Legal Practice Course (Part-time), LPC

In the opinion of the profession and former students, Nottingham Law School has emerged as the outstanding performer in Legal Practice Course provision. This course is very highly regarded by both students and employers and is the best foundation for your career as a solicitor.

About the course
Nottingham Law School's highly regarded Legal Practice Course (LPC) has been designed in conjunction with a range of practices, from high street firms to City corporates and the publicly funded sector.

Undertaking the LPC over two years on a part-time basis has always been a good option for those students who choose to combine earning and learning. It means that you can minimise the amount of time spent away from home and the office and spread the financial burden over the two years. It may also be possible for you to complete part of your training contract whilst doing the part-time LPC. Transfers are also possible between the part time course and the Legal Practice Course (LPC) full-time.

Successful completion of the course enables you to proceed to a training contract and then be admitted as a solicitor. The job market is very competitive and whatever degree you come to Nottingham Law School with we can add value to enhance your CV and increase your employability in the following ways:

Why choose this course?

• Study around work and family commitments
• Pay fees in stages, over two years to ease financial strain
• You will receive face to face teaching and you will be allocated a personal tutor who will look after your pastoral care whilst studying the LPC
• A free iPad will be provided for each student (terms and conditions apply). Find out what your fee includes.
• The number of graduates obtaining a training contract or paralegal work is consistently high
• Our dedicated careers team will provide guidance and support to help you secure a training contract.
• You will benefit from a supportive atmosphere. We are big enough to have top-quality materials but small enough to know our students.
• Scholarships are available.
• We offer an award-winning pro bono programme, including a Legal Advice Clinic for the local community.
• Opportunity to undertake part of your training contract while studying.
• Students who take the whole of our LPC after successfully completing a GDL, with Nottingham Law School or another provider, can apply for the award of a Graduate LLB* which is received after your successful completion of the LPC, to recognise your achievement. (Students coming through the ILEX route may also be eligible).
• After completion of this course you can "top-up" your credit points and gain an LLM Legal Practice at no extra cost.

*Please note that those students who are exempt from some of the GDL subjects may not be eligible for a Graduate LLB.

Open days

We hold open days in autumn and spring each year for anyone considering studying on the Nottingham Law School LPC. These events provide the opportunity for you to find out more about the course, meet tutors and current students, take a campus tour, view our facilities and take part in a careers workshop providing advice on how to gain a training contract. Further details and to book your place.

SRA Membership
The SRA have issued updated guidance for LPC students and providers on meeting SRA enrolment deadlines.

Legal Practice Course students starting in September 2014 will shortly be able to register using the SRA's online enrolment system.

Student enrolment is the process by which potential LPC students:

• show they have satisfied the academic stage requirements and are therefore eligible and sufficiently qualified to continue to the vocational stage of training,
• show by passing the Suitability Test that they are of the appropriate character to continue to the next stage of training on the route to becoming a solicitor, and
• bring them within the regulatory regime of the SRA.

The SRA Training Regulations 2011 state that LPC applicants must have enrolled with the SRA before they begin the LPC. It is very important that students enrol well in advance of their anticipated LPC start date to allow time for their applications to be processed.

If you have any queries about this course please contact us:

Contact details

Telephone: +44(0)115 848 4460
Email

On the PT LPC you will study:

• Business Law and Practice
• Property
• Litigation
• Professional Conduct
• Solicitors’ Accounts
• Taxation
• Wills and Administration
• Writing, Drafting and Research
• Advocacy
• Interviewing
• Plus three other electives.

For 2014 entry the electives will have been reviewed and restructured, making use of innovative educational practices and the provision of iPads to students. This will allow cutting edge teaching practices and use of IT.

Pathways and choices

It may be that you know right from the start what sort of practice you are heading for; you might have a sponsoring firm that has made that clear for you. You might just be really certain what you want to do, or you might want to keep your options open as to what type of law you end up in. It may be that you can only decide when you've seen some really practical law in action.

Either way we have a pathway to suit you, and we deliver the differences in the way we tailor the skills tuition. You don't have to decide in advance – you can start the course and then make the decision. So you can select skills pathways which advance your core knowledge in a way that is suited to you.

Our flexible LPC pathway (the blue route on the chart) allows for a cross section of skills training which advances your knowledge in a variety of legal environments, and gives you a sound basis for the widest variety of practices.

View the structure of Nottingham Law School's new LPC: your choice, your LPC

Electives

Most students prefer to do both years of the part time LPC consecutively but you don't have to.

It is possible to:

• Stop for a while after Year One and rejoin the course in a following year (although SRA rules impose time limits on how long you can wait)
• undertake some of the course in full-time mode.

It is up to which way you choose; most students like to complete the LPC as soon as possible, but some like to undertake electives once they have a better idea of their intended practice area.

Further details about the elective options

Course skills

The course skills are advocacy, interviewing, research, and writing and drafting and these are often seen as providing the most demanding, and hopefully rewarding, elements of the course. We give particular attention to the written skills of research and writing and drafting; we take seriously the concerns of many firms about the capacity of trainees to handle this type of work in the early part of their training contracts.

At Nottingham Law School we use the skills to give you specialist teaching according to the pathway you have selected. So we integrate each skills exercise not only within the context of one of the LPC subject areas, but also to advance your knowledge within that pathway appropriately. Theoretical material is kept to a minimum, and the emphasis is normally on practice and feedback to develop the skills you will need on entering the profession.

How do you study?

You will attend on a number of weekends (Friday – Sunday) approximately once in a month between September and June and on one five-day (Monday – Friday) period in each year.

Please note that in order to provide students with increased freedom of choice and greater flexibility with regard to attendance, Fridays will be dedicated, wherever possible, to the delivery of lectures. These lectures will be recorded and online viewing facilities made available to students. Students will therefore be able to choose between live viewing, online viewing or both.