Corporate Finance and Law (LLM or MSc)
Introduction
With both an LLM and MSc exit qualification available, this programme is delivered jointly by the 51cg's School of Law and Business School, and will provide students with an interdisciplinary learning experience in Finance and Law.
With both an LLM and MSc exit qualification available, this programme is delivered jointly by the 51cg's School of Law and Business School, and will provide students with an interdisciplinary learning experience in Corporate Finance and Law.
The LLM and MSc exit qualifications provide a unique opportunity to benefit from the expertise of staff from both the School of Law and the Business School. This programme has a practical and commercial focus and will appeal to those employed in or with an interest in commercial and professional services within the legal and financial services communities.
Students can choose the most suitable route to follow depending on their own individual career aspirations. Students will learn about key issues in Corporate Finance and Law, providing them with the skills and expertise they require in this fascinating, important, and remunerative area.
This programme offers particular benefits to SMEs by developing skills and knowledge of both the legal and financial markets. Students will gain an insight into finance for SMEs, including raising finance from the stock market.
This degree is open to people from any discipline and will provide students with an interdisciplinary learning experience in Corporate Finance and Law.
Available Programmes of Study
Students will be expected to complete four Law focused courses and four Business focused courses, finalising their study with the dissertation. The courses you will study are: Issues in Corporate Finance, Accounting, Introduction to Corporate Finance Law, Corporate Governance for Corporate Finance, Portfolio Analysis, Financial Analysis and Markets, Debt Finance Law, Equity Finance Law. The dissertation will be on either a legal or financial topic.
Please note: Students staring their LLM programme in January write their Dissertation project during the Summer semester.
Duration: 12 months full-time or 24 or 36 months part-time
- LLM
-
Corporate Finance and Law
- Qualification
- LLM
- Duration
- 12 months or 24 months
- Learning Mode
- On Campus Learning
- Study Mode
- Full Time or Part Time
- Start Month
- September
- Location
- Aberdeen
Programme Fees
- UK
-
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year
- £15,700
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year (51cg Graduates *)
- £7,000
-
51cg graduates are eligible for the Alumni Postgraduate Scholarship, reducing tuition fees to £7,000 - matching the current SAAS tuition loan - See full terms and conditions
- EU / International students
-
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year
- £26,250
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year (Self-funded Students *)
- £18,250
-
The above fee includes the £8,000 Aberdeen Global Scholarship provided to self-funded international students. Full terms and conditions apply.
Stage 1
PART TIME ROUTE: This route will take between two to three years.
Year 1- PD5006 Getting Started at the 51cg (0 credit points)
- LS501T Critical Legal Thinking and Scholarship (0 credit points)
- BU5034 Issues in Corporate Finance (15 credit points)
- LS5582 Corporate Governance (30 credit points)
- BU5526 Portfolio Analysis (15 credit points)
Year 2- BU502B Accounting Reporting and Strategic Analysis (15 credit points)
- LS504H Corporate Finance Law (30 credit points)
- BU552H Financial Markets and Regulation (15 credit points)
- LS5904 LLM Dissertation (60 credit points)
Stage 1: Compulsory Courses
Full Time Route: All candidates take the following courses:
EitherPD5006 Getting Started at the 51cg (0 credit points)
LS501T Critical Legal Thinking and Scholarship (0 credit points)
and
BU502B Accounting Reporting and Strategic Analysis (15 credit points)
BU5034 Issues in Corporate Finance (15 credit points)
LS504H Corporate Finance Law (30 credit points)
BU5526 Portfolio Analysis (15 credit points)
BU552H Financial Markets and Regulation (15 credit points)
LS5582 Corporate Governance (30 credit points)
and
LS5904 LLM Dissertation (60 credit points- Getting Started at the 51cg (PD5006)
-
This course, which is prescribed for all taught postgraduate students, is studied entirely online, takes approximately 2-3 hours to complete and can be taken in one sitting, or spread across the first 4 weeks of term.
Topics include University orientation overview, equality & diversity, MySkills, health, safety and cyber security, and academic integrity.
Successful completion of this course will be recorded on your Transcript as ‘Achieved’.
