Program Overview

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LLM Legal Practice (SQE1&2)

Overview

Our LLM Legal Practice (SQE1&2) course is designed for graduates who want to qualify as a solicitor using the new SQE route to practice and also gain a Master’s award. We focus on the knowledge and skills that you need to pass the SQE assessments and additional knowledge and skills that employers are seeking so that you can prepare for the realities of life in legal practice.

Key Facts

Entry Requirements

• An undergraduate degree at 2:2 or above in any discipline (or equivalent), as well as evidence of knowledge of the seven foundation subjects of law.

Locations

• Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Egham (Royal Holloway), Exeter, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, London Bloomsbury, London Moorgate, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford Brookes, Reading, Sheffield, Southampton, and Online.

Study Mode Options

• Full-time, Part-time Day, Part-time Evening, or Part-time Weekend.

Next Start Date

• June 2025.

Course Details

LLM Legal Practice (SQE1&2)

Our LLM Legal Practice (SQE1&2) course will offer you the best possible preparation to practise law. This course incorporates preparation for both SQE1 and SQE2, as well as additional content, called SQE Plus, considered highly desirable by law firms, including key practice areas (KPAs) and further additional modules in the business of law or research of a specialist practice area.

Why Choose Our LLM Legal Practice Course?

• Develop the knowledge and skills required for a career as a solicitor by studying three KPAs, along with additional modules in the Business of Law or a Research project.
• With one of the largest legal careers services in the UK, ULaw gives you the support and the Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) opportunities you need to make the best start in your legal career.
• Experience of working in legal practice. You’ll learn in the context of our virtual law firm, ULaw LLP. ULaw LLP replicates the working environment of a law firm and students perform real-world tasks on simulated cases, deals, and transactions, as if they were in the office.
• Confidence for the assessments, we will prepare you for all the SQE assessments, giving you the best preparation for success.
• Brand new resources, developed specifically for SQE by our expert lecturers. You’ll be provided with all course materials, including:
  • An extensive bank of practice SQE exam questions.
  • ULaw SQE – Our intelligent revision app provides practice tests and feedback. Students have found this app, together with the data it generates about their individual performance and likelihood of passing SQE1, to be extremely useful. The bank contains an extensive number of practice questions aligned with the SRA’s SQE1 assessment specification and each practice question, once answered, provides our students with detailed feedback as to why an answer is correct or not.
  • Brand new online study manuals.
• In-depth guidance and support from our experienced lecturers, who will monitor your progress and give feedback using predictive analytics, so you’ll know how you are performing and where to focus.
• Taught by qualified lawyers, with practical workshops to develop your legal knowledge and skills, so you’ll know what to expect in a real-life work environment.
• Flexible study – We understand that everyone’s circumstances are different. That’s why we offer a wide range of study modes (full-time, part-time, on campus, online) across our courses to provide you with the greatest choice and flexibility you need to succeed in your studies.
• We have a vast network in the legal industry and deliver training to 91 of the top 100 law firms, with exclusive relationships with 61 of the top UK law firms and many of the most prestigious US firms in the UK.
• Receive four weeks of guaranteed Qualifying Work Experience (QWE). Get hands-on legal work experience working with real clients in our Legal Advice Clinics. You’ll get to see how a case progresses in practice and how the skills that you will learn are relevant in a practical context.
• Our Employment Promise - get a job in nine months or your fees back, up to 50% as cashback and 50% as credit towards another course.
• 94% of postgraduate students were in employment or further study 15 months after graduating.

Course Structure

Required Pre-Course Study

We recommend students take a pre-study online diagnostic test to check their understanding of the key foundation law subjects. This quiz is called the Academic Law Knowledge Quiz and is made up of question sets which cover the seven academic law subjects assessed on SQE1 which students should have studied prior to joining this course.

Modules

This course is divided into three parts:

• SQE1 Preparation (60 credits)
  • Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK)1 (Business Law and Practice, Legal Services, Dispute Resolution, and ethics) (30 credits)
  • Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK)2 (Property Practice, Wills, Solicitors’ Accounts, Criminal Practice, and ethics) (30 credits)
• SQE2 Preparation (30 credits)
  • Interviewing
  • Advocacy
  • Case and Matter Analysis
  • Legal Research
  • Legal Writing
  • Legal Drafting
• SQE Plus (90 credits)
  • 3 Key Practice Areas (KPAs) (15 credits each) from one of two pathways: Corporate/Commercial or Commercial/Private Client
  • Preparation for Practice module (15 credits)
  • Either the Business of Law module (30 credits) or The Professional Practice Report Module (30 credits)

Course Start Dates

June 2025

• LLM Legal Practice (SQE 1 &2)
  • Part-time Day: London Bloomsbury
  • Part-time Evening: Manchester
  • Part-time Weekend: London Bloomsbury

September 2025

• LLM Legal Practice (SQE 1 &2)
  • Full-time: Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Egham (Royal Holloway), Exeter, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, London Bloomsbury, London Moorgate, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford Brookes, Reading, Sheffield, and Southampton

January 2026

• LLM Legal Practice (SQE 1 &2)
  • Full-time: Hull
  • Part-time Day: Birmingham, Bristol, Egham (Royal Holloway), Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, London Bloomsbury, London Moorgate, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Reading, Sheffield, and Southampton
  • Part-time Evening: London Bloomsbury and Manchester
  • Part-time Weekend: Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Exeter, Leeds, London Bloomsbury, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Sheffield

