area but, hopefully, it would be a bigger, stronger net.

2. The UOL colleges provide you with some options in the area. Apart from that Nottingham seems to be the only other red brick, institutions like Kingston, Glamorgan and UEA forming the chasing group. Be aware though, UOL LLMs cost around £15k and the Nottingham version wil be around £10k (living fees included) so after a BVC at a similar price you might have had enough of forking out!

I hope this helps!

Thank you sssooo much! That's all really helpful. And you're right about the order of BVC etc... it's just I didn't know what to focus on if I did an LLM (see confusion above), so I thought the yr on the BVC might offer some more experience and clarity.

On the IP point, which areas go with IP? I am right in thinking they're commercially-based?

Not a problem. As to which areas go with IP, it depends what you define within 'IP'. If your thinking Copyright, Passing off, Trademarks and Patents then there is some potential for cross over into various areas of media and information technology law. Edinburgh offer the below course which is something of a extension from general IP courses and I am sure there are a number of other similar courses:

http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/finder/details.php?id=164

Apart from that I guess general commercial subjects would fit well as the litigation side of it would (I presume) all follow the same procedure and you would be able to settle into something of a routine. I think the best approach might be to scan the CVs of the baristers who practice in the area and look at the combinations they practice.

I agree that you should definitely choose you LLM based more on what you find interesting in the area. For the year of your LLM you should be focused on just that. The study and dissertation you do will guide you when you are looking for a job further down the line. As mentioned by S_Dimelow, the Edinburgh programme does have various paths from which to choose so that you might better tailor your chosen field of study and, as a result, your career.
http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/pg/taught/llmitandlaw.aspx
best of luck.