The Post Graduate Diploma in Paralegal Practice

Level 7 Diploma in Paralegal Practice

Law Graduates: give yourself a competitive advantage

Enrol now for the September Class Attendance Course in London

Class Attendance £1800, Payable by Installement Option, Enrol Now For September Course (13 place left)

Distance learning £850, Payable by Installement Option, Enrol year round

The Post Graduate Diploma in Paralegal Practice is designed to bridge the gap between an academic degree and the practical and procedural knowledge and skills necessary to be able to function effectively as a Career Paralegal. Alternatively, it will provide the Graduate with a foundation for subsequent professional development and will help them in their quest to obtain a Training Contract or to make a decision whether to do the Legal Practice Course (LPC)

Syllabus

Practice Areas

Click on the subject title for further information

Civil Litigation (7 credits); Criminal Practice (7 credits); Conveyancing (7 credits); Corporate / Commercial Work ( 7 credits);

Matrimonial and Civil Partnership Disputes (7 credits); Succession (7 credits)

Skills

Interviewing; Negotiating; Advocacy; Drafting

Please note that the Legal Skills part of the course consists of role play scenarios and does not include assignments or tests.

Distance Learning Students do have the option of attending the legal skills class sessions at a cost of £50 per skills subject. Each subject is over two class sessions.

As part of the course all students have the opportunity to be personally guided around the Royal Courts of Justice in London, and around part of 'legal London' - The Middle Temple and The Inner Temple. (You will be joining students taking the AH Paralegal 4 day skills course field trip)

Click here for: Study and Fee Options

Click here for: Entry Requirements

Distance Learning Course £850

As a distance learning student you can start right away. The average time taken to complete the whole course by distance learning is 20 weeks based on the recommended 7 hrs per week.Enrolment Page

2010 Part Time Class attendance Enrol now for September 2010£1800

A weekly part-time evening course to be held at Regents College, Regents Park, London, consisting of two and a half hours per evening from 6.30pm to 9pm, two nights per week over 20 weeks. Total course time 100 hours. The start date of the next course will be the 30th September 2010 and will run on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. The Class Attendence course will run subject to numbers. 24 places, (13 places now available) Enrolment Page

Assessment

Each unit is divided into lessons and has a multiple choice achievement test and one or more assignments. All tests and assignments will be marked and graded and will be returned with the examiners comments. A tutor will answer any queries that the student may have and give unlimited help and guidance if there is anything that the student may not fully understand.

TESTIMONIALS

"When I left University, I felt that I would just step into a legal position - after all, I was a Law Graduate with Honours! This course brought it home to me that I knew virtually nothing of how the practice of law was conducted. But I do now!! Thank you!

"I enjoyed the course immensely and even though I had taken the LPC, I found that this course was easier to absorb. The course was well structured and easily understood through the course material, the personal experiences of the tutors and the excellence of the tutors themselves.. Thank you for a most enjoyable and very interesting course.

"We were fortunate in having tutors who not only knew their subject inside out, but could also express that knowledge in a way that really encouraged , inspired and stimulated us".

I thoroughly enjoyed the PPC and it helped me to choose the career path that I want to take. The Tutors were excellent and very helpful in explaining and clarifying any matters. I found the trip to the Courts very interesting and an essential part of the course. I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to be a career paralegal as I found that merely being a Law Graduate was not sufficient to enable me to get a job. The course was just perfect.

A degree is an academic qualification, but a paralegal needs to also know procedural law and practice

This Diploma is designed for Law (and CPE/PGDipLaw) Graduates who have been unable to obtain a training contract and who hesitate to enrol on the Legal Practices Course (LPC) because of the high cost involved and the uncertainty of obtaining a Training Contract even if they do. The Law Society's Law Careers Advice Network advise "......students that do not have a training contract should think carefully before taking up a place on the Legal Pracitce Course..."

Law Graduates have already invested a lot of time and money into gaining their degrees. Statistically, only a relative minority are able to secure training contracts, but this need not be the end of the line! 45% of solicitors' firms employ graduates as paralegals and more and more solicitors are looking to paralegals, not only to make their practices more cost effective, but also (so far as Graduates are concerned), law firms are increasingly recruiting paralegals as a way of selecting those suitable for a training contract.

Being a paralegal is a great professional career in itself, however, and if you want to be a lawyer, but cannot get that training contract, then this is the best alternative - the third arm of the Legal Profession.