Doing an LLM without a Law Degree

Is it possible to get into any LLM courses without holding a primary Law Degree? I have done a Degree in Commerce, a Postgrad Dip in Law, and have passed all my FE-1s, and cant secure and apprenticeship, so I was thinking that I may as well use the next year to improve my qualifications.
If Im not eligible for an LLM, can anyone suggest any other courses which may help boost my profile in a legal sense? I appreciate any advice!

The universities all have their admission requirements on their websites (do a search for "LLM" on Google Ireland).

UCD has the following:

Admission Requirements

Applications for admission to the LLM programme are invited from graduates holding at least a good honours law degree, a law-based interdisciplinary degree or equivalent (including professional examinations, professional experience). Admission to the programme is at the discretion of Postgraduate Board.

So you can do an LLM without a law degree. Others can probably help if your primary query is really about what courses to do other than the LLM.

Why would you waste another year on a law course. The prospects for getting an apprenticeship or any legal job will be no better next year

The law profession in ireland is being hit not just with the recession but with an oversupply of solicitors,the law society was recruiting last week for a careers officer to help divert solicitors into other lines of work.

This thread makes depressing reading ,people seem to be not willing to accept the reality of the employment situation for current and future solicitors in ireland,and are pouring more money and effort into a hopeless cause

Your response is of little use really. Nearly every occupation has suffered as a result of the recession, it wont last for ever, and even if the scenario is exactly the same this time next year, surely Ill have a better chance of securing a contract with better qualifications.
Im not looking for advice on what career path to follow, Im looking for advice on what courses are available to me. Thanks.

It's intersting how people view further study. Is there hard evidence that a LLM will always put you above other people? - could it put people off? Would additional skills based training and development be more useful? I'm not in the legal profession but an area that springs to mind is mediation skills [ [broken link removed] ] O.K this may noy be your balliwick but it's just an example. What about getting some experience in a voluntary role and applying your legal knowledge in somewhere like FLAC.

Anyway just a thought.

I've only worked in small firms but I would say that in general they would be a little put off by someone with an LLM. They wouldn't consider it to be really relevant to practice and would worry that you were academically inclined, which may not sit well with general practice life. You may of course be aiming for the bigger firms and I can't really answer for them. The difficulty is at the moment that if you only aim for the big firms it limits your options considerably, as you probably know by now.

If you don't have significant work experience to date then I'd say you'd be far better off getting that. Any kind of work in a law firm, bank, insurance or similar place might be more beneficial if your aim is to get an apprenticeship (any apprenticeship!). Or if you haven't done it you could go travelling for a year. Any partner I know would consider that a perfectly normal thing to do, especially in the downturn we're in now. Provided of course you get decent work experience out there. It doesn't apply to all, but many partners in small or medium general practices have a bit of an anti-academics bias. They might be a bit prejudiced that somebody with too many qualifications would be seriously bored being an apprentice. Especially when they have so many applications to choose from.

I think that the Law Society do a number of (online) courses. Did you consider doing any of those? To answer the original question, a family member is doing an LLM course without holding a primary law degree. He was admitted at the discretion of the Postgraduate Board. With your postgradate diploma in law, and having passed all the FE-1s, my guess is you should have a great chance of being accepted for an LLM. Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

Hi there, I am a qualified solicitor (soon to join the rest of my classmates in the dole queue I'm afraid!)

From speaking to the partners here in my firm (medium sized Dublin firm), the general consensus is that they would be more impressed with someone who has travelled/worked at something other than the law, than someone with loads of legal qualifications and/or work as a secretary in a law firm. do something different - qualify as a scubadiver instructor or something. Make yourself stand out. Broaden your horizons. Develop a hobby. If you are anything like me you would have spent years studying and leaving little or no time for a hobby. If you are on the dole, why dont you do some voluntary work with the likes of the Irish Cancer society/Special Olympics/Irish Heart Foundation etc a day a week. I would definately look into the FLAC route also. A friend of mine worked for FLAC and ended up getting an apprenticeship through it.

Best of luck with it all. I know how daunting it is, but think of life as a journey rather than a desination you have to reach.

Thanks guys, some very useful advice. I really just need to sort out for myself what my options are, rather than being told not to pursue a career in law.

You can apply to the University of London they have an external LLM Programme and they do not require a primary degree in Law to be admitted onto there programme. You can specialise in the following:
Banking and Finance Law
Commercial and Coporate
Common Law
Competition Law
Computer and Communications Law
Coporate and Securities Law
Criminology and Criminal Juctice
Economic Regulation
Environmental and Natural Resources Law
European Law
Family Law
Human rights law
Insurance Law
Intellectual Property
Media Law
Tax Law
I think it would be a good idea for yourself to complete and LLM and specialise in a specific area particularly in the Corporate area.