CHLOE MERRITT

Fitness coach and law conversion course student. The GFL programme was the College's law conversion course that ran from 2022-2023 (now replaced by the GDL).

Hi, I’m Chloe. My background is primarily in Sports Science where I was a fitness coach for many years. I ran my own business where I had to negotiate contracts with other companies, which my friend who was a lawyer often used to help with. That’s what steered my interest into law. The Graduate Foundation in Law was the perfect opportunity for me to progress into that career as a non-law graduate, and I’ve had a great experience so far!

Why did you choose to study with The College of Legal Practice?

 One of the biggest reasons was how affordable it was to study with The College of Legal Practice. It wasn’t pushy or salesy like some other providers, no one was pounding me to join but when I had questions, they were always really helpful and responded (and I emailed a lot!)

I had a really positive experience overall! Again, everyone was really helpful. You could always reach out to your tutor, and I found it really flexible for what I wanted.

The workshops were great, we got all the content to read through to consolidate learning beforehand so everything made sense. The reading gave you the knowledge to apply to scenarios which you then had the opportunity to discuss with other people, and that helped you see things that you wouldn’t have noticed yourself. These discussions made the content and learning make more sense than if I were just to write my answers down.

The manuals were really good too, it gave us a break from staring or reading from the screen. I liked having the physical copy because I could go back to it more easily and highlight it. I appreciated having the key information on paper. We also had access to Westlaw which was great, and it all again, tied back together with the workshops!

So, generally, the learning experience is very positive - the approach is very flexible which is really good for me. I found the other people on the course quite interesting as well – very different backgrounds and even though we weren’t in a classroom, you still got to see that side of things. It’s very collaborative!

I definitely recommend the GFL. The structure is really good: it gives you a really good baseline knowledge of the law, and if you've not come from a law background, it's going to help you decide whether that is something you're interested in. It's kind of like a taster and provides a good level of understanding to get you ready. You also get great support. For all these reasons, I'd say it's a good course to go for!

The support has been really good. We can reach out to our tutors at any time. If I had any questions about any workshops or if there were anything I didn’t understand she would get back to me. The one-to-one support keeps you on track and gives you someone to talk to, and adds to the quality of what we’re doing in between workshops.

In terms of my personal tutor, they were great. They helped guide me when considering whether to take the part-time or full-time LLM. Even stuff about jobs – as a non-law graduate trying to look for my first work experience, their advice and guidance was brilliant. Any issues I had; someone was always there!

For me, the remote learning made things a lot easier. I work four days a week, and it gave me the flexibility to work and learn at the same time. It saves you both time and money not having to go to a physical location. I was able to get to work in the morning, block out some time to attend my workshop, and go back to work without any trouble of commuting. Being able to balance work, studying and exercise and all the other life commitments, was a huge benefit. It made it all much more doable!

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