Hi,
I have 6 yrs working experience in compliance including Anti-Money Laundering and internal audit in global insurance company & bank and am searching for some courses in UK
to deepen my knowleges and to make myself more specialised in banking and financial law/
finance services regulation. (no lawyer)

However, as I did not have law degree(BA in Journalism)
so I think it will be better to take Graduate Diploma in Law first. Of course it will be the best to apply for LLM but I'm not too sure that I can an offer from LLM course as I did not specialise in law.

Anyway, I would like to get some additional info regarding reputation and just wonder whether my spec is eligible to get an offer. Would you give me some comments? your idea? on followings?

1. Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London - LLM in International Corporate Governance, Financial Regulation and Economic Law(ICGFR)
- Heard that this is newly established course whose first intake is Sep 2008.
- Seems good choice for me, my spec and my post-LLM career.
- What do you think of IALS, SAS of Univ of London generally? Good reputation among students and professionals as well?

2. The College of Law - Graduate Diploma in Law
- Do you think this is a good choice for the applicant who do not have law degree?
- Wonder this is equally treated with LLB if successfully completed it
- Regarding LLM in legal pratice, is this more suitable for lawyer wannabe?

3. QMUL - LLM in Banking and Finance Law
KCL - LLM in Regulation of Financial Services Law
- I am still interested in those courses but not too sure of successful offer without thorough law background even though these schools stated that non-law graduates may be considered on the basis of exceptional professional experience that directly relates to specialist LLM taught courses.
But, assume that my career doesn't meet the meaning of "exceptional professional experience".
How do you think about it?

Thanks a lot!

The GDL is typically aimed at those who want to go in to the legal profession (in England and Wales). It crams all the core legal subjects into one year and leaves no room for other options. Although it would give you the overview of the English legal system, I am not sure whether all the subjects would be relevant to you. There are also other providers beyond the College of Law.
As regards 'exceptional professional experience' I suspect it depends on what you did during your six years. If you were working effectively in secretarial work, probably not. If you were dealing with the subject matter, then I would have thought that a law school would accept that. You can in any event try!

IALS has a first rate reputation as a research institute. This is the first year of the LLM so hard to say, but I would think that it would be okay.

While I do agree that IALS may be a first rate research Institute, since LLM per say is seen more as an academic degree (so finding a job after LLM in these days of recession would anyway be even more tough) I had a few queries:

1. Does it figure in any of the rankings?

2. Is IALS well-known Internationally? International students when they finish their LLM from IALS and go back to their own
country(s) and start looking for a job....How easy it would be to market a LLM from IALS since it may not be as well-known abroad as say LSE, Cambridge, Oxford etc.

3. IALS as the name suggests is an 'Institute' and not a 'College' so IALS being an Institute...would that be a plus or a drawback when it comes to the job market?

4. It sometimes takes years after the start of any programme to fine tune the programme and to chisel its rough edges so if this is the 1st year the Institute is offering this programme, is there any surety as far as quality is concerned (of this programme) i.e. would the Institute be able to deliver on the quality front? (B) What is the ratio of permanent to temporary faculty teaching this programme. (C) This being the first year, is all the necessary infrastructure in place in preparation of/for the programme?(D) Moreover, this being the first year, there will be no students (who have passed out of this programme in the past) who can share their experiences/views on this programme.