Your first step is to login or register on CAB via the login/sign up pages at the top right of the homepage.
Once you have logged in/registered, you will be asked to select which course you want to apply for – the GDL or LPC. (Please refer to course route map and eligibility requirements.) When you have made your course selection, an online application form will be created for you,. If you have previously made an application on CAB for the same course that you want to apply for again, your previous application will need to be closed by us. Please contact us at applications@lawcabs.ac.uk.
The form is divided into the following sections:
Personal Details
Personal Details
Residence Details
Career Intention (GDL form only)
Application Data
LPC Qualification Route (LPC for only)
Course Choice
Academic History
Employment History
Reason and Personal Statement
Course fee payer
Reference request
Payment
Submit
You can complete the sections of the form in your own time and in whatever order you wish,but each section will need to be completed and saved before you can submit your form.
It is important that when you come to nominate a referee, you read the guidance notes on choosing a suitable referee carefully and that you check that the person you want to nominate is able and willing to provide a reference for you before you enter their details into your form. When you submit your form, a reference request will be sent automatically to your referee with a link to enable them to submit a reference in support of your application.
When you reach the fee payment section you will see a link to make the application fee payment via Stripe online payment processing.
After your application fee has been paid, please make sure that you submit your form in the 'Submit' section.
Your form will not be released to the institutions until your referee has submitted a reference. It is the responsibility of applicants to check that their referee has received the reference request. If there are any problems, please contact the CAB team at applications@lawcabs.ac.uk.
After your reference has been submitted, your form will be released to your chosen institutions.
CAB has no role in the process once your form has been released and it is the institutions themselves who will contact you to advise you of their decision when they have considered your application. We usually advise applicants to allow 5-10 working days for the institutions to respond, however, we are aware that this can take longer during busy periods.
The current application fee is £25.
Some providers offer an MA in Law, which is regarded as a qualifying route to the LPC, and can be found by selecting the GDL application form option when making the course selection on the CAB website. Applicants will be able to select the MA in Law where it is offered when they reach the institution choices section of the form.
Applicants wishing to apply for an LPC LLM should select the LPC form and will then be able to select the LPC LLM course where available when they reach the course choice section of the form.
Similarly, applicants wishing to apply for an LLM law conversion should select the GDL option and will be able to select the relevant course when they reach the course choice section.
An applicant will not be able to create a new LPC or GDL application form on the system if you already have a form on the system for the same course which has not been closed. If you are trying to apply for a new academic year, and the course you wish to apply for (LPC or GDL) is not showing as an option for you, we will need to close your previous form on the system. Please email us at applications@lawcabs.ac.uk including your full name and applicant ID.
Please note that only one application per course (LPC/GDL) is permissible during an academic year, however, up to three institutions can be applied to at any one time. If you want to add new institution choices to your form for the same academic year, please email applications@lawcabs.ac.uk including your full name and applicant ID.
We are unable to re-use applications which have been made for a previous academic year; each academic year is considered separately and a new application will be required. If you made an application for September 2019 and wish to apply again for 2020, you will need to begin a new application form on the system.
We are also unable to transfer LPC applications to the GDL course or vice versa. Applicants are required to submit a new form.
Applicants may only make one application per academic year, however, you may apply to up to three institutions at a time on your application form. If you want to change the institution choices on your form after you have submitted it, please email applications@lawcabs.ac.uk including your full name and applicant ID.
If you wish to apply to other institutions after your form has been released, please email us at applications@lawcabs.ac.uk, including your full name and applicant ID, letting us know which of your current choices you wish to remove. We will then make your application available to the new institution, at the same time withdrawing your application from the previous choice(s). Your application may only be with a maximum of three institutions at any one time.
For the purposes of entering international degree or aggregate results into the application form, if the qualifications don’t match the options in the drop-down menu (e.g. CGPA grades) please select ‘OTHER’ and then free-type grades. The universities should then be able to make the necessary conversion or ask that the grades are then verified by UK Naric.
If your college or institution does not appear in the drop down menu, please select ‘Other’ and you will be able to free type the name into the box.
If you are an undergraduate and cannot obtain a copy of your transcript (final or interim), please attach to your form a download or screenshot of your marks to date taken from your university student portal.
If you have not yet completed your degree or have not yet received your final degree award, the form asks for the overall or average mark you have received for years 1 and 2, followed by your expected degree result. If you are doing a GDL, please enter N/A into the aggregate marks boxes and then enter your expected result into the final box.
An IELTS (International English Language Testing System) certificate is not required by CAB as part of the application process. If required, the institutions themselves will make sitting the examination part of any conditional offers made. If applicants already have an IELTS certificate, this should be attached to the CAB application form.
