Queen Mary University of London is set to launch an extension of its popular business placement programme for LLB students in collaboration with two leading law firms, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) and Bindmans LLP.
The collaboration with BCLP will give up to three students the opportunity to spend an academic year gaining practical experience in one of two market leading areas – Real Estate and Finance. The partnership with Bindmans LLP will focus on Human Rights, an area in which the organisation is a leading authority. One placement with Bindmans is available from September 2019.
Students will benefit from departmental legal training and will expect to undertake a diverse range of legal tasks with a high level of responsibility in one department. Christina Perry, Deputy Dean for Education in Queen Mary’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences said: “We are delighted to partner with two outstanding law firms in BCLP and Bindmans for Queen Mary’s innovative LLB Law in Practice degree.
“The paid legal placement experiences that they offer to Queen Mary students will be of enormous value to our students. We are very pleased that our students will be able to gain significant experience in fields as varied as Human Rights, Real Estate and Finance at these two excellent firms.”
Professor Penny Green, Head of the Department of Law at Queen Mary said: “I am delighted to see Queen Mary’s legal placement programme go from strength to strength. Our students will gain invaluable experience through these partnerships and I look forward to the initiative developing further in the coming years.”
Queen Mary University of London was the first Russell Group university to offer collaborative placements of this kind. The programme launched in 2015 and the first students undertook their placements with leading law firm Reed Smith LLP in 2016-17.
Queen Mary’s LLB Law in Practice is a four year programme. Students study the first two years at Queen Mary University of London whilst the third year is spent on a paid internship with a legal practitioner before returning to Queen Mary for the final year of study.
Anthony Lennox, Training Principal at BCLP said: “We recognise the importance of practical legal work experience in addition to academic study and feel this programme will increase students’ employability in the legal market, particularly when considering upcoming changes in the profession such as the Solicitor Qualifying Examination.”
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