- Critical Legal Thinking and Scholarship (LS501T)
-
This course provides students from diverse legal and educational backgrounds with a common understanding of the core research, analytical, and writing skills which will be required for LLM-Taught courses. The course is delivered as a series of five interactive lectures with two individual assessments designed to encourage critical thinking and provide opportunities for early feedback. It also incorporates a library workshop to provide students with hands-on experience with the resources available for course and dissertation work.
- Issues in Corporate Finance (BU5034)
-
15 Credit Points
This course introduces students to basic financial concepts before moving on to introduce students to a number of areas of corporate finance including investment appraisal decisions, examining capital structure theory, the financing decisions of the firm, and corporate restructuring. The main aim of the course is to equip students with good analytical skills in order to understand the implications of corporate financing decisions by understanding why companies behave the way they do with respect to financing choices and how this interacts with the real world financial markets, and to enable students to understand the theoretical underpinnings of corporate finance theory.
- Corporate Finance Law (LS504H)
-
30 Credit Points
This course will explore issues within the law of corporate finance, with reference to different legal systems. It will provide students with a wider and deeper understanding of various debt and equity finance issues that are crucial to the law of corporate finance.
Stage 2
Stage 2: Compulsory Courses
- Portfolio Analysis (BU5526)
-
15 Credit Points
This course examines theories and issues relevant to portfolio analysis. Themes include: risk and return; investment motives; the application of modern portfolio theory (including the Capital Asset Pricing Model); information and market efficiency; portfolio analysis and asset pricing; bonds and equities; real estate and derivative markets.
- Financial Markets and Regulation (BU552H)
-
15 Credit Points
This course provides students with an understanding of the financial system by introducing students to the reasons for, and nature of, financial markets and financial institutions, before moving on to explore the need and importance of regulation, investigate the causes and consequences of the recent 2008 Global Financial Crisis, and discuss future reform.
- Corporate Governance (LS5582)
-
30 Credit Points
This course will introduce students to the concept of corporate governance and consider how it has evolved over recent decades, noting the role played by economic theory as well as by law. Topics discussed may include: Corporate Form and the Agency Problem, Directors and Shareholders, UK Corporate Governance Code, Comparative Corporate Governance, Emerging issues: CSR and ESG, Emerging issues: Parent Company Duty of Care. The precise range of topics considered may be adapted to reflect developments in the field as well as recent or current events.
Stage 3
Stage 3: Compulsory Courses
- Master of Laws Dissertation (LS5904)
-
60 Credit Points
Between February and mid-August students prepare a 10,000 word dissertation on a topic of their choice related to their specialist LLM programme. Students are instructed through the delivery of three preparatory lectures, three supervisory meetings and two dissertation writing seminars. Students are expected to spend considerable time on independent research throughout the course of the dissertation module, including; preparation of a dissertation plan, amendment of plan in accordance with supervisory comments, and, of course, the final 10,000-word dissertation itself.
- Qualification
- LLM
- Duration
- 12 months or 24 months
- Learning Mode
- On Campus Learning
- Study Mode
- Full Time or Part Time
- Start Month
- January
- Location
- Aberdeen
Programme Fees
- UK
-
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year
- £15,700
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year (51cg Graduates *)
- £7,000
-
51cg graduates are eligible for the Alumni Postgraduate Scholarship, reducing tuition fees to £7,000 - matching the current SAAS tuition loan - See full terms and conditions
- EU / International students
-
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year
- £26,250
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year (Self-funded Students *)
- £18,250
-
The above fee includes the £8,000 Aberdeen Global Scholarship provided to self-funded international students. Full terms and conditions apply.
- MSc
-
Corporate Finance and Law
- Qualification
- MSc
- Duration
- 12 months or 24 months
- Learning Mode
- On Campus Learning
- Study Mode
- Full Time or Part Time
- Start Month
- September
- Location
- Aberdeen
- Qualification
- MSc
- Duration
- 12 months or 24 months
- Learning Mode
- On Campus Learning
- Study Mode
- Full Time or Part Time
- Start Month
- January
- Location
- Aberdeen
Programme Fees
- UK
-
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year
- £15,700
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year (51cg Graduates *)
- £7,000
-
51cg graduates are eligible for the Alumni Postgraduate Scholarship, reducing tuition fees to £7,000 - matching the current SAAS tuition loan - See full terms and conditions
- EU / International students
-
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year
- £26,250
- Tuition Fees for 2026/27 Academic Year (Self-funded Students *)
- £18,250
-
The above fee includes the £8,000 Aberdeen Global Scholarship provided to self-funded international students. Full terms and conditions apply.