Applicants should contact the institutions they wish to apply to directly for further information on their IELTS requirements.
In order to apply for a student visa, applicants must already have an offer of a place from an institution. Please liaise directly with the institution you have applied to regarding a student visa, once your form has been released to them. Applicants will find further information available athttps://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/student-visas.
If you are a lawyer qualified in a jurisdiction other than England and Wales, or a qualified Barrister in England and Wales, wishing to be admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales, please refer to the SRA website for further information regarding the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme: https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/qlts/
A lawyer who is qualified outside of the UK and has been practising for three years or more and wishes to qualify as a barrister in the UK should contact the Bar Standards Board.
The full list of institutions offering the full time GDL and LPC courses can be found on the CAB website and on both theSolicitors Regulations Authority and Bar Standards Board websites.
There are three institutions which current offer a January intake - BPP University (LPC & GDL), the University of Law (LPC & GDL) and the University of Wolverhampton (GDL).
For enquiries about taking individual modules, please contact the relevant institution directly.
Applicants with Training Contracts who are told to apply for a February Fast-Track LPC should apply via CAB for the January Full Time or August Fast Track programme at the relevant institution which will then enrol the applicant in the correct cohort once they have their application.
We only deal with applications for the full-time courses. If an applicant wishes to apply for a part- time course they will need to contact the relevant provider directly.
Part-time courses usually take 2 years to complete. There is a full list of all institutions on the SRA's website: http://www.sra.org.uk/students/conversion-courses/cpe-gdl-providers.page.
Please contact the relevant university provider directly for information regarding online courses.
The Central Applications Board (CAB) manages the applications for the full-time LPC and GDL courses only. Queries regarding undergraduate degrees should be made to the relevant university or through UCAS.
Your personal statement is important and should be written as generically as possible because your completed application will be released to all of the institutions that you have selected on your form.
This is your opportunity to tell the universities and colleges a little about yourself and why they should offer you a place on their courses. The following are suggestions for what you might want to include in your personal statement:
Although you are allowed up to 10,000 characters (including all punctuation, paragraph breaks etc), you are not expected to write an essay. Most applicants submit a personal statement that is approximately 500-1000 words (3-4000 characters).
You can write the statement in a word processing package and then copy and paste the information into the box provided. Please ensure you save the page after adding the narrative.
CAB does not hold information regarding scholarships or bursaries, but some institutions may offer them. Please refer to the list of LPC or GDL course providers on our website for the names of institutions and contact details.
For information about student loans, please refer to Funding for postgraduate study - GOV.UK
CAB does not hold information about sponsorship, course fees or funding for courses. Applicants should contact either the course providers directly or the Office for Studentshttps://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/ for further information.
If you have indicated in the course fee payer section of your form that you have a Training Contract and you are only applying to one institution, the system will over-ride the reference section as in these circumstances the institutions would not ask for a reference.
Similarly, if you are already studying/or have studied at the same institution that you are applying to, and it is the only institution on your form, a reference is not required.
Once you have submitted your form, an automated reference request will be sent to your referee at the email address you have provided. If you referee has not received our email please check that you have provided the correct email address in your form. Occasionally emails generated by the system can get caught up in spam/junk folders so do ask your referee to check there if our email has not reached the inbox. If no email has been received please ask your referee to email the reference directly to us at applications@lawcabs.ac.uk and we will upload it to complete the process for you.
If you need to nominate a new referee, please email the CAB team at applications@lawcabs.ac.uk including your full name and applicant ID and the details of the referee would you like to nominate in place of your original referee. Please include title, first name, last name and email address of your new referee.
After final submission of your form, no further amendments can be made by you. If you do find that you need to make changes, such as your institution choices, please email applications@lawcabs.ac.uk, giving your full name and applicant ID and we will do this for you.
Once your application is complete (submitted and reference provided by referee), it will be automatically released to your chosen institutions.
Please note that an institution will not be able to view your application unless your form has been released to them. Forms can only be released when they have been submitted and the reference has been received. Applicants can check the status of their application by logging into the CAB system.
Although we would usually advise applicants to allow 5-10 working days, we are aware that this can sometimes take longer during busy periods.
As CAB has no role in the application process after the forms have been released to the institutions, applicants are advised to contact their chosen institutions directly for an update on the status of their application. Contact details for the LPC and GDL providers can be found on the CAB website.
You can only accept one offer; please do check the institution’s T & C as there may be fee implications if you accept and then decline. The institutions will set their own acceptance dates, however, these can often be extended if you are not in a position to accept a place on their original time scale.
If you do change your mind after accepting an offer, please ensure you cancel any places previously accepted prior to accepting any new offers received.