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Professor Carsten Gerner-Beuerle, Professor of Commercial Law at UCL Faculty of Laws shares some further information on the LLM in Corporate Law for prospective students:
- What are the backgrounds or interests of students who normally select this specialism?
Students in this specialism have diverse backgrounds and come literally from all over the world. Some join the LLM in Corporate Law straight from their undergraduate studies, others have practiced for several years in law firms, and yet others have worked in finance, for large corporations, or in the public sector.
All students share a passion for questions that go to the heart of the corporate economy: how do firms finance their operations; how do they grow and acquire other businesses; what are turnaround strategies for companies in financial distress, how can corporate law ensure that companies are not only managed for their shareholders, but for the common good?
- What do you think are the top highlights of this specialism?
The modules in the Corporate Law specialism provide not only an in-depth introduction to UK corporate law and related subjects, but many of the modules are taught from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective and bridge theory and practice. You will thus learn:
- How common problems in corporate law are regulated in different legal systems;
- How law shapes the economic and financial context within which firms operate, and how it responds to challenges posed by modern financial markets;
- How the legal framework is applied in practice, and which issues lawyers and businessmen face in complex corporate transactions.
- What do students who have studied this specialism usually go on to do?
Many students who have studied this specialism join a corporate law firm after graduation, where they apply the knowledge they have acquired during their studies as transactional lawyers or litigators. Others go on to work for financial institutions or government agencies, for example market regulators, and some stay in academia to undertake research for a PhD.
- Which books, podcasts, blogs or newspapers do you recommend to students interested in taking this specialism?
There are plenty of popular science books that deal with issues relevant to the modules of this specialism, for example recently Alex Edmans, Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit; Andrew Lo, Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought; and Colin Meyer, Prosperity: Better Business Makes the Greater Good. All-time classics are Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, Barbarians At The Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco; and Peter Elkind and Bethany McLean, The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron.
Those who would like to have a look at an introductory book to UK corporate law may consult Paul Davies, Introduction to Company Law (OUP 2020).
- What would you say to a student who is considering taking this specialism but hasn’t made up their mind yet?
Whether you want to work in corporate law after graduation or simply want to broaden your horizon, you will find the specialism intellectually stimulating and rewarding.