Any benefit to doing LLM

page1 · 17-06-2010 9:39am #1

I will be seeking a traineeship soon. I have a degree in Business and Legal studies from UCD. However its only a pass degree due to a lack of interest and dedication on my part in college many years ago. I have 7 years managerial business experience since then and have passed 6 of 8 FE1s, hoping to pass the last 2 at next sitting.

I am concerned my poor academic performance in college will be a blight on my CV and and thinking about doing an LLM now with the view to gaining a good mark to make up for it.
How much emphasis will firms put on your college results (graduated 8 years ago) and would doing the masters be of any benefit. In terms of time and money i can't really afford to do it but if it would give me an advantage i would.
Many thanks for any advice.

Arsenal1986 · 17-06-2010 10:27am

To be honest, and this is my only opinion - the fact that it was 8 years ago and you have alot of work experience since means I think it wouldnt be as neccesarily as big a problem as if you were just out of college.

Probably just best off putting down your degree on your CV without stating what mark yiou got in it. This is generally the way ppl display their academic record on their CV once theyve been working for a considerabble amount of time. Its only when you are straight out of college and have nothing else to trade on like experience etc that your degree mark is very important.

law_lady · 17-06-2010 10:34am

The thing is though, if you're going for the bigger firms with online applications (and maybe this doesn't interest you, but just in case), you do have to show your academic results in detail, right down to module titles and each individual grade.

Speaking from my experience of the interviews this year, your considerable work experience and the fact that (regardless of final performance) you did a law degree will stand to you. Play them up in the application forms/your CV.

However, I will say that I had a very similar degree to yours, except that I got a low 2:1, and I did not get a single interview last year. This year I did an LLM and I got 5 interviews. It definitely made the difference for me so I would say it does help, in certain cases.

What I would advise you to do (if you are ok with potentially waiting a year or two more to start) is to apply away this year for traineeships. If you find that you don't have luck this year, then the LLM would be something to seriously consider. Best of luck.

Arsenal1986 · 17-06-2010 11:12am

law_lady wrote: »

The thing is though, if you're going for the bigger firms with online applications (and maybe this doesn't interest you, but just in case), you do have to show your academic results in detail, right down to module titles and each individual grade.

Speaking from my experience of the interviews this year, your considerable work experience and the fact that (regardless of final performance) you did a law degree will stand to you. Play them up in the application forms/your CV.

However, I will say that I had a very similar degree to yours, except that I got a low 2:1, and I did not get a single interview last year. This year I did an LLM and I got 5 interviews. It definitely made the difference for me so I would say it does help, in certain cases.

What I would advise you to do (if you are ok with potentially waiting a year or two more to start) is to apply away this year for traineeships. If you find that you don't have luck this year, then the LLM would be something to seriously consider. Best of luck.

Would totaly agree with this if you were aiming for a big five firm.

page1 · 17-06-2010 11:46am

Thanks for the replies, yes would be aiming for big 5 and saw an the app form they were looking for modules and results hence the panic !!
I am hoping they will overlook the grades and i could concentrate on the experience in the interview but worried i wouldnt even get an interview with those grades.

I looked up the LLM in Griffith, do you know is it possible to do an LLM through distance learning - maybe lectures at weekends or something like that. Would you recommend a particular college?

Arsenal1986 · 17-06-2010 12:00pm

I imagine some will overlook the grades and some wont. Some of the firms (WF did last year anyway) have a section where if your results arnt great you can write down why you didnt do that well. If you did better in your law results and it was business that let you down, you could say your law results were of an honours standard. Maybe get a letter from the faculty in UCD indicating this.

Seeing as its BIg 5 you are applying for, then I would change my advice somewhat and I think maybe a Masters would be of big help as the other poster said.

As for LLMs, I realy would stay away from Griffith. With the utmost respect to anyone that went there, with an LLM what you are looking for, to an extent, is the brand name of the University. If you are looking for distance learning, best one would be this one -

http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/prospective_students/postgraduate/laws/index.shtml

LLM from UCL/Queen Mary. Two Universities with excellent reputations.

LutherBlissett · 17-06-2010 9:01pm

This may be opening a can of worms, however I'm going to ask; which college is the most highly regarded in Ireland in terms of the LLM they offer?

_JOE_ · 17-06-2010 10:15pm

LutherBlissett wrote: »

This may be opening a can of worms, however I'm going to ask; which college is the most highly regarded in Ireland in terms of the LLM they offer?

Depends on the kind of LLM you want to pursue?

LutherBlissett · 18-06-2010 12:38am

Had no particular track in mind - I was wondering in relation to the general LLM.

With regard to specialisations I have heard that UCD is the place to go for commercial law, while UCC is the place for criminal. I have heard that Galway is strong on human rights and welfare...haven't heard particularly impressive things about UL or TCD re special tracks.

Jev/N · 18-06-2010 1:08am

LutherBlissett wrote: »

Had no particular track in mind - I was wondering in relation to the general LLM.

With regard to specialisations I have heard that UCD is the place to go for commercial law, while UCC is the place for criminal. I have heard that Galway is strong on human rights and welfare...haven't heard particularly impressive things about UL or TCD re special tracks.

Think that's about right - I don't want to sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet (as I did TCD) but I heard that apparently, and this was before I did my TCD LLM, many of the big firms in prefer a TCD over UCD LLM. Doesn't mean it's in any way better, but if it's a result you want, that might be the one to choose. Again, it obviously depends on you subject choice.

I've gotta say, one thing that put me off UCD was the fact that the dissertation is unsupervised and almost too lax about things.

Arsenal1986 · 18-06-2010 9:50am

Jev/N wrote: »

Think that's about right - I don't want to sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet (as I did TCD) but I heard that apparently, and this was before I did my TCD LLM, many of the big firms in prefer a TCD over UCD LLM. Doesn't mean it's in any way better, but if it's a result you want, that might be the one to choose. Again, it obviously depends on you subject choice.

I've gotta say, one thing that put me off UCD was the fact that the dissertation is unsupervised and almost too lax about things.

I have heard broadly similar, Galway has a stellar reputation for Human rights and UCC's criminal masters is very well regarded. UL's masters are very new, many of them are in their second years so don't seem to have much of a reputation yet.

Any benefit to doing LLM

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