Legal Practice Course - part-time by open learning
The Legal Practice Course (LPC) is offered In association with Leicester Institute of Legal Practice - a prestigious law school with a personal touch. This course is delivered by open learning which combines distance learning with regular face-to-face teaching sessions.
Key features:
- Highest possible rating 'Commendable practice' in five key areas of course delivery
- Flexible study within a structured framework
- Impressive new £35 million purpose-built Faculty of Business and Law
- Optimised for the part-time learner
- An enthusiastic and committed teaching team with strong practical experience
- Monthly face-to-face teaching sessions during term time
- Small teaching groups
- Essential skills training
- Instalment payment option
- £300 worth of text books provided
- Subscriptions to online services Westlaw and LexisLibrary
- Innovative use of course website as a learning resource
- Individual careers advice and guidance supporting a strong pastoral care ethos.
Introduction
The LPC is a practice-orientated course teaching practical knowledge and essential skills to people wishing to become solicitors. Leicester Institute of Legal Practice, part of the Faculty of Business and Law at De Montfort University, offers the Legal Practice Course (LPC) in partnership with ITC. The course is a two-year part time course delivered by open learning and comprising a mix of home study and face-to-face tuition. Upon completion of the course you will be awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice from De Montfort University.
Leicester Institute of Legal Practice recognises that your needs as an open learning student differ from those of full-time students. For almost twenty years this course has been offered in association with ITC, whose expertise in distance learning ensures that the administration and management of the course is optimised for the distance learner.
Each of the two years begins in September and ends in June the following year. The course is designed for those ambitious people who want to join the legal profession, but whose work or family commitments make full-time study difficult.
We hope that you will join us in 2012 to take advantage of the state-of-the art facilities at the impressive new Faculty of Business and Law. Click here for a virtual tour.
Our LPC has been given the top SRA rating 'Commendable practice' in the following areas:
- Teaching, learning and the curriculum
- Assessment
- Students and their support
- Leadership and management
- Quality assurance and enhancement
Course Content
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) prescribes the content of all LPCs, although individual institutions have flexibility in the electives they offer. The course includes the following elements:
Stage One
The Core Practice Areas
- Business Law and Practice
- Litigation (Civil and Criminal)
- Property Law and Practice
Skills
- Advocacy
- Drafting
- Interviewing and Advising
- Practical Legal Research
- Writing
Additional Areas
- Professional Conduct and Regulation
- Solicitors Accounts
- Taxation
- Wills and Administration of Estates
Stage Two
Vocational Electives
You will select three subjects form the following list::
- Child Law
- Commercial Law and Practice
- Commercial Litigation
- Commercial Property
- Employment Law
- Law and the Elderly Client
- Matrimonial Practice
- Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence
- Sport and Media Law
Our electives have been selected to give you a good choice of subjects within mainstream areas of practice. The three commercial electives are the obvious choice if you are interested in commercial work. If you want to work for individual clients within a 'high street' environment, then the wide choice of subjects will enable you to build up a good knowledge base with which to enter general practice.
Note: we cannot guarantee that all electives will run as they will only run if there is sufficient demand. No electives have been cancelled in recent years. It may not be possible to study certain combinations of electives due to timetabling constraints.
Course Dates
The course starts with a five-day foundation course in September, running from Wednesday to Sunday, and after this there are nine weekend teaching sessions during the first academic year running monthly during term time. The face-to-face sessions in the second year are held over eight study weekends. The programme is especially designed to enable you to carry on full-time work and other commitments while working through your LPC.
The dates for the 2012 - 2013 teaching sessions are shown below. The study sessions are compulsory.
- 12-16 September 2012
- 6-7 October 2012
- 3-4 November 2012
- 8-9 December 2012
- 12-13 January 2013
- 9-10 February 2013
- 16-17 March 2013
- 13-14 April 2013
- 18-19 May 2013
- 8-9 June 2013
The sessions are held at Leicester Institute of Legal Practice. The city is served by excellent rail and motorway networks: London is 75 minutes by train, and the M1 and M69 motorways are a 15 minute drive away. East Midlands airport is a taxi-ride from the city, and there is easy access from both Luton and Stansted airports.
Course Design
You will be provided with reading materials and preparatory work for you to undertake at home prior to the face-to-face sessions, and a plan for each subject will be provided as part of your course materials. Lectures will be available to listen to on-line.
