Unlocking Your Potential: How the Postgraduate Diploma in Law Can Enhance Your Career Prospects

May 27, 2023

Written By Charlotte Cheshire

The intensive year-long law conversion course - Postgraduate Diploma in Law (PGDL) - covers the essential legal material needed for a qualifying England and Wales law degree. It is available to graduates who want to switch from a non-law undergraduate degree to a legal one. Ddebating whether the PGDL is for you? Are you even interested in a legal career? Rest assured, even if you opt to take the PGDL but decide not to enter the legal sector, this course will equip you with an array of skills that employees across any industry would value.

Understanding the law

It goes without saying that having a legal degree provides you with an understanding of the law, but understanding how the law operates is essential when running any business, regardless of industry.

PGDL graduates are well-versed in the England and Wales legal system. Even if you choose to work in a non-legal position, your knowledge of contract law, real estate law, company law, and other areas of the law will often enable you to offer insightful and nuanced advice that others would not think of. Being generally aware of how the law operates in practice is also helpful on a personal level. It can equip you with the knowledge necessary to protect yourself as a consumer or employee.

Problem solving

As the cases you work on require you to apply your lateral thinking skills, studying the PGDL can be difficult. Research is a crucial component involved in problem solving. Doing the PGDL will encourage you to successfully organise, carry out, and implement a research project.

It will help you with everything that goes on behind the scenes: absorbing, assessing, and evaluating data; resolving challenges; and making efficient use of time and resources. The PGDL provides you with a plethora of legal knowledge and teaches you how to recognise and analyse important data to draw a thoughtful conclusion.

Attention to detail

Imagine you are already taking the PGDL. Suppose you want to be ready for your lecturer's queries at a seminar that you have tomorrow. In that case, it is unlikely that simply skimming through articles or judgments the evening before will suffice in giving you a strong understanding of the materials. Instead, it would help if you focused on the most important details, digesting these within the context of the wider reading and knowledge you already possess. Being precise is essential for crafting nuanced arguments, legal or otherwise.

During the PGDL, you will develop an enhanced skill set by becoming accustomed to working with complicated legal documents and laws. This will allow you to zone in on specific details, highlighting how a judge made a certain decision or why a contractual clause should be re-drafted to ensure sufficient protection for your client.

Beyond the law, employers across different sectors are looking for attentive individuals. Even down to ensuring that all emails sent out to clients or colleagues are crafted with care, attention to detail is well-respected and desired both within and outside of the law.

Communication

The PGDL will demand that you listen carefully, form spoken arguments effectively, and write clearly. As a PGDL student, you will have to think on your feet and build communication skills to adapt to any circumstance, whether through writing an intellectually stimulating essay or participating in a mooting competition.

You will not only learn to reflect upon and digest information, you will also develop strong negotiation skills. Strong communication skills are at the core of many career paths, and the PGDL will be invaluable in helping you expand your existing skill set.

Strong work ethic

The capacity to focus intently and finish tasks is a crucial yet under-appreciated trait. Even if you're exhausted, under pressure, or merely uninterested in the particular task at hand, you'll nevertheless need to do your work as effectively as you can. The PGDL will push you to develop self-motivation, a valued trait in graduate-entry positions and beyond.

Other qualities

Whilst the PGDL will undoubtedly give you a strong grounding in the law, it will also help you cultivate many personal traits that will stand you in good stead as you move through to employment. The PGDL increases your self-awareness and self-confidence. You will not only become accustomed to receiving and responding to constructive feedback but you will also begin to understand where your strengths lie.

Through balancing the variety of work required, you'll perfect your time management skills and be able to move seamlessly between different demands placed on you when you begin any work.

In addition, there will often be opportunities to network with those already established in different areas of the legal sector. Whilst this is very beneficial if you plan to move into a legal career, it is also useful if you choose to go down a different pathway. You will be accustomed to building and maintaining professional relationships.

To conclude, undertaking the PGDL is the ideal first step for individuals who wish to work in the legal sector but have yet to do a qualifying undergraduate law degree. However, due to its versatility and the number of skills you build up throughout the course, it can help anyone who wants to advance in any profession.

PGDL/CPE