LPC course content and assessment
What will you study?
You’ll follow three areas of integrated study – core practice areas, skills and additional areas -plus a choice of three vocational electives. The precise content of your course and your choice of electives will vary according to which of the LPC routes you are studying and whether you are studying the course full-time over 7 months or a year or part-time over 18 months or 2 years.
Stage 1
Core practice areas
These can be studied in either a corporate or commercial and private context, depending on the LPC route you wish to follow and your future career aspirations. The law, practice, procedure, tutors and structure of assessments are the same for both contexts, but the case studies worked on will be different.
Business law and practice
This covers:
- Partnership: formation and dissolution, terms of agreement and liability
- Companies: formation and internal management, funding and capital structures, shareholder rights, directors' duties
- Security and insolvency: types and features of security, receivership and administration, company voluntary arrangements, liquidation, directors' disqualification, personal bankruptcy
- Business relationships: employment issues, commercial contracts, trading relationships and competition issues
- Taxation: income tax, inheritance tax, capital gains tax, corporation tax, VAT
- Business Accounts: principles of double entry book-keeping, preparation of profit and loss accounts and balance sheets for sole traders, partnerships and companies, year end adjustments, reading and interpreting final accounts
Civil and criminal litigation
This covers:
Civil litigation & dispute resolution
The keys skills and procedure required to conduct High Court and County Court litigation under the Civil Procedure Rules, including:
- pre-action considerations
- commencement proceedings
- interim matters
- handling of evidence
- tactics
- trial enforcement costs and funding options
- jurisdiction
- non-litigation dispute resolution techniques
Criminal law and practice
Based largely on case studies, this topic covers the criminal process from arrest to the final disposal of the case, including:
- advising the suspect at the police station
- detention and the role of the custody officer
- advising on and applying for legal aid
- bail applications
- determining where the case is to be held
- assessing the prosecution and defence cases including the rules of evidence
- sentences available
- rules of professional conduct affecting criminal practice and advocacy
- impact of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 on criminal litigation
Property law and practice
This subject covers the law and practice of conveyancing and includes:
- drafting contracts and transfers
- appropriate searches and enquiries
- proposals for e-conveyancing
- standard conditions of sale and standard commercial property conditions
- special problems arising - e.g. new easements, covenants, new and existing mortgages
- introduction to commercial leases
- introduction to planning law
- introduction to the impact of VAT on property transactions
- introduction to the methods of financing property transactions
- roles of other professionals in the property industry
- introduction to lease drafting
- introduction to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 pt II
- conduct issues relevant to conveyancing
- residential transactions - Solicitors Regulation Authority protocol and documentation
Elective choices for our 18 month part-time LPC modes starting in 2012
If you are studying the 18 month part-time course at Birmingham, Bristol, Guildford, Manchester or London Bloomsbury, you will be offered a choice of studying either Business law or Property law and Litigation first. If you are studying at York, you will study Property Law and Litigation first. This will affect your elective choices (see Stage 2 section below).
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Skills
Advocacy
Advocacy primarily forms part of the civil litigation unit, in the context of interim applications. Advocacy exercises also form part of criminal law and practice.
Interviewing and advising
You'll receive training in the objectives of a solicitor/client interview and how to structure and manage the meeting. These skills are developed largely through role play and are integral to all elements of the course.
Practical legal research
This covers problem solving in a solicitor's practice, using electronic databases, primary sources and library skills to research issues and provide detailed, practical advice to a client.
Problem solving and IT
The skills of analysing facts, locating relevant law and applying it to solve client problems.
Writing and drafting
You'll cover the preparation of legal letters, reports, memoranda and the drafting of legal documents. This is reinforced across all parts of the course.
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Additional areas
Professional conduct and regulation
You'll be introduced to the general principles of professional conduct and client care early in the course. You'll develop your knowledge further in the context of the individual subjects. Similarly, the impact of financial services and money laundering regulation on solicitors and their practice is also introduced early in the course, and then developed further in the core practice areas and elective subjects.
Solicitors' accounts are taught as part of professional conduct and client care and with particular reference to property and conveyancing.
Taxation
The general principles behind the main taxes are covered early in the course. Taxation and tax planning are then covered in more dept under the relevant subjects.
Wills and administration of estates
In this part of the course, you will learn how to decide who gets the property of someone who has died, either with or without a will. You will cover the procedure for obtaining a Grant of Representation and the practical steps necessary to collect and manage the deceased’s assets until they can be distributed to the beneficiaries and the estate wound up.
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Stage 2
Vocational electives
You will study three vocational electives relevant to your choice of LPC route from the list below (NB firm-specific and LPC+ students – your firm will advise you which electives to take):
Corporate students at all centres except London Moorgate will be offered a choice of all 14 vocational electives. However, the eight subjects indicated below are the electives most suited to the corporate route. Corporate students should check with the centre at which they propose to study if they intend to choose the Advanced Criminal Practice, Housing Law and / or Immigration Law and Practice elective(s).
Elective choices for our 1 year full-time LPC starting in 2012
Subject to demand at each centre, you will be able to choose from the full list of electives available shown above depending on the route that you choose to study. If we are unable to offer your elective by face to face study, we will endeavour to offer the elective by supervised self-study mode.
Elective choices for our 2 year part-time LPC starting in 2012
The structure of your course is as follows:
Year 1: Sep-Feb
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Core Practice Areas: Business law and practice
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Year 1: Mar-Jun
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1 elective choice
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Year 2: Sep-Feb
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Core Practice Areas: Civil and criminal litigation and Property law and practice
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Year 2: Mar-Jun
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2 elective choices
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As you study Business law and practice in Year 1 you must study one elective in Year 1 from either Group 1 or 3 as listed in the table above. You must study two electives in Year 2 from Groups 1, 2 or 3 above. All electives are offered subject to student demand and timetabling constraints If we are unable to offer your elective by face to face study, we will endeavour to offer the elective by supervised self-study mode.
Elective choices for our 18 month part-time LPC starting in 2012
The structure of your course is as follows:
Phase 1
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Core Practice Areas: Either Business law and practice or Civil and criminal litigation and Property law and practice
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Phase 2
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3 elective choices
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Phase 3
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Core Practice Areas: Either Civil and criminal litigation and Property law and practice or Business law and practice
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If you are studying the 18 month part-time course at Birmingham, Bristol, Guildford, Manchester or London Bloomsbury, you will be offered a choice of studying either Business law or Property law and Litigation first. If you wish to participate in the Legal Aid Route you are advised to choose to do Property law and Litigation first.
If you are studying at York, you will study Property Law and Litigation first. This will affect your elective choices as you must study three electives in Phase 2 from either Group 2 or 3 as listed in the table above.
All electives at all centres are offered subject to student demand and timetabling constraints. If you want to study an elective from a different Group to those indicated in the elective subject table above, you must contact the centre where you plan to study to discuss whether this will be feasible.
In order to fast-track your part-time LPC into 18 months and to provide greater flexibility, at least one of your three electives must be studied by supervised self-study mode which will involve the online submission of individual and collaborative tasks with electronic feedback.
Elective choices for our Accelerated LPC - 7 month full-time January and July 2012 courses
The January and July 2012 courses take place at our London Moorgate centre.
We are only able to offer a limited choice of electives at each centre, as shown in the table below. Electives will only run on the 7 month course if there is sufficient demand.
For students choosing to study the Accelerated LPC - 7 month full-time LPC at Moorgate it will not be possible to choose any elective other than those appropriate for the Corporate route.
Elective choices for our Accelerated LPC - 7 month full-time September 2012 courses
The September 2012 courses take place at our Birmingham and York centres.
We are only able to offer a limited choice of electives at each centre, as shown in the table below. Electives will only run on the 7 month course if there is sufficient demand.
The electives available for York will be published soon.
Elective choices for our Accelerated LPC - 7 month full-time January 2013 courses
The January 2013 courses take place at our Bristol, Guildford, London Moorgate and Manchester centres.
We are only able to offer a limited choice of electives at each centre, as shown in the table below. Electives will only run on the 7 month course if there is sufficient demand.
The electives available for Bristol will be published soon.
Elective choices for our July and September 2013 courses will be shown approximately one year before the course commences.
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Assessment
You’ll be assessed on the core practice areas and vocational electives by examinations. The core practice area examination will also incorporate the skills of Writing & Drafting. Your oral skills will be assessed by a video performance and other written skills by coursework.
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Find out about learning methods on the LPC
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