Whilst I am still in the penultimate year of the LLB course, I thought this would be a good time to seek advice from those who have just gone through the process of applying and accepting LLM offers. I am on track for a good 2:1 and therefore consider Oxbridge out of the question.

My interest is in Intellectual Property law, and the options I am currently looking at are: UCL, Kings, LSE, Queens, University of Liege. The price difference at the UoLiege is considerable, however I want to attend the institution that would provide the highest quality of education.

With regards to reputation, UoLiege and Queens are not quite as well regarded as the other three, however the content of the course means that they deserve to be part of the discussion.

Any advice from applicants, on how they distinguished these universities for IP, would be very valuable. Professional ambition would be to practise in this field - and therefore career prospects are important.

Hello !

Well, to tell you the truth, I am not an applicant but an ex-student. I studied at the University of Liège and did not regret it.

Here, students have to work a lot to make their year (more than in many other LL.M., according to what I heard) what is - in my humble opinion - often the best way to acquire good skills and expertise in the art. (I am a big fan of the "No pain, no gain" doctrine).

Regarding career prospects, I've heard that the UoLiège now offer to its students to choose between the writing of a Final Thesis or a two-month traineeship. Sounds to me the best way to launch a professional carreer.

Good luck.

I cannot comment on Liege, but from a UK perspective, Edinburgh and QMUL are the well-known universities for IP.

Thanks for the advice.

From what I see on these boards, the Liege alumni seem very content wit the education they received. That is interesting to hear about the possibility of an internship. How would you rate the employment prospects after successful completion of the LLM?

The QMIPRI does look well regarded. The question I am really trying to get at is whether the expertise in this area, is sufficient to make up for the lack of prestige when compared to say UCL or Kings (for this area LSE doesn't seem very specialised)? At the end of the day prestige does not really matter to me, however employment prospects do.

I answered a similar post on this a couple of years ago after consulting a number of my IP co-workers and friends in London (city) firms. Their preference was for QMUL - it is very well regarded in practitioner circles.

Just checked your comment history, interesting discussion concerning TMT & IP: http://www.llm-guide.com/board/101657/1#post-102199

Thanks for the advice

Also, Legalalien, with your experience in IP & TMT, would you recommend a specialist masters? The debate concerning the value of an LLM seems more redundant when you look at a niche area such as IP, however do you think it gives a sufficient advantage to warrant the cost and time invested?

difficult one. If I had a traineeship lined up already, I'd definitely give the LLM a miss and perhaps try to do it part time a few years on. Will an IP LLM get you a training contract? For the big city firms, I suspect it won't make a vast amount of difference,as they don't tend to recruit trainees on a "seat-specific" basis, and as far as I can tell focus mainly on undergraduate grades. The position may be different for specialist / niche IP firms.....

Another alternative you could consider is the post grad IP Diploma from Oxford. Many of the big city firms fund their NQ IP lawyers to go on this - it's not cheap - but it is much less of an investment in terms of time. Ideally, obviously you want to get a traineeship where the firm would fund this...

http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/postgraduate/odip.php

Interesting. I had not heard of that course, if I manage to get a traineeship at a relevant firm I may try my luck.

It is tricky to find an entry route into the profession without a scientific background. I do wonder whether it would be better to look at a wider LLM.

There is some possibility of finding a trainee position with a niche IP firm, to focus on soft IP. For that position I would think that having a specialist LLM would give some benefit.

However, as you point out, one of my key concerns is that the bigger firms don't hire for "seat specific" positions and therefore the LLM would be redundant. As my university is a not regarded as being "bad" or "good" I do question chances with the larger firms - even with pretty good grades.

At the moment it seems like the choice is between a specialist LLM to increase prospects with a niche IP firm, or a broader LLM to improve prospects with larger firms (unless I get lucky and manage to get TC beforehand). Tricky decision.

I think you're spot on. Somewhere like Olswang, maybe? I see they're still recruiting trainees for Reading, but not London for a while- I reckon a couple of years in the M4 corridor would be a small price to pay for the right job.....

Appreciate the tip off. Yeah location doesn't concern me too much, as long as the field of work is something I want to do!

The question I am really trying to get at is whether the expertise in this area, is sufficient to make up for the lack of prestige when compared to say UCL or Kings (for this area LSE doesn't seem very specialised)? At the end of the day prestige does not really matter to me, however employment prospects do.

I did LLMs in Liège and at the QMUL.

I think both have advantages. QMUL is more prestigious and is located in London. However, I think that the LLM in Liège offers a better education. The courses are varied and cover all the relevant topics. I think also that succeeding is more difficult in Liège than in UK's universtities. Unfortunately, UK's universities are well-known and probably preferred by the employers.

If you do an LLM in order to get the best education, you should choose Liège. However, if you do an LLM just for the prestige and to live an experience abroad, UK's universities are probably a good solution.

Hi,

Quick Question:

Between KCL, QMUL, LSE, Edinburgh which are better for IP and Media Law...or should one forget all of these and apply to the US only or to another University in UK. Oxbridge are out-because for IP they are rated too high. Is this correct?

Thanks!