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1. They have a genuine, long term interest in the subject matter.

2. They have no idea what they want to do next in their career, it's a way of killing time.

3. They have poor previous academics and want to 'prove' themselves at a higher level.

4. They have secured employment in the distant future/have been deferred and want to continue to academically stretch themselves.

Candidates choosing to do an LLM believing that higher academic status will translate into training contract offers need to think wisely before starting the qualification.  Relevance is key and an LLM must be specific to the core practice areas of your preferred firms, otherwise, apart from challenging you academically for a year and using a large amount of your own cash you are unlikely to see any real gain from it in terms of actual offers, making it potentially worthless.

Let us take a case study. Doing an LLM in Family Law in the hope that it will increase your chances of securing a training contract with a firm like Trowers & Hamlins would have little impact on your application, Trowers & Hamlins doesn't have a family department, nor are they likely to gain one in the foreseeable future.

On the other hand, taking an LLM in International Law would sit favourably with their application form as it shows a genuine interest in a subject relating to one of our core practice areas. That is not to say that a candidate with a relevant qualification will come bounding out of the doors of their preferred firm clutching that elusive offer paperwork. Even if the LLM is valuable to your future employer it must sit alongside a stellar application. Then there's assessment centre/interview technique to consider but that's another story.

Candidates considering an LLM because they aren't really sure what else they should do to strengthen their applications should also consider the other options.

There are many other ways to 'buy time' and decide what to do long term. Charity projects, paid employment in law or otherwise are obviously more cost effective solutions. That's not to say reject the idea of an LLM but there are other opportunities to consider which may be equally valuable if not more so, before plunging further into academia.

It is becoming more commonplace to see candidates with a poor academic record, either at A level or degree level choosing to complete an LLM to 'prove' to future employees that they can succeed academically.  In theory this may seem like a good idea, however in practice there are a large proportion of firms who will not consider less than 320 UCAS points or a 2.1 at degree level even if a candidate has blinding results on an LLM. 

My advice to candidates in this position would be to give serious thought to their 'target market' and triple check as to whether their previous academic record will instantly block them from their favourite firm's recruitment strategy even with the LLM.

The final group are those lying in wait for a year or two before starting because of deferrals or any other reason.  An LLM can be a great way to keep the mind active and for a candidate to learn about a subject which is of interest to them.  If the firm have provided you with a deferral payment check that it falls within their stipulated conditions, if yes, feel free to enjoy another year of life as a student!

This article may seem slightly anti LLM, which is not intended to be the case.  Although in the current market where there is a significant raise in competition for training contracts candidates do need to be focussed.  They need to consider every decision that they make and weigh up the pros and cons of each option.  Expanding your knowledge is never a bad thing, but give serious consideration to the reasoning behind your decision.

Hannah King

Graduate Recruitment Officer, Trowers & Hamlins

20-09-2009