We will endeavour to make all course options available. However, these may be subject to change - see our Student Terms and Conditions page. In exceptional circumstances there may be additional fees associated with specialist courses, for example field trips.
Funding Opportunities
Alumni Discount Scheme - we are pleased to offer a 20% discount for postgraduate tuition fees to all alumni who have an undergraduate degree from 51cg.
Please note that the Aberdeen Alumni Discount cannot be claimed in conjunction with any other scholarship award.
Scholarships
All eligible self-funded international Postgraduate Masters students will receive an £8,000 scholarship. Learn more about this Aberdeen Global Scholarship here.
To see our full range of scholarships, visit our Funding Database.
How You'll Study
Assessment Methods
Throughout the course, a mix of coursework, exams and a dissertation is used as the basis of assessment.
Why Study Corporate Finance and Law?
- The Business School is accredited, placing it among a select group of globally recognised institutions. Out of over 15,000 business schools worldwide, only around 200 schools across 45 countries have attained this distinction.
- The 51cg was ranked 18th in the UK in the Guardian University Guide 2026.
- We are ranked 3rd in Scotland for Law in the Complete University Guide 2027.
- We are ranked 6th in the UK for Accounting and Finance (Guardian University Guide 2026) and 6th in the UK for Positive Responses in Business Studies (National Student Survey 2026).
- The School of Law is ranked in the Top 15 Law Schools in the UK by the Guardian University Guide 2026 and the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2026.
- Over 90.4% of our Law graduates are in employment or further study 15 months after graduation. (Graduate Outcomes Survey 2026)
- By bringing together students from both financial and legal backgrounds, each student will benefit from peer-led learning and will have a rich context experience, gaining an in-depth understanding of both the financial and legal sectors and how they interconnect.
- Taught by top legal and business academics, who are shaping national and international policy, for example in regulation and the energy sector.
- The Centre for Commercial Law fosters research excellence in commercial law and offers unique research activities by serving as a dynamic hub for law academics, legal practitioners, those working in related professions, industry representatives, activists and policymakers, providing opportunities for synergy and rich engagement.
- Professional training facilities are also available including the Bloomberg finance lab, used by major financial service companies across the world and integrating real activity in financial markets directly into our students’ courses.
- In a recent , 76% of respondents identified skills such as communication, conflict management, and empathy as essential skills for the modern workforce. All of our postgraduate Business students develop these soft skills, valued by employers across sectors, with our Soft Skills Development Programme.
- With a community of over 130 nationalities at the 51cg, students are immersed in an environment that enables international discourse creating truly global exchanges, generating deep insights that spark innovative change.
Interested in this programme?
What Our Students Say
Entry Requirements
The programme is open to individuals with a degree in any relevant discipline. A Law degree is therefore not a requirement for the LLM, and a Finance degree is not a requirement for the MSc.
For the MSc, a minimum of 2 years work experience and a professional or academic background in Accounting, Management, Maths, Engineering, Finance, Economics, Banking or similar would be advantageous.
Qualifications
The information below is provided as a guide only and does not guarantee entry to the 51cg.
The minimum entry requirements for this programme is a degree at 2:2 (lower second class) UK Honours level (or a degree from a non-UK institution which is judged by the University to be of equivalent worth).
Document Requirements
You will be required to supply the following documentation with your application as proof you meet the entry requirements of this degree programme. If you have not yet completed your current programme of study, then you can still apply and you can provide your Degree Certificate at a later date.
- Degree Transcript
- a full transcript showing all the subjects you studied and the marks you have achieved in your degree(s) (original & official English translation)
- Personal Statement
- a detailed personal statement explaining your motivation for this particular