Points for Law Degree/LLB/Juris Doctorate

[American]

I hold a US law degree (LLB/Juris Doctorate) from a school recognized on www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk. I do not have a Masters degree. I was informed that NARIC classifies US law degrees as first professional qualification equivalent to a Bachelors degree. Therefore, apparently no points can be earned for a law degree.

My Bachelor's degree was a prequisite to obtaining my law degree. The law degree was a 3 year program in additional to the standard US 4 year Bachelors program.

Can anyone let me know if and how they earned or one can earn points with a law degree ?

Thank you!

[nztier1]

If your college/degree isn't in the NARIC database you need to forard the details to them along with the appropriate fee and they will assess if it meets the requirements.

[eowyngirl]

I believe this is one of the problems with the current Tier 1 rules - having multiple degrees does not qualify you because you get zero points for a Bachelor's degree, regardless of the qualification.

Under the new rules, I would not qualify. This is despite having a Bachelor of Commerce AND Bachelor of Laws (LLB, Honours) AND being a qualified Solicitor in Australia. Similarly, my friend, who is a specialist ob-gyn, would also not qualify as her 6 year medical degree is not a Masters.

Silly, isn't it?

Do you have any other professional qualification? I am thinking of the Accountant qualification that, even though not a Masters, I believe still gives you points under the new system.

[mick0x]

eowyngirl are you serious? I left there after finishing my working holiday visa a few years ago always planning to go back. I'm also a qualified solicitor. Do you actually have official confirmation from Naric that our qualification doesn't meet the requirements, or are you just going off the miserly points calculator on the home office website?
I don't want to do a masters degree! I've studied enough!

[nztier1]

What is entailed with being a qualified solicitor? It may be deemed equivlent to a masters in the same way a chartered accountant is, in which case you may qualify.

[eowyngirl]

I didn't bother getting confirmation from NARIC as I qualfied in other ways, so there may be some hope yet! Although if you try using the points calculator for higher qualification like the Diploma of Legal Practice (College of Law) they don't award you any points.

I guess I also didn't take it as a good sign that they listed the CA/CPA (accounting) qualification as one that you get points for, but not being an admitted solicitor in Australia.

nztier1 - usually after your law degree you do a diploma of legal practice at the College of Law. It takes 6 months (pt) or 3 months full time with another 15 weeks or so of supervised training. So in a way it is much less of an investment of time than a CA/CPA (which I understand is about 2 years). Plus, it also depends on whether the UK considers accepting new migrants in law as desirable as accountants!

[mick0x]

Thanks eowyngirl. I might do the NARIC thing to know for sure before the new year so I can consider taking a masters (yuck!) if there are no better options. The buggers'll probably change it again in the meantime knowing my luck.

nztier1, traditionally qualifying as a lawyer involved 2 years as an article clerk, and the new supervised training program is intended to be a genuine replacement for that.