COURSE OVERVIEW

Our Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) enables you to gain the legal skills necessary for the best possible preparation in beginning vocational training for a career in legal practice. The GDL teaches you the seven foundations of law as required by the Bar Standards Board for the vocational training for barristers. It also equips you to embark on the necessary preparation for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination. You will develop the ability to:

critically engage with sources of law, including cases, and scholarship from law and related fields

apply principles of law

engage in basic legal research using specific legal resources.

If you already have an undergraduate degree and want to gain the skills to help you qualify, but are not yet ready to commit to a full master's degree, this GDL is for you. Birkbeck’s GDL is unique in teaching you to understand and apply the law, as well as teaching you about the law in its political, social and economic context. We want our graduates to not only go on to be successful lawyers, but also to be able to participate in important contemporary debates at the junction of law and public life.