Legal education in the United Kingdom
Requirements for becoming a lawyer in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland differ slightly depending on whether the individual plans to become a solicitor or barrister. All prospective lawyers must first however possess a qualifying law degree, or have completed a conversion course. A qualifying law degree in England and Wales must contain modules covering the following subject areas:Following graduation, the paths towards qualification as a solicitor or barrister diverge. Prospective solicitors must enroll with the Law Society of England and Wales as a student member and take a one-year course called the Legal Practice Course (LPC), usually followed by two years' apprenticeship, known as a training contract. Prospective barristers must first apply to join one of the four Inns of Court and then complete the one-year Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), followed by a year training in a set of barristers' chambers, known as pupillage.
*Northumbria offers an 'exempting degree' in which the LPC or BVC is combined with the qualifying law degree into a four-year course
Junior barrister
When students are called to the bar in jurisdictions which maintain barristers as a separate profession, they are said to be "called to the Degree of an Utter Barrister..." on their certificate of call. This reflects that in English court rooms Queen's Counsel sits one row further forward than junior barristers (historically, the Attorney General sits one row further forward still, although the Attorney General appears so rarely in court in modern times that the convention has largely been abandoned in that respect).