Professional Doctorate in Law

The Professional Doctorate in Law is offered in partnership with the Northumbria Law School and is specifically designed for qualified solicitors. It is a part-time programme structured to facilitate those in full-time employment. The programme is designed to provide a structured and supportive learning experience that will enhance a solicitor’s theoretical understanding of their profession and will assist in the development of practice, through critical insight and evaluation, building on academic and research skills acquired via formal subject delivery and the doctoral research subsequently conducted. The research may be doctrinal, perhaps in a practice based area, such as criminal justice and evidence, or the law in action, in areas such as human rights or data collection and privacy or legal education. Those that complete the Professional Doctorate in Law will have made a significant and original contribution to the creation and interpretation of a body of knowledge, and be at the forefront of practice development. The programme aims to enable candidates to:

• Acquire a range of research skills and to be able to apply these to the conceptualisation, design and implementation of a project, adjusting design in the light of unforeseen problems;
• Be able to translate ideas into a form understandable by and meaningful to their profession;
• Produce a thesis or portfolio of original quality in the professional area;
• Disseminate/publish that research and its outcomes to the professional audience.

The taught element of the programme is assessed by the proposal assignment and the research element is assessed by submission of the final thesis or portfolio culminating in a viva voce examination with two independent examiners.

During the programme, candidates will develop their research skills and critical abilities as autonomous practitioners in the legal profession. The programme has been designed to provide a means of progression from an established academic knowledge base of a Masters qualification in law and/or an equivalent qualification with professional work experience in legal practice. The programme contains a number of methods by which the candidate may enhance their personal development and career progression. This will also impact on the profession as a whole. These methods include: research appreciation, giving an opportunity to develop research as a craft; team working; project management; leadership; ability to use and enable others to use R&D to advance practice; collaborative learning in a multi-professional context.

Visit the course webpage.