Law
Law degrees
Whether you aspire to work in a top-tier law firm, improve access to justice, or pursue a career in international business, studying a degree in Law, Law and Criminology or Law with Business Management at Buckingham lets you take the first step.
Our Law programmes provide the foundations to build your legal career. If you study on our Law and Criminology degree, you’ll also graduate with knowledge relating to crime, criminal justice and criminal behaviour.
All our law programmes provide thorough preparation for the Solicitor’s Qualifying Exams and satisfy the academic component of training for becoming a barrister. They also provide the foundation to practise across the common law world. You can also undertake our Master of Laws (LLM) upon finishing your undergraduate degree, to gain specialist knowledge, completing your graduate studies to Master’s level in three years.
Studying Law is also valuable experience for other careers such as banking and finance, local and national government and employment in industry.
We also offer a part-time law degree study option, which offers more flexibility: attend lectures one evening a week and graduate with a law degree in just four years.
Why choose Buckingham
Study Law, including Law and Criminology and Law with Business Management at Buckingham, the home of the two-year degree, ranked 2nd for Graduate Prospects (on-track, The Complete University Guide, 2023). Students are at the heart of everything we do: our award-winning small class tutorials ensure every student is known by name and supported throughout their studies. You will love our personalised teaching model, dedicated student support team, and beautiful, safe campus. To hear more from our law students, watch our video about Law at Buckingham.
Featured Law courses
Law events
Student feedback
“I found the staff in both the Law School and Buckingham as a whole to be nothing but supportive and encouraging of my goals. The accelerated degree program gave me an advantage over graduates from other universities and allowed me to complete both an LLB and LLM within 3 years. Buckingham also provided me with many opportunities for work experience with senior practitioners and judges. I was also given the opportunity to provide consumer advice in the Law Clinic. This practical hands on experience is not present in most universities and gave me an edge over other candidates in job interviews.”
Aaron Tate, LLB and LLM graduate
Experience Law
Your future career
Pursue a career as a lawyer or adapt to roles in a wide range of sectors, including non-government organisations (NGOs) and the public sector. A law degree will develop your abstract and critical thinking and practical problem solving, all of which are key skills for not only lawyers, but managers, consultants, politicians, journalists, financiers, international aid workers, and more.
Within the first five years of their career, graduates earn an average of around £31,000.*
Read what our law students have gone on to achieve.
*Legal Cheek 2019
We support your employability through a Professional Development Portfolio, in which you write reflectively about the professional skills you acquire and use during your time at university. These skills will help you in your studies as well as being crucial for your future career.
Meet our Dean and Programme Directors
Professor Adolfo Paolini, Dean of Law
A specialist in insurance law and company law, Professor Paolini is the joint author of the practitioner reference, Directors’ and Officers’ Liability Insurance which received the prize for the ‘Best Book 2009’ from the British Insurance Law Association. Professor Paolini holds the Insurance Law Consultant position at the international law firm Clyde & Co. Professor Paolini has been ranked twice, as a notable practitioner and foreign expert in Banking and Finance by one of the world’s leading guides to the legal profession, Chambers and Partners.
Dr Patricia Covarrubia, Reader in Law
Director of the Full-Time LLB Programme
Dr Covarrubia is a Reader in Law and an IP consultant at the Latin America IPR SME Helpdesk, cofounded by the EU Commission. Dr Covarrubia holds an LLM in European Law and a PhD in Intellectual Property. Her research interests include geographical indications and indications of origin, compulsory licences in the pharmaceutical industry, and the protection of traditional knowledge. Dr Covarrubia has also been the recipient of scholarships and grants from Brunel University, the World Intellectual Property Organization and The University of Buckingham, allowing her to further her research in her areas of interest.
Dr James Slater, Reader in Law
Director of the Part-Time LLB Programme
Dr Slater graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in Law and French. He also has an LLM from Harvard Law School and a PhD from the University of Birmingham. He is qualified as a solicitor (non-practising). His area of specialist interest is criminal law, which was the subject of his PhD. He teaches this subject along with Jurisprudence, Tort and Introduction to Legal Studies.
Dr Jessica Walsh, Lecturer in Law
Director of LLM Programmes
As a qualified Solicitor (non-practising) with experience of working and studying in various jurisdictions, Dr Walsh’s research and teaching focuses on the process and administration of justice and dispute resolution from a comparative and socio-legal perspective. She is a graduate of the trilateral and trilingual Integrated Common Programme run jointly by the Universities of Warwick, Lille II (France), and Saarland (Germany), which specialised in comparative European commercial law. She completed her PhD on a full Studentship at the University of Surrey on the topic of judicial independence and accountability.
Dr Jae Sundaram, Reader in Law
Law School Research Officer
A dual-qualified lawyer, Dr Jae Sundaram practised for several years before moving to academia. Jae’s research interests focus on the Maritime Law, International Trade/ World Trade, Conflict of Laws, Access to Medicines and TRIPS Agreement, and International Law relating to the proportionality in the use of weaponry in modern conflicts. His textbook on world trade law, WTO Law and Policy: A Political Economy Approach published in April 2022, is the first by a British author on the subject of world trade law, and also the first to be sole authored.
Industry links
Enhance your legal professional development and put your studies into context. Work experience for our Law students offers invaluable opportunities to connect you to local law firms and chambers for internships and other legal workshops.
These schemes offer an excellent insight into the legal workplace and are an great starting point for exploring alternative careers in areas such as governance, banking and finance.