City Law School

City Law School
Parent schoolCity, University of London
Established1852 (1852) (founding of the Inns of Court School of Law)
1894 (1894) (founding of the Northampton Institute)
School typePublic law school
DeanRichard Ashcroft
LocationLondon, England
Websitecity.ac.uk/about/schools/law
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The City Law School is a law school in London, England, and it is one of the six schools of City, University of London. The law school traces its origins to the Inns of Court School of Law (ICSL), which was founded in 1852. The ICSL became part of City in 2001, and it is now known as The City Law School. Until 1997,[1] the ICSL had a monopoly on the provision of the Bar Vocational Course (BVC; formerly known as the Bar Professional Training Course, or BPTC, and now known as Bar Vocational Studies, or BVS), the obligatory professional training for would-be barristers in England and Wales, before they commence pupillage.

The school was previously divided into two sections across two campuses – the Gloucester Building (west of City's Northampton Square campus), where the academic instruction section was based, and Grays Inn Place, where the professional legal training programmes were based. From September 2021, a new building for The City Law School was developed on Sebastian Street, to the east of Northampton Square.

It provides legal education at all stages, including a three-year undergraduate Bachelor of Laws (LLB) programme, a two-year Graduate Entry LLB degree programme, the Master of Laws (LLM) and the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) course (formerly known as the Common Professional Examination). The latter programme enjoys a nationwide reputation as one of Britain's elite qualifying diploma courses for non-law graduates. The school also teaches the Solicitors' Practice Programme (SPP) for would-be solicitors. In 2007, it received the highest grading from the Law Society of England and Wales for its academic provision.

Approximately 1600 students are enrolled at The City Law School each year.

  1. ^ International Handbook of Selection and Assessment - Anderson & Herriott (Wiley, 1997) page 184