http://www.llm-guide.com/board/7419 en Re: Re: Is it possible to practice law after only completing the LLM? - LLM GUIDE Discussion Board Fri, 26 Aug 2005 11:20:00 +0200 http://www.llm-guide.com/board/7419/last#7419 You significantly underestimate the commitment and investment lawyers make in their education if you think that one year of study is sufficient. LL.Ms are useful to non-lawyers and lawyers alike, generally considered as a good investment in your future career, if you choose a subject that is related to your work. You cannot practise law by successfully completing an LL.M in any part of the UK, Europe or else where in the world, as far as I know. This website, and many, many others are full of posts and aricles about the route to becoming a UK lawyer and no where will it say that a lone LL.M is enough to practise law. Check through these forums (and Google) for more detail on the route to legal practise. Try looking for "Law Society England" to get you started. Take practising law in Scotland as an example (it's not that different from the rest of the UK). If your ultimate aim is to practice commercial law in the shortest space of time, I'd suggest quitting any notion of an LL.M for the time being and looking for, at the very least, an accelerated LL.B. That will take you a couple of years to complete. Then you need to sit your Diploma in Legal Education, which is another year. Then you need to join a firm and get two years of experience, and then you become a solicitor and a junior one at that. I don't see the route to becoming a solicitor is easy, it's not particularly cheap, and it can take several years to get to a comfortable position. I'm not trying to dissuade you, and anyone reading this from doing an LL.M or becoming a lawyer, but you the decision to become a lawyer, or to sit an LL.M has to be made carefully and at the right time. Hope this helps a little.