law society legal diplomas

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lawstudentjq

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Does anyone have any information on the legal diplomas the law society offers in regards being helpful in securing a traineeship. I'm currently sitting my FE1's and am aware of the demand/supply problem, do you think this would be a useful advantage on my CV or would it just be €2,000 down the drain,

thanks in advance.
 
Hi Lawstudent,

A LawSociety diploma would help, I'd imagine commercial conveyancing would be quite beneficial in the apprenticeship hunt. Unfortunately I think they only put that diploma on every second year. You will end up covering a lot of the contents of the course on PPC 1 & 2. Also i don't know your financial circumstances and you may ultimately need plenty of cash to pay for PPC1 which costs about €6,500. PPC2 ain't cheap either.

A number of students on the recent course got random Solicitors to sign their indentures then paid their own way through the course. They never saw their training Solicitor but the Law Society went all out to find them a training solicitor by the end of PPC1.

Stick with it.
 
That's v. interesting Artois, I can scarcely imagine the Law Soc going out of their way for anyone. I guess its a risky strategy too paying all that money and having no training solicitor,but the law soc will probably start contacting the solicitors on the indentures fromnow on rather than taking their signatures at face value.
 
You should consider the Diploma options that are offered in UCD, they are more expensive but IMO the courses are better and the qualification is more transferable across different sectors as you never know where your career in law will take you.



I would express extreme caution about getting your indentures signed by any random solicitor.
 
Thanks for the feedback. My financial situation isn't loaded but I can afford to pay my way pretty much. However I don't want to waste my money or time either.
I was looking into UCD but unfortunately they all start in September and my fe1's are running from september 24th til 0ct 5 and I'm taking them in Cork so that's not an option for me right now.

The diploma from the law soc I was most interest in was commerical litigation but that's for trainees only.

Next in order of choice that are available to me are
diploma in finance law
diploma in family law
diploma in employment

any thoughts? I'm just so confused at the moment with all the horror stories about FE1'ers and traineeships. I have a law degree from UCC but made a mess of of my modules and ended up with a 2:2, so am not sure if that rules me out of a lot of options. I passed my 1st 4 FE1's comfortably enough 1st time around and am taking my last 4 now.
 
If you are based in Cork , would you consider this

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Also, having completed a Diploma in UCD, you could miss the first two lectures if you are unavailable due to study. They are geared towards people with other full time commitments and the lecturers are very accomodating .
 
The diplomas are fairly practical in nature. I'm not sure if they would be of huge benefit prior to you doing the PPC course. I would agree that an LLM would be probably be regarded as a better option.

Have you any experience working in a solicitor's office - even court clerking - that tends to be given more attention than a diploma would.

Of the diplomas you have listed I would pick employment as it would be relevant to all practices large and small.
 
snb - I contacted UCD today and even though the application date has passed for the arbitration diploma they said I could apply. I've looked everywhere on the site but the fees aren't listed, could you give me an idea of what the fees were like, cheers?
 
Last year they were €3670 for the full year diploma, though if I remember correctly, the Arbitartion Diploma is split into two parts and therefore different fees may apply.

I have been told by a number of practising solicitors that the UCD Diplomas are held in higher regard than the Law Soc and are worth the extra money. Im sure you will find people that say otherwise though, its really up to you.
 
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