LL.B (Hons)

When can you start this course? | UCAS code | Fees | Course length | Entry requirements

Why choose this course?

Do something extraordinary - the University of Derby Law degree

• A complete legal education - our new LL.B takes you from the classroom to the courtroom, covers everything from criminal law to corporate law and equips you for success in practice or in higher study.
• A commitment to justice - we have a passion for justice and are already the largest supporter of voluntary legal services in the region. We want you to share our passion and will give you the opportunity to actively working for justice in every area of the curriculum. By the end of the degree you will have changed people's lives and maybe even the law that you have been studying.
• Actual legal practice, not just academic role-play - we believe that you cannot understand law properly unless you see it and experience it in reality. Our law degree ensures you have the opportunity to get real-life practical experience at every stage of your academic career. 
• Award-winning teaching and inspiring education - underpinning all this is our commitment to inspiring, challenging and personal education which is reflected in our outstanding NSS results, phenomenal achievements of degree results and the outstanding employment achievements of our graduates, as well as a clutch of local and national awards for education and teaching excellence.
• You get full exemptions from the first stage of the Bar Standards Board and Solicitors Regulation Authority professional exams. The degree is also recognised by the Council of Legal Education (Northern Ireland).
• Find out what it's like to graduate from Derby. Follow Rachael and Frankii on their graduation day
  
  

About the course

Turning yourself into the model lawyer

Our LL.B ensures that throughout your programme of study you will progressively have the opportunity to:

• Experience and develop every aspect of legal services
• Appreciate and engage in every one of the core professional skills
• Get hands on experience of each of the fundamental areas of law
• Not just read about injustice, but do something about it. 

Understanding legal subjects in practice

At every stage of study, you will have the opportunity to get practical hands-on experience of real legal practice. In the "Foundation Legal Subjects" you will get the opportunity to engage with real-world practice that is embedded into your studies.

Stage one

In Contract you will be able not only draft contracts but also provide advice on consumer and employee rights in contracts and engage in dispute resolution.

In Tort you will be able to assist one of the most effective voluntary organisations in the country at defending the rights of people accused of nuisance, trespass and breaches of statutory duty.

In Administrative Law and Human Rights you will be able to engage with our statute law consultation team, reviewing and feeding back on the human rights, constitutional and administrative law implications of new legislation being proposed by the government.

Stage two

In Criminal Law you will be able to engage with the courtroom preparation of police officers and forensic scientists, as well acting as a friend at court for vulnerable victims of crime, developing your advocacy skills.

In Land Law you will be able to advise on tenancy contracts and leases and hold resolve disputes for those who struggle to get fair treatment by landlords.

In European Union Trade Law and its International Context you will be able to provide up to the minute advice for small businesses on the impact of the overwhelming weight of European Law and engage in real-time negotiation with participants across the world.

Final stage - and specialisation

In the core module, Equity and Succession, you will be able to draft wills to ensure that people without access to the legal advice they need to properly put their affairs in order can get the help they require.

Derby continues to provide a wealth of fascinating options for final year study. These are built upon the foundations of legal knowledge, but continue the ethos of applied justice. For example, in Comparative Law, you will not only get to understand the complexity of the legal universe, but contribute to our ambitious programme to provide a series of multilingual guides on the recognition of law, for example the recognition of foreign marriages, adoption and buying property abroad.

You can choose to study four specialist areas, one of which will be built into an Advanced Legal Study, by combining it with work placement, comparative method, interdisciplinary study, cross-disciplinary study or in-depth research. In effect, you will become a real specialist in the area, this is the ultimate in personalised curriculum.

A curriculum rooted in legal technical excellence

The degree follows and develops three core areas of legal understanding for lawyers, law-makers and legal academics:

• The delivery of personal legal services
• Case law and courtroom method
• Legislative and regulatory impact assessment
• Legal method, skills and practice.

Find out more about what subjects and modules you'll be studying...

Your career

You could enjoy a successful career at home or abroad in private practice, local government, the Crown Prosecution Service, government departments, the courts, law centres, the police service, banking, commerce, industry, publishing and education. Or you could choose to continue in education at a postgraduate level either at Derby or elsewhere.

Your route to becoming a solicitor

On completion of the LL.B (the academic stage), if you wish to become a solicitor you should complete the vocational stage of training - the Legal Practice Course (LPC). This can be studied full time over one year or part time over two years.

• Find out more about the LPC at Derby

Once you have completed the academic and vocational stages, the next step to qualification is to undertake practice-based training, known as a training contract. This part of the qualification process will enable you, under supervision, to apply the skills and knowledge you have acquired during the academic and vocational stages. Most trainees undertake this in private practice over a two year period.

Finally you must complete the Professional Skills Course (PSC). This is normally taken during the training contract and must be completed to qualify as a solicitor.

Once you have successfully completed your degree, Legal Practice Course, Professional Skills Course and practice-based training, you can apply to the Roll of Solicitors in England and Wales, which entitles you to practise as a solicitor.

• Find out more

Your route to becoming a barrister

After completing your LL.B, all intending barristers must take a one year full-time, or two years part-time, Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC).

After successful completion of the BPTC you may commence pupillage. This is a one-year period of in-service training, split between the first 'non-practising six', when you shadow an experienced barrister, and the second 'practising six', when you are entitled to supply legal services and exercise rights of audience under supervision (although in some specialist chambers, particularly Commercial or Chancery sets you will be unlikely to do any of your own work during this time).

In addition, the Bar Standards Board requires all pupils to satisfactorily complete an assessed advocacy training course and to attend a practice management course, both organised by the Inns or Circuits. Barristers must also undertake a forensic accountancy course either during pupillage or during the first three years in practice.

