Studying law in UK

[Anonymous]

Would it make sense for an American to do a 3 year bachelor of law in the UK then go to a US law school? I’m thinking the main advantages might be (a) saving one year of college tuition and foregone income by doing a 3 year undergraduate degree and (b) an English law degree might make the candidate attractive if applying to international law firms.

I’m not a lawyer and am interested in hearing from lawyers whether this does or doesn’t make sense.

[Anonymous]

A US attorney can apply to sit the Solicitor's Qualifying Exam. Most international firms who hire US lawyers don't tend to have them pursue solicitor qualification anyway. I've personally never seen it.

[Anonymous]

I’m dual qualified, started in the UK and then took the bar exam here. The LLB doesn’t in itself qualify you to practice law in England. Kid would need a further year of law school and then 2 years of trainee-ship in a law firm. If the end goal is practising in the US and to do a JD in the US, I don’t see any real value to it, and it might be very boring and repetitive as they would end up doing 6 years of law. If the plan is to qualify in the UK as outlined above and then move to the US and take bar, skipping the JD, that is doable but kid will find it much harder to find a job in the US because most firms only want to hire JDs. I don’t think a UK law degree on its own is of much interest to international law firms. Even being dual qualified, as I am, is of limited interest! If kid really wants to study in the UK, I suggest something other than law as undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A US attorney can apply to sit the Solicitor's Qualifying Exam. Most international firms who hire US lawyers don't tend to have them pursue solicitor qualification anyway. I've personally never seen it.

I think this doesn’t really answer my questions but useful info. So you’re saying US lawyers can sit the exam to be a solicitor (but not barrister) just like foreign lawyers can sit the bar exam here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m dual qualified, started in the UK and then took the bar exam here. The LLB doesn’t in itself qualify you to practice law in England. Kid would need a further year of law school and then 2 years of trainee-ship in a law firm. If the end goal is practising in the US and to do a JD in the US, I don’t see any real value to it, and it might be very boring and repetitive as they would end up doing 6 years of law. If the plan is to qualify in the UK as outlined above and then move to the US and take bar, skipping the JD, that is doable but kid will find it much harder to find a job in the US because most firms only want to hire JDs. I don’t think a UK law degree on its own is of much interest to international law firms. Even being dual qualified, as I am, is of limited interest! If kid really wants to study in the UK, I suggest something other than law as undergrad.

Thanks. So the only real benefit is maybe saving one year of study costs and forgone income?

Is there any field of law (eg contract, international litigation) where qualifications from both countries is useful?

[Anonymous]

I don't think it makes much sense for the reasons the second response stated. I would only do it if you have a particular academic interest in law, or a particular desire to study in the UK (in which case you could study something other than law - the large majority of UK lawyers don't study law for undergrad).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m dual qualified, started in the UK and then took the bar exam here. The LLB doesn’t in itself qualify you to practice law in England. Kid would need a further year of law school and then 2 years of trainee-ship in a law firm. If the end goal is practising in the US and to do a JD in the US, I don’t see any real value to it, and it might be very boring and repetitive as they would end up doing 6 years of law. If the plan is to qualify in the UK as outlined above and then move to the US and take bar, skipping the JD, that is doable but kid will find it much harder to find a job in the US because most firms only want to hire JDs. I don’t think a UK law degree on its own is of much interest to international law firms. Even being dual qualified, as I am, is of limited interest! If kid really wants to study in the UK, I suggest something other than law as undergrad.

Thanks. So the only real benefit is maybe saving one year of study costs and forgone income?

Is there any field of law (eg contract, international litigation) where qualifications from both countries is useful?

