Hi,
I am applying for the postgraduate distance learning course at KCL relating to uk, eu and us copyright law.
Since i am a trainee lawyer in Portugal and still dont know much about the legal market in the UK, can anyone please enlighten me on how to become a barrister in the uk (being already a lawyer recognized be portugal and the rest of the european union)?
And what about job opportunities after the completion of the postgraduate/ masters? does king´s help us students with those matters, or its everyone for themselves?

Hello Gui,

Hi,
I am applying for the postgraduate distance learning course at KCL relating to uk, eu and us copyright law.
Since i am a trainee lawyer in Portugal and still dont know much about the legal market in the UK, can anyone please enlighten me on how to become a barrister in the uk (being already a lawyer recognized be portugal and the rest of the european union)?

And what about job opportunities after the completion of the postgraduate/ masters?

thanks for the information, and the sincerity.
So in your opinion what really makes the difference in terms of qualifications?

depends on what you intend to achieve ?

Going to be a lawyer in the UK is tough - because the competition on the market is tough. Due to the crisis at the moment many people from everywhere in Europe are abandoning their domestic jurisdictions to try their luck mainly in the UK - many (not all) fail. You must have outstanding qualities or very rare (and needed) abilities to convince an employer to hire you. I think that you should at least pursue a program where you are present in the market that you want to enter... so distance learning seems not to be a good option in my opinion. Moreover you should ask yourself if your knowledge of common law is sufficient to be able to work as a laywer in a common law jurisdiction.

My objective is to specialize myself in intellectual property. From what I have investigated it is becoming more important in the UK as well as overseas.
I am just trying to choose the right University.
My main objective is to come and work in the uk, of course if eventually i cant make it , I will use the knowledge i will learn in here ( portugal).

I think your guess with IP law getting stronger in the market is correct - it's also an interesting subject with some influences and recent changes in european legislation. Good choice !

I'd second that - IP is going to become even more relevant, and it is interesting. There are lots of good IP universities, particularly the London ones, KCL, QMUL, UCL (don't know about LSE).

I'd concentrate on getting your professional qualification first - no-one can take that away from you once you have it. You can always become a Registered European Lawyer in the UK, and that might work with the big firms (or big corporates looking for in-house lawyers).

There are paralegals and legal executives with LLMs etc., but there's quite a gap to a fully qualified English lawyer - getting a training contract is very tough, and certainly when I got mine, nearly all of us (who went to City firms) were straight from university without LLMs.

wow. thanks for the assurance.
Right now I am applying for UOL, king´s college and the University of Edinburgh.
In your opinion which one is the best?

p.s.- King´s college only offers a postgraduate /masters programme whereas the other offer an llm.

Do you mean UCL? (UOL would be the University of London, and there are a number of colleges such as KCL, QMUL, UCL.)

It would probably be UCL, KCL and Edinburgh, but there's very little between them (they're all very good and recognised). If you go hunting on this site, you can find the different league tables (Times, Guardian, Good University).

But ultimately, it depends if they have the courses you want, the logistics (although if it's distance learning, maybe less of an issue - I don't know). Remember there will be people in the world who will have and have not heard of many UK universities...

That´s what i thought.
I will be sending the application next month. The only thing left to know is if they will accept me. Given that I have more than the necessary requirements, I think it won´t be a problem.