• Find out more

Other careers

An LL.B degree is a valuable qualification in itself and even if you don't want to become a practitioner you will find that it still provides a stepping-stone to many other careers.

• See what some of our graduates are doing now

What our students say

"How would I sum up law at Derby? Life-changing!

Not only did studying law at Derby change my life, while I was doing it, I was able to make a real difference to people's lives." 

FM, Barrister & Kalisher Scholar

• Read more student stories

How you'll learn

The support you receive from our award-winning team will enable you to complete your LL.B with confidence and professionalism.

Our Ethics and Skills programme ensures that you're supported by experienced practitioners, but at the same time are given a level of responsibility that allows you to feel proud of your own achievements.

You will have the opportunity to get hands on experience of all the core DRAIN lawyers skills in real life: drafting, research, advocacy, interviewing and negotiation.

How you're assessed

Modules are assessed by a variety of methods incorporating coursework, examinations, presentations, negotiations, mooting, and interactive online assessments.

Anything else?

A UK Law degree with international students at its heart

International students have always valued the English law degree because of its unique discipline and its insight into a unique and ancient approach to law. With changes in visa conditions, the highly valued opportunity for post-degree work experience has been removed for many students. The inclusion of hands-on experience in British legal practice in the LL.B degree goes some of the way to make up for this.

The LL.B is unashamedly focused in its foundation years on the English Legal system, but the second year embeds and understanding of European and international trade law and practice, leading to a final year that can be focused entirely on study with an international and comparative practice.

With a teaching team which encompasses knowledge of virtually all the major legal families of the world, Derby's unique Advanced Legal Studies module in the final year means that as an international student you can extend your taught understanding of specific legal areas like company law into a comparative perspective, so that you can analyse areas of law as it applies in home or third country jurisdictions.

• Contact us to find out more about being an international student at Derby

A personalised approach to supporting your development and career

From the two week intensive induction at the start of the LL.B, which builds the teams within which you will work and sets the foundations for study, through to your final year, you will be supported by a personal tutor who will guide your studies and support your personal development through regular meetings.

Your employment and career planning will start early and specialist tutors with a knowledge of areas of employment, ranging from working in solicitors offices to working for the UN will guide you in actively building a cv to get the job you want.

You will have a mentor from private practice to help you develop networks that others are born into, and interpersonal skills that are essential to succeed in getting the job that you want.

The best environment for legal study

We believe a truly brilliant law degree needs the following ingredients and we have set out to make sure you have them:

• Fantastic teachers - each member of the teaching team, regardless of their practical expertise or research specialism, is on the team because they are passionate about their subject and can inspire you to learn and achieve. You won't ever be taught by anyone who has not been chosen and who's not proven their teaching skills, and your work will be marked by the people who set it and who taught you the curriculum.
• Access to tutors - you can talk to your tutors, meet your tutors and understand them. You will also get personal support from academic staff, allowing you develop your legal knowledge on a one-to-one basis throughout the first year on a fortnightly basis.
• World class facilities - Derby does not have a legacy of impractical historic buildings, but instead has purpose-built courtrooms, interviewing rooms, legal practice space, a crime house and all of the latest learning technology. Few other institutions have invested and realised an equivalent estate for teaching undergraduate law in this country.
• All the books and resources you need - in a recent survey of University Law libraries, Derby was reported as having the highest spend per undergraduate law student. When you see the legal collections, you will understand why. These are housed in modern, flexible working environments. Electronic resources and free textbooks for all core areas of study mean that you can do your basic prep in the comfort of your own home, at work or on the beach!
• Carefully selected practical placements - each of our practical placements are designed to challenge and inspire you, but are housed within organisations which share our vision of legal education and justice. Many of the practitioners you will work alongside studied at Derby, so will understand your academic life as well as the placement aspect.
• Opportunities to complete your legal education - we are committed to our students and provide excellent and challenging postgraduate opportunities in our LLM suite, incorporating our unique approach to legal education.
  
  We also are in partnership with the country's leading provider of professional education to lawyers (CLT) and what we consider to be the best LPC provider (UWE) to offer an affordable and practical LPC with a price guarantee and preferred entry for our graduates.

We are also the only University in the region to provide the ILEX Graduate Diploma which allows you to convert your law degree over the summer into real earning potential as ILEX members now have better charge out rates than trainees/paralegals, and have the potential to be law firm partners and advocates without needing to go to the Bar or become a solicitor. At a fraction of the cost of an LPC (even ours!) it is a perfect step up into a legal career, so you can earn while you learn if you are continuing onto the LPC or an LLM.

Value for money

The LL.B is delivered at what it costs to deliver and does not carry the cost of unfunded research, subsidise other less viable courses, pay for old buildings and additional support staff that go with them.

You get what you pay for - excellent education and you only pay for what you get - what we believe is the best.

Quality

Not all law degrees are equal. Derby's exceptional quality of teaching and student experience is highlighted by external examiner reports which look annually at the actual quality of teaching. The Guardian League table provides a solid and objective perspective on our relative merits, showing us to be one of the best new Universities around.

How many students we take

In order to ensure the best facilities, a personal service, the highest quality experience and a human scale, we limit numbers on the LL.B to around 100.

Because of demand, we have decided that it would be fairest to choose students not only on their UCAS points, but by meeting you and seeing what you can do. Our experience tells us that the students we want - those with a talent for law and a passion for justice - are not to be measured only by A-Level grades.

As a guide, we look for 320 UCAS points for entry, but we will also want to interview you and set you a little practical challenge so you can get a taste of hands-on legal education. It will also help you to get to know us.

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