Yes, there are many - but an undergrad law degree is not a professional qualification.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m dual qualified, started in the UK and then took the bar exam here. The LLB doesn’t in itself qualify you to practice law in England. Kid would need a further year of law school and then 2 years of trainee-ship in a law firm. If the end goal is practising in the US and to do a JD in the US, I don’t see any real value to it, and it might be very boring and repetitive as they would end up doing 6 years of law. If the plan is to qualify in the UK as outlined above and then move to the US and take bar, skipping the JD, that is doable but kid will find it much harder to find a job in the US because most firms only want to hire JDs. I don’t think a UK law degree on its own is of much interest to international law firms. Even being dual qualified, as I am, is of limited interest! If kid really wants to study in the UK, I suggest something other than law as undergrad.

Thanks. So the only real benefit is maybe saving one year of study costs and forgone income?

Is there any field of law (eg contract, international litigation) where qualifications from both countries is useful?

I’m the dual qualified PP. It has definitely helped me to be competitive for certain positions, and I think it’s useful in several areas of law - primarily international commercial like M&A, capital markets, international arbitration, privacy. But I would put it at the same level of usefulness as being fluent in a foreign language - it’s unlikely to be relevant in most jobs but there might be a few where that specific skill is very highly valued depending on the specific range of clients and work. Part of the reason it’s not as useful as you might think is that it is hard to build the expertise you need in each jurisdiction. It isn’t very valuable to be a newly qualified lawyer with no practical experience, and if you merely qualify in England and then never practice there, then you won’t really bring much to the table as an English lawyer.

[Anonymous]

DP: not a lawyer, but I don't see the advantage of studying law in the UK for US law school admissions. Might as well study politics, PPE, sociology, comparative literature, etc, for a UK BA and then apply to law school.

From my understanding, US law school admission is heavily based on LSAT scores and grades. Grades in UK universities are different (obv) and tend to be lower. I don't know how they would be interpreted by US law school admissions teams. You should see if you could find that out before considering this path (if your DC is dead set on US law school)

[Anonymous]

With all the grade inflation and higher LSAT scores with multiple test changes the last few years, it does not make sense to study in the UK for law unless you want to practice there.

US schools are heavily favoring US colleges for law school admissions. As others stated, UK grades are lower than US grades and no real advantage unless your kid wants to practice in the UK. Google where top law schools have students from which undergrads, and count how many foreign colleges you see on the list, probably fewer than 5.

[Anonymous]

Bad idea

[Anonymous]

My friend did this, but we are Canadian and I think the overlap in laws is a bit closer. She absolutely loved the experience, and got to tour Europe quite a bit too. She had no issues when she got back, I think she did 1 year of schooling when she returned. She’s a partner now so 🤷‍♀️ very different circumstances so not sure how that plays out in the USA.

[Anonymous]

Wow! You folks are clueless. Yes, go to school in England for 3 years of undergraduate and then take the bar in the United States immediately. You are a lawyer after 3 years rather than 7; several American states allow this. All they care is that you have a degree in law from a common law jurisdiction.

Then go get an LLM at a relatively prestigious American law school — an easy admit compared to any JD program since a lot of the programs are just cash cows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow! You folks are clueless. Yes, go to school in England for 3 years of undergraduate and then take the bar in the United States immediately. You are a lawyer after 3 years rather than 7; several American states allow this. All they care is that you have a degree in law from a common law jurisdiction.

Then go get an LLM at a relatively prestigious American law school — an easy admit compared to any JD program since a lot of the programs are just cash cows.

What states allow foreign lawyers to sit for the bar exam? I know many foreign lawyers who were never able to practice in the US because they would have had to get a law degree here in order to be able to sit for the bar exam. Maybe it’s gotten more flexible?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow! You folks are clueless. Yes, go to school in England for 3 years of undergraduate and then take the bar in the United States immediately. You are a lawyer after 3 years rather than 7; several American states allow this. All they care is that you have a degree in law from a common law jurisdiction.

Then go get an LLM at a relatively prestigious American law school — an easy admit compared to any JD program since a lot of the programs are just cash cows.

You are clueless. This path is available but if your goal is to be a lawyer in a good firm, or government, you won’t get in that way.