CoL to introduce New York Bar programme
The College of Law (CoL) has announced plans to offer the New York Bar Exam to UK students, allowing them to qualify as American lawyers without having to complete a training contract.
Nigel Savage
Full-time GDL students who go on to complete CoL’s Legal Practice Course (LPC) or Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) will be eligible to sit for the New York Bar Exam following an additional 22-week study programme.
Previously UK non-law graduates would first need to qualify as a lawyer in the UK and then complete an LLM degree in the US before being able to sit the New York Bar Exam.
Under the US system lawyers are qualified to practise once they have passed the bar exam.
CoL chief executive Nigel Savage said: “With the increased competition for training contracts and pupillages, students will have the option to take the New York Bar Exam and be a qualified American lawyer. Theoretically, they could go on to work as an American lawyer at a US firm in London.”
The new course will be available to those students who start their GDL with CoL in September 2010 and can be completed in one block or spread over a longer period of time.
Though the programme is principally targeted at domestic students, CoL is hoping to attract graduates from overseas universities, particularly from the US and South East Asia.
Savage said: “This is really putting London at the centre of global education. Attracting the best talent to the UK will be great for London and help sustain it as a legal services and legal education hub.”
Those who successfully complete the extended course will be awarded a US-style CoL Juris Doctor (JD) professional degree in law.
In a related move CoL has also announced a partnership with Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. Northwestern is assisting CoL in designing and ultimately delivering the additional electives that are required to enable students to sit the New York Bar Exam.
Separately, CoL has entered into a similar relationship with IE Law School in Madrid.
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Readers' comments (16)
IHateBPP | 12-Mar-2010 12:50 pm
The key word is "theoretically" but that won't be found in any of their brochures, nor will hard facts. Instead it will be vague pipedreams and spin that defy the reality that no US firm wants a UK graduate without the JD.
I expect BPP will be the next to scam students out of hard earned money with this nonsense.
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Anonymous | 12-Mar-2010 12:58 pm
Last time I checked, the US firms in London didn't specify the JD as a pre-requisite to joining.
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Anonymous | 12-Mar-2010 3:37 pm
This is an absolute waste of time and money unless you are actually planning on practising U.S. law and you have found a U.S. firm willing to take you. Students would be better off spending their time and money learning another language or doing part of an MBA course.
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Kevin Burke | 12-Mar-2010 8:18 pm
What would make this more attractive is if the American Bar Association would fly over and approve the college of law or the course so graduates could seek to take the bar exam of other US states.
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Anonymous | 12-Mar-2010 10:16 pm
cost?
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Rob | 13-Mar-2010 8:37 am
just what we need, more NY lawyers to depress wages even further.
do you realize that there are thousands of qualified NY lawyers who have been laid off in the huge blood-letting of the financial crisis?
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Anonymous | 13-Mar-2010 8:48 am
Actually if you are qualified lawyer in any common-law tradition, you do not need to complete a LL.M. program in the US before qualifying to sit the NY Bar exam. One of my friends from Philippines (!) sat and passed the NY Bar exam without having to earn the LL.M. degree, because Philippines legal system vaguely resembles the “common-law tradition”… It should be even easer for an English solicitor / barrister.
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Anonymous | 14-Mar-2010 8:36 am
Why do they mention only the NY Bar? Surely if a student were receiving a JD they would be able to sit all US bar exams, unless this isn't so?
And is this open to law graduates as well?
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Anonymous | 14-Mar-2010 7:21 pm
What is even more puzzling about this, is even if this were the real thing and had any weight, the College of Law insists that you must have done the GDL and the LPC at the College of Law. If you had done the GDL at BPP then no joy. Doesn't the Law society recognise a GDL from either? If so, then so should the CoL. These institutions are a total joke. Notwithstanding the simpletons they let do the courses, they cock the courses they provide up on a regular basis.
The things is, there is a gap in the eligibility for the NY bar for non-law students and the CoL may have something, shame they cock it up in their usual way. If you were at a UK law firm and later were transferred out to the NY office to work for a substantial period of time then this would be useful.
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Anonymous | 15-Mar-2010 7:21 am
Is it me, or does Nigel Savage look a little bit like Senator Palpatine?
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