Thanks israelrt for your reply....
The colleges that you have listed are they necessarily in the same order??

Tax Consultant, I think that from Israelt's post, Merton and Trinity are the most "prestigious"! I assume you are only able to choose two colleges?

Thanks israelrt for your reply....
The colleges that you have listed are they necessarily in the same order??

Tax Consultant, you may wish to look at the Norrington table, which applies albeit to undergraduate academic prestige

http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/facts_and_figures/undergraduate_degr_1.html#acollege_undergraduate_degree_classifications_200809_sorted_by_rank

If I may add to this post.

I think the opinions here have been pretty straight forward.

I do agree with the fact that LLM's in the UK are seen as useless. UK firms don't give a flying fig about LLM's unless they are from schools that they recognise as very good or with a worldwide reputation.

I can tell you that you should do the LLM if you want to have the extra qualification but firms won't really look at it as taking the edge over someone else.

I am going to start my LLM at SOAS and had offers from some of the schools you mentioned. I do believe that the University of London colleges take the edge over most of the schools in the country in terms of law departments and if you want to teach at some stage it will open doors to enrol in further research degrees.

The profession in the UK is very peculiar in terms of LLM's. The same cannot be said regarding the legal profession in the rest of Europe and in the United States which seem to value this degrees in a much higher scale.

If you want to move overseas at some stage you should def do it as it will open doors to other opportunities.

As for the TC, it won't help.

israelrt/ plethora.....would you guys know as to wat is the student intake in this program

Hi Tax Consultant,

The intake for the Msc. in Law & Finance is 30.

Also, as others have posted, I would recommend basing your college decision on personal factors like accommodation, food, facilities, etc. None of your academic experience will depend on anything that happens at the college level and, as I think you've already noticed, the faculty involved in putting together the Msc. are spread out across a number of colleges (although I guess there are 2 at Merton) and between the Faculty of Law and Said.

Best of luck,

Paddy

Thanks Paddy!!

Hi I got through UCl, KCL, Nottingham, Warwick, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle, Manchester, Exeter, Kent, Cardiff & Swansea for 2010-2011. I want to complete my LLM on Commercial law. Advices please.

Tirthankar Das
Final Year
WBNUJS
India

Coming from the United States, I can affirm that the UK view of the LLM is pretty much shared here. Except for limited circumstances, I would not recommend someone with a JD from a US law school get an LLM in order to make themselves more competitive for big firm jobs, etc. If you were not competitive enough after your JD to get a firm job, the LLM will not do anything to get it for you in most cases. The exceptions would be:

a) Specialized LLM programs in an area of the law you want to break into. If you really want to do competition law or maritime law or tax law or something, an LLM from a very good school in that specialization would help with getting a job with some (but by no means all) firms. But, fuzzier specializations like "commercial law" or "international business law" are not going to get you much of anything.

b) Foreign attorneys wanting to break into the New York legal market. A number of New York firms do hire foreign LLM students, but I think in many cases it's really in order to get foreign-qualified attorneys who can also practice in New York.

In other circumstances, an LLM from a US law school will do very little to get you a job, no matter where it is from.

Anyway, to get back on topic: if required to rank schools from here in the US, I would say:

1: Oxford/Cambridge (tie)
3: LSE/UCL/KCL (tie)
6: Edinburgh/other London schools (tie)

I'd say if your main motivation is to secure a TC, move away from a preoccupation with prestige and rankings, and look more at what an LLM can offer your prospective employer that makes you stand out compared to 100s of undergraduates who have prestigious LLBs.

It's pointless giving a ranking because you don't state your specialist interests eg. KCL will trump LSE for European law, QMUL will trump LSE for IP etc.

For a domestic UK student (this may not apply to you), recruiters are not so concerned about an LLM -- an LLM is essentially a superfluous element for a training contract application. An LLM from a top uni is pretty worthless unless it offers the employer something more than just an 'prestigious' embellishment to your CV (I'd say an exception is Oxbridge; particularly for the Bar). They already have 1000s of applicants with prestigious undergrad law degrees, and they'll send their lawyers to do part-time LLMs (and increasingly MBAs) if they want specialist knowledge.

I did my LLM in London (experiencing all the colleges), and employers were only interested in international students who offered language skills and/or specialised knowledge of their own domestic legal systems. Employers were not really interested in domestic LLM students.

I'd say go to Oxbridge or LSE, KCL, UCL or even QMUL, and don't consider anywhere else for an LLM (I wouldn't consider it a good investment.)

On an international basis, I'd say prestigious LLM can make a difference -- Oxbridge and London (KCL, LSE and UCL) are by far the most revered. For the US and Canada, LSE is highly regarded and well-known. In Europe and some parts of Asia, KCL seems to be the most highly regarded. Edinburgh also seems to be quite well-known in North America, but I never come across Asian or European lawyers talking about it (ultimately it depends where you want to work).

As someone who agrees with IPman's post - you need toask yourself what you plan to do next.

QMUL will be more attractive to a UK firm (no, actually, to an English firm, I suspect a Scots firm would prefer Edinburgh)

Edinburgh may or may not be more attractive to an Asian firm (if you're thinking about India you'd be best to ask someone in an Indian law firm what they think)

Given the number of threads I've seen recently from Indian law graduates seeking to get a UK LLM with an IP specialism, work for a few years in London and then return to India, I really feel the need to reiterate some of the posts I've seen on various other threads: the job market in London is really tough at the moment, both for domestic and international graduates. In IP in particular there are a lot of people chasing very few places - not only do I not think an LLM in IP will guarantee you a job, I think the job chances are extremely slim even with an LLM. IP is a popular area to qualify into for UK trainees who have been taken on by firms at an undergraduate level - many people who want to qualify into IP at the end of their two year training contracts are turned away.

Frankly, if I were a good Indian graduate with an IP bias, I would probably be trying to get myself a job with one of the Indian law firms that has a "best friends" relationship with one of the international firms (UK or NY based), and then try to get myself seconded to the London office. My second strategy would be to try and get myself a job with one of the international consultancies such as Accenture, or somewhere like Tata or HCL and get myself involved in some of the multinational deals they do / get seconded to London / work my way up from there. Or a pharma company with a captive outsourcing outfit in India. ... or write a brilliant article on the legal issues involved in a legal process outsourcing from the UK to India, and send it around the UK firms... at least I would if I was interested in technology /soft IP. Different scenario if you're a patent or trademark specialist.

Guys!! has anyone applied for the Msc in Law and Finance program at oxford???

If yes, have u recd any calls or anything...

@ tax consultant - Any news from MLF?

@ shabi - yup...recd a letter yesterday..sadly i didnt make it...wat about u?