The face-to-face teaching is conducted in small group sessions, usually of 12-16 students. You will work on realistic practical exercises, some of which you will have prepared beforehand; others will be given out during the sessions for you to work on in groups. Practice of skills is integrated into these sessions. The small group format allows for plenty of personalised feedback on your work from tutors. The sessions are all designed to help you to apply your knowledge and to propose legally accurate, practical legal advice.
Course Materials and Facilities
All the course materials are covered by the course fee. You will receive a set of printed materials for each subject including a subject textbook and teaching materials.
There is a dedicated password-protected course website giving access to law lectures, timetable information and pre-session exercises, so that you can gain access to these wherever you are, as well as additional practice exercises and access to online services Westlaw and LexisLibrary. You will also have your own university e-mail account to receive ongoing communication throughout the course and to enable you to contact tutors when you need help.
The facilities in the new purpose-built Faculty of Business and Law building include a well-stocked law library, a specialist LPC resource centre with computer facilities, a mock courtroom and postgraduate common room.
The Timetable
During the Foundation Course in September 2012 you will be introduced to the Skills and Additional Areas all as detailed above. Information technology training is also included to enable you to get the most out of the course features.
Two of the Additonal Areas - Solicitors Accounts and Wills and Administration of Estates - will be examined during the first academic year of the course. You will continue to study the Core Areas, Skills and remaining Additional Areas until these are examined which (save for Professional Conduct and Regulation) will be in November/December 2013. You will begin study of Stage Two - your elective subjects - in January 2013 and these will be examined (along with Professional Conduct and Accounts) in June 2014. You need to attend the University to sit your exams, and this attendance requirement is additional to face-to-face teaching dates listed above.
Entrance Requirements
You are eligible to apply to join the LPC if you have satisfied the Solicitors Regulatory Authority's (SRA's) academic stage of training, either through completing a qualifying law degree or Graduate Diploma in Law. If you are relying on a qualifying law degree you will need to have attained at least a 2:2 classification to join our LPC. Additionally, you can satisfy the SRA's requirements if you are a Graduate Member or Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives and have passed the ILEX Level 6 exams in the subjects required for the SRA within the specified time limits.
You must obtain a Certificate of Completion of the Academic Stage of Training from the SRA to confirm your eligibility for the course. Please contact the SRA (www.sra.org.uk) on info.services@sra.org.uk or 0870 6062555 to request your Certificate as soon as possible, as it can take some time for these to be processed, particularly in the summer months. If you do not yet have your Certificate please do not delay your application for a place, as we can process your application conditional upon receiving it in advance of enrolment day.
You will also need to join the SRA as a Student Member.
Course fees
The LPC at De Montfort Law School is very competitively priced at £7,995. This fee does not include the SRA's registration fee of £120. The fee includes all the course materials and access to all the facilities listed above. There is an additional postage fee of £150 per annum for overseas students. Please note these course fees may be subject to change.
Payment is spread over two years. A non-refundable deposit of £150 is payable when you accept an offer of a place on the course. The balance of £3,907.50 for the first year (including £60 Solicitors Regulation Authority registration fee which we remit to the SRA on your behalf) is payable two weeks before enrolment day in Year One. The second year payment of £4,057.50 (including £60 SRA registration fee) is due two weeks before enrolment day in Year Two.
Alternatively you may opt to pay by instalments:
- Two weeks before enrolment day in the first year £1,357.50
- By 12 December 2012 £1,300
- By 12 February 2013 £1,300
- By 12 June 2013 £1,307.50
- By 12 September 2013 £1,400
- By 12 December 2013 £1,400
These payments are in addition to the non-refundable deposit payable on acceptance of the course. There is a £50 administration fee for the instalment option in each year (already included in these figures).
To enrol on the LPC you have first to join the SRA as a Student Member, and pay the Student Membership fee which is an additional cost. The Student Membership fee is different to the SRA's Registration fee. The former is paid by you to the SRA direct, whilst the latter is collected by us and paid to the SRA.
Entering the legal profession
We know that securing a training contract is a key goal for LPC students. The careers service at Leicester Institute of Legal Practice will support and guide you in your search, to maximise your chances of success. Pro bono opportunities are also offered so that you can gain experience of 'real life' cases to enhance your applications. More details of our careers and pro bono schemes are available in the course prospectus.
ITC's role in the LPC
With more than 3,000 distance learning students of our own, we have unrivalled expertise in administering distance learning courses: we understand the hurdles and issues you are likely to face during your time on the LPC. As course administrators, we will do our best to support you with your home studies.