March 2026

• LLM Legal Practice (SQE 1 &2)
  • Full-time: Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Egham (Royal Holloway), Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, London Bloomsbury, London Moorgate, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Reading, Sheffield, and Southampton

June 2026

• LLM Legal Practice (SQE 1 &2)
  • Part-time Day: Birmingham, Bristol, Egham (Royal Holloway), Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, London Bloomsbury, London Moorgate, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Reading, Sheffield, and Southampton
  • Part-time Evening: London Bloomsbury and Manchester
  • Part-time Weekend: Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Exeter, Leeds, London Bloomsbury, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Sheffield

September 2026

• LLM Legal Practice (SQE 1 &2)
  • Full-time: Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Egham (Royal Holloway), Exeter, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, London Bloomsbury, London Moorgate, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford Brookes, Reading, Sheffield, and Southampton

January 2027

• LLM Legal Practice (SQE 1 &2)
  • Full-time: Hull
  • Part-time Day: Birmingham, Bristol, Egham (Royal Holloway), Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, London Bloomsbury, London Moorgate, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Reading, Sheffield, and Southampton
  • Part-time Evening: London Bloomsbury and Manchester
  • Part-time Weekend: Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Exeter, Leeds, London Bloomsbury, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Sheffield

Online

Study LLM Legal Practice (SQE1&2) Online starting June 2025, September 2025, January 2026, March 2026, June 2026, September 2026, or January 2027.

Qualifying Work Experience (QWE)

As part of the new SQE route to practice, you must complete two years of Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) which can be completed with up to four employers.

For all students on this course, we’re offering you the chance to complete four weeks of QWE within our Legal Advice Clinics.

Assessment

Functioning Legal Knowledge

• FLK1 Students will sit a Multiple Choice Question paper using Single Best Answer style questions (SBAQs) covering the topics in Functioning Legal Knowledge 1. The assessment will consist of 90 SBAQs and will be delivered online using the University’s Virtual Learning Platform Elite. The SBAQs will mimic the SRA’s SQE1 assessments in terms of syllabus coverage and timings to best prepare students for these external assessments.
• FLK2 Students will sit a Multiple Choice Question paper using Single Best Answer style questions (SBAQs) covering the topics in Functioning Legal Knowledge 2. The assessment will consist of 90 SBAQs and will be delivered online using the University’s Virtual Learning Platform Elite. The SBAQs will mimic the SRA’s SQE1 assessments in terms of syllabus coverage and timings to best prepare students for these external assessments.

Ethics

• Ethics will be assessed pervasively across FLK 1 and 2 including unflagged ethical questions.

SQE2

• Written skills: Students will receive one composite 48-hour takeaway coursework assessing the four skills of writing, drafting, legal research, and case and matter analysis. This will be marked on a competent
  ot yet competent basis.
• Oral skills: Advocacy: Students will watch media clips covering advocacy and be asked to complete a number of MCQs on that oral skill, under time restrictions. Interviewing: Students will watch media clips covering interviewing and be asked to complete a number of MCQs on that oral skill, under time restrictions.

SQE Plus

• For each KPA a 2,000-word technical black letter law coursework based on problem-solving questions.
• For the Preparation for Practice module a 3,000-word research report (plus a 500-word reflective statement) on the development of the well-rounded lawyer skills and the commercial/legal practice/client contexts relating to the practice of law. The report is based on a title selected by each student linked to a KPA that they are studying. Students will also be required to produce and submit a slide deck and complete an oral assessment based on their report and slide deck.
• For the Business of Law module, a 4,000-word coursework and a 500-word reflective statement on Business of Law 1 topics relating to professional effectiveness and law firms and their clients and a 2,000-word coursework on their Business of Law 2 option.
• For the Professional Practice Report a 7,500-word research report (plus a 500-word reflective statement). The report is based on a title selected by each student linked to a KPA that they are studying.

Fees and Applying

Applying

If you’d like to study full-time you can apply through CAB. For part-time study, you can apply directly with us.

Fees and Funding

• 2024/25 Course Fee (for courses starting on or after 1 July 2024)
  • London: £17,800
  • Outside London: £14,150
• 2025/26 Course Fee (for courses starting on or after 1 July 2025)
  • London: £18,500
  • Outside London: £14,700

Discounts

• We are offering a £500 Postgraduate Award to students studying at Newcastle University and a £1,000 Postgraduate Award to students studying at our Nottingham Campus. Dependant on start date. Terms and conditions apply.
• If you’re a ULaw alumnus, you may be eligible to receive our £500 General Alumni Discount and receive an additional £250 discount, as part of our Early Bird Alumni Offer.

International

We have students from over 120 different countries throughout our campuses, with a dedicated team to help international students.

If you are an international student and are coming to the UK to study, then you must apply to the Home Office for a visa. In most cases, you will need to obtain a Student Route visa. In order to apply for this visa, you must be sponsored by an education provider which is licensed by the UK Home Office.

The Home Office has also introduced a Graduate Work visa which allows Graduates to work flexibly, switch jobs, and develop their career in the UK for 2 years post-completion of a UK degree. The Graduate route is an unsponsored visa, meaning students will not need a job offer to apply for this visa.

Please note that the University does not currently provide visa sponsorship to students for part-time study. We also cannot sponsor students for online courses due to Home Office regulations.