Does U of London LLB program qualify graduates for Canadian Bar Exam?

Yeah, I think I will try to complete 1 or 2 exams at a law school in order to get some connections and study by myself for the rest. Thanks for the info regarding the facebook!

 

Not sure where in Canada you are located but the University of Western Ontario has an extended-time option for study towards a JD so you might be able to grab a seat in a 1L course if you contact the school. Given the competitive nature of First Year application and the limit of 5 seats reserved for extended-time students you should contact the University of Western Ontario Law School to determine whether this is a viable route.

If law school connections are your goal, then enrolling in an on-campus part-time LLM degree might work out better in the long term. The professors will be more useful as references, but if you meant connections as in potential co-workers in the future then your idea of enrolling in a couple 1L on-campus courses makes sense.

 

Regarding the courses you took at University of London: as far as I recall senior status means 9 modules, 8 of which are required and one is optional, is that right? Which module did you take for the optional one? I'm just wondering if that had an impact on your NCA requirements (for example, if you took evidence).

 

Yes, I took evidence as one of my two electives out of the 9 modules. I took Intellctual Property as the other elective.

 

Thanks for the great tips.

I have just subscribed to 2 years London LLB DL programme. I am really worried as to how to get good marks and how to prepare myself well for the world of Law. I'm totally new to this area because I'm from IT background.

I have a couple of more questions regarding "how to study for London LLB on distance learning) hope you do not mind:

1) I just registered for year 1 and haven't received the study materials yet. I'm not sure but will all the past year exam papers available online? Will they provide the sample answers to the exam papers as well? If not, do you know how can I get the copies of sample answers? I think it's a great way to know how to answer the exam questions.

2) Is there any notes available online for year 1 subjects? E.g. notes from seniors or professors. I learnt from your post that to study well, we should make a list of key cases, etc. Do you mind to share with me a sample?

3) While we can study and answer questions (as we should start practice as early as possible), how do we know if we are answering correctly or good enough. How do we get feedbacks from our practices? Especially the writing skills.

4) The Nutshell Series, I tried to find but there seems to be more than one Nutshell Series. I think most are US version? Which one is recommended for London LLB? Perhaps if you could help to provide one of the book with Authur name will be helpful. Same with Law cards, please give me the URL link for it if possible.

5) Last, do you subscribe to any online tutorial? How do you find it? What's the score you receive with or without online tutorial? I'm wondering if this is helpful or not.

Thanks a lot!

 

Thanks for the great tips.

I have just subscribed to 2 years London LLB DL programme. I am really worried as to how to get good marks and how to prepare myself well for the world of Law. I'm totally new to this area because I'm from IT background.

I have a couple of more questions regarding "how to study for London LLB on distance learning) hope you do not mind:

1) I just registered for year 1 and haven't received the study materials yet. I'm not sure but will all the past year exam papers available online? Will they provide the sample answers to the exam papers as well? If not, do you know how can I get the copies of sample answers? I think it's a great way to know how to answer the exam questions.

2) Is there any notes available online for year 1 subjects? E.g. notes from seniors or professors. I learnt from your post that to study well, we should make a list of key cases, etc. Do you mind to share with me a sample?

3) While we can study and answer questions (as we should start practice as early as possible), how do we know if we are answering correctly or good enough. How do we get feedbacks from our practices? Especially the writing skills.

4) The Nutshell Series, I tried to find but there seems to be more than one Nutshell Series. I think most are US version? Which one is recommended for London LLB? Perhaps if you could help to provide one of the book with Authur name will be helpful. Same with Law cards, please give me the URL link for it if possible.

5) Last, do you subscribe to any online tutorial? How do you find it? What's the score you receive with or without online tutorial? I'm wondering if this is helpful or not.

Thanks a lot!

 

As refer to my last post, I think I have found the essential book list:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/UOL-External-Must-Haves/lm/34WXBZEA2BRY9/ref=cm_lmt_dtpa_f_1_rdssss0

 

Hopefully you're still monitoring this thread, as a couple more questions have crossed my mind!

1- What kind of marks did you achieve in your prior degrees, and were they obtained in Canada or elsewhere?

2- Did you have any exceptional work experience? Or much work experience at all?

3- How much information did you provide to the NCA relative to course descriptions and program information?

4- Is it obvious from your transcript that the degree is distance learning?

Thanks for all your help so far. I am in the process of filling out my NCA application.

 

I believe that the answer to your question is "no."

 

Do correct me if I am wrong, but hasn't France implement credits for work experience kinda thingy recently?

