The Legal Cheek View
If you decide to do your GDL at University of Law’s Leeds campus, you’ll have the opportunity to read your statute book on its rooftop terrace, which looks out on a stretch of the city skyline.
There’s a law firm vibe about this campus. It’s a towering, seven-storey glass-fronted building, which “replicates the corporate setting of a professional firm”. The surroundings might make you feel like a lawyer already. Perfect motivation for getting on with those training contract or pupillage applications.
No doubt the ultra-modern building blends in with the law firms in Leeds, of which there are more than 200. Being so close to this major legal hub — which is home to firms such as DLA Piper, Irwin Mitchell and Eversheds Sutherland — is a definite bonus for your career opportunities.
Looks aren’t everything though. While one student says that the campus is “very good” for “family, social and criminal matters”, another argues that “for those of us who would watch the world burn from a commercial setting [it can be] very poor”. On the whole, student satisfaction levels are quite high.
The Leeds campus could help prepare you for the hellish GDL exams, by encouraging “mindfulness”. This year it introduced a spa-like ‘wellbeing week’. Keeping their zen levels on a high, Leeds students can participate in ‘cosmetic pampering, dog cuddling and meditation sessions’ to help them cope with deadline and exam stress.
Scholarships
Charles Russell Speechlys Scholarship
Law First Scholarship
The Lord Blunkett Widening Access Award
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Key Info
ULaw offers a total of 2,280 GDL places, full and part-time, across its centres nationally; part-time fees are per year.