Thomais completed her LLM in Banking and Finance Law in 2017 and now works as a Lead Policy Analyst in the Bank of England. Read about her experience at CCLS:
I was very keen to apply for an LLM in banking and finance. After research, I decided that London, being the largest financial centre in Europe, is the best city to study. From the many schools that offer LLM degrees, Queen Mary University and CCLS combined a huge variety of modules and was the only school back in 2016 running a fintech course. Furthermore, it was pleasing to see such an engaging academic staff in banking and finance policy making, as well as professors that were experts and authors of leading books published in this field of law. This convinced me that CCLS is the optimum place to study.
One of my best memories at CCLS was when I arranged, as an LLM representative, a visit to the Lloyds of London, one of the landmark buildings in the City of London. With thanks to our Professor Rosa Lastra, one of the employees gave us a tour of the iconic building and we had the opportunity to see in practice how the insurance and re-insurance market works.
It is an honour to be part of a professional network with lawyers from all over the world. Being part of the tight-knit CCLS community provided us with the skills we need to succeed as global lawyers as well as the benefit to work with our classmates in the future. But by far the greatest advantage for me is that it had provided me with long-lasting, irreplaceable friendships.
My experience at CCLS was fundamental for my professional career thereafter. The LLM programme focused on building skills that are incredibly important for practising law. For example, we were able to familiarise ourselves and draft transactional documentation during our course in International Finance Law and this was very useful when I started working in a law firm in the City of London. The decision to study at CCLS was a decisive opportunity to understand my personal interests, professional strengths and set career goals. Today, I realise that the LLM experience had given me the chance to challenge myself in getting outside of my comfort zone and most importantly influenced me to become a solicitor in England and Wales.
I worked as a solicitor in Deloitte's LLP Incentives and Reward Legal Practice until May 2021 and then moved to a new job at the Bank of England in the Prudential Policy Directorate.
CCLS offers a demanding yet rewarding LLM programme. I would be lying if I said it was easy, however you cannot get such an exclusively brilliant opportunity elsewhere. I distinguish the fact that our professors gave great emphasis to the practical aspects of the law and courses are structured in a way that combine theory and case studies. It was also very important that leading practitioners were invited at CCLS to discuss legal issues. Therefore, the combination of learning from the very best scholars and the opportunity for students to engage with practising lawyers and discuss complex and intriguing legal problems makes the LLM experience unique.
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