 

Thanks guys. That's sad.
I do intend to practise law in Canada, and I know the road ahead will be long. But without an LLB of some sort, I know it's just empty talk. So I think the first thing I'll do is study hard and get the degree, before the 'harder' admin work.

Francis

 

and good luck on your exam, jackrussell

 

I know this is off topic, but how is your AJU MBA coming along?

Abner

 

If you select the correct elective for the UoL LLB you can avoid many of the required NCA examinations. The NCA process has been overhauled recently and from people I have spoken with who are going through the NCA process the number of examinations has actually been reduced for most students. Again, choose your electives carefully.

 

Thanks Sentinel,
what electives would be the sensible one to take? Any smart idea will help me make my path easier.

Cheers,
Francis

 

You can search the threads on this forum but basically subjects like evidence, family law, civil and criminal procedure, etc. Look at the NCA web site to see the list of subject areas and match them with the courses offered by UoL. The NCA FaceBook group is another good resource to review to determine what other students have encountered within the last year. I decided to follow the traditional 3-year (12 course) stream despite having earned an undergraduate degree for the purpose of covering most of the subject areas.

 

Thanks for the info Sentinel!!

 

Any Changes UOL LLB Prospects.?

I am new to this Forum wanted to do LLB for long time but couldn't .
Anyways am looking at UOL LLB ,should I go Graduate - 2 Yrs or 3 Yrs option.
Any + to do LLB from Uol ,live in Ontario,how long after getting this you can realistcly practice in ON.

 

Hi Comb,

Please check out this thread for further info, I am a Canadian with a distance learning LLB and this is my experience to date.

http://forums.degreeinfo.com/distance-learning-discussions/32151-using-english-llb-become-lawyer-canada.html

 

Here are some further thoughts on the questions you've posed:

1- 2 year versus 3 year option. This is the subject of speculation and debate. At points I believe the NCA website has suggested that 3 year degrees would be assessed more generously, but I am personally skeptical that this extends to distance learning degrees. Since the NCA assesses each file individually and do not really seem to make a big effort to clearly communicate asessment guidelines it appears that it is a bit of a roll of the dice. My personal feeling is that my file would have been assessed the same way whether I'd done the 2 or 3 year LLB, but really your mileage may vary. The only advice I can give is talk to the NCA and do some research. The NCA facebook group is really useful for this.

2- How long from getting the degree to being able to practice in Ontario. Based on how the NCA were assessing files last year it looks like this.

a- Complete your degree (the NCA will not assess incomplete degrees)
b- file papers for evaluation (this can be a problem, if you are a UoL graduate you will only get your results in August or September, then probably 2-3 months for your evaluation).
c- Assume you get assessed 6 challenge exams + 8 courses. The 6 challenge exams can be completed in January or August. If you get your evaluation in October or November you will probably not be able to effectively prepare for the January exams, likely your best case scenario is writing the 6 exams the following August, and quite possibly even extending this into the following January (over a year and a half after completing your foreign law degree.
d- Assume you complete the challenge exams the following August, you then must complete 8 upper level courses at a Canadian law school. This will take an academic year.
e- you have to take the bar course and article. Another year.

So you will be licensed in Ontario probably 3 years after you complete your law degree. Maybe 4 years if you get slowed down somewhere a bit.

There might be a little wiggle room mind you.

As you have a LLB you can always apply to a Canadian LLM program. If you do this they will waive the requirement for you to actually spend time in the seat in a Canadian law school. However, if your Canadian LLM does not cover the core competency subjects (and most (or all?) of them don't) they might take away the classroom requirement but increase the number of challenge exams. The thing here is that Osgoode offers a LLM that can be completed partly via distance learning. If the NCA does not realize that the program was completed partly non residentially this may work for getting rid of the classroom requirement. The residency requirements of the program are minimal.

A second option is finding a foreign law school that will not be identifiable by the NCA as having provided the degree through distance learning. While this is arguably dishonest it is an option. There are a number of schools in Australia offering distance learning LLBs. You'd have to check whether they mark the transcript with any sort of distance learning notation.

A third option, and this you'd have to check with the NCA, is doing an American LLM. Whether they would give you a pass on the residential requirements based on a foreign LLM is questionable. Having said this there are a number available by distance learning, and again whether the NCA would identify these as distance leanring is a question mark, and even if they think the program is residential whether they would waive their residency requirement based on a foreign LLM is another question mark.

Another piece of advice is don't be shy to ask schools for their grade distribution. UoL used to be notoriously difficult in terms of grading. A low grade will hurt your NCA evaluation.

Please check the NCA's FAQ for some up to date info. I see the FAQ now specifically addresses the subject of distance learning degrees and senior status LLBs.

NCA - Frequently Asked Questions