Other institutions run distance-learning courses, but none offer the unique partnership of an excellent and experienced university teaching team together with the administrative expertise acquired by ITC over the past twenty years.
ITC is responsible for most administrative matters on the LPC. In particular, ITC is responsible for marketing; enquiries from potential applicants; initial registration; collection of fees; distribution of materials and information throughout the year; distribution of assignments and assignment marks; and compilation and upkeep of student records.
Leicester Institute of egal Practice remains responsible for all academic matters, and in particular for admission decisions; teaching; supply of materials; marking of assignments and examinations; the granting of extensions for the late submission of assignments; and grading in examinations and the granting of awards.
Accommodation
A list of the four hotels which have been rated highest by existing students is provided at the bottom of this web page. The rates are for guidance only and you are recommended to ring the hotels and check the rates.
Application Procedure
We warmly welcome your application to join the open-learning LPC beginning in September 2011.
The procedure is very simple. But please note that places are filled on a first come-first served basis. Since the course can become over subscribed we recommend that you lodge your application, and accept any subsequent offer, as soon as possible.
You need to do the following:
1. You should now be contacting the SRA to confirm your eligibility to join the LPC.
2. Complete the De Montfort University application form - and return it to us here at ITC.
You can complete the form online now, or click the link below to download it. Alternatively you can submit an e-mail request for information to r.verlandersmith@ilex-tutorial.ac.uk or telephone Rosemary Verlander-Smith, Professional Courses Manager at ITC on 01234 844305.
3. You will see on the form that you are required to get two references. As these must accompany your application, we suggest you approach your referees now. The referee report form can be downloaded by clicking the link below.
4. Upon receipt of your application form we will forward it to the Admissions Tutor at De Montfort. We will then inform you of his decision.
5. If you are offered a place you will be sent an offer setting out the terms of the offer in detail. If you wish to accept the offer, you will sign a copy of the offer and its terms and conditions and send it back to ITC, together with a non-refundable deposit of £150. The deposit will count towards your course fee.
6. Approximately two weeks before joining the course you will be sent enrolment day details and an invoice for the first year's fees (less the deposit already paid). You will have to pay the fees before you can join the course.
7. If you have chosen the instalment option (by ticking the appropriate box in the offer letter) then approximately two weeks before joining the course you will be sent enrolment day details and also an invoice for the first instalment of the year one fees (less the deposit already paid). You will have to pay the first instalment before you can join the course.
NB: you will only be guaranteed a place if you are formally made an offer by ITC, which you accept and in respect of which you pay the £150 non-refundable deposit.
Download application: Application Form DMU.pdf
Download application: Referee form.pdf
PDF documents require Adobe Acrobat® Reader® - to download the viewer click here.
Accommodation recommended by previous students
The following list is provided for your reference but we have not inspected the premises so inclusion in the list does not imply any specific recommendation by ITC. Where a DMU rate is indicated you should be able to claim that rate by specifying that you are student at the University.
Holiday Inn
129 St Nicholas Circle
Leicester, LE1 5LX
Tel: 0116 253 1161
Fax: 0116 251 3169
www.holiday-inn.co.uk
Details: 4 Star, car parking £2 per day, convenient location
DMU Rates: Room only - weekend rate £45, otherwise single occupancy £80, double occupancy £90.
Student comment: "Booking via the Holiday Inn website is the cheapest option and if you register as a priority club member you earn points which add up to free nights."
The Scotia Hotel
10 Westcotes Drive,
Leicester, LE3 0QR
Tel: 0116 254 9200
Fax: 0116 254 9200
Email: scotiahotel@amserve.com
Details: 2 Diamonds
Room Rates: Single B&B - £27, Twin B&B - £45
Student comments: "Well run and clean"; "Clean and comfortable. The staff are very helpful and accommodating."
Spindle Lodge Hotel
2 West Walk,
Leicester, LE1 7NA
Tel: 0116 233 8801
Fax: 0116 233 8804
Email: ashworths@onetel.com
www.spindlelodge.com
Details: 3 Diamonds
6 parking spaces plus free parking nearby
Room Rates: Double/Twin B&B £67, Single B&B ensuite £49, Single B&B without ensuite £35
The Regency
360 London Road
Leicester LE2 2PL
Tel: 0116 270 9634
Email: info@the-regency-hotel.com
www.the-regency-hotel.com
Details: Private car park
Room rates: Single B&B ensuite from £40; Double B&B ensuite from £56
Alternatively visit www.goleicestershire.com for further information on accommodation in Leicester or call Leicester Tourist Information on 0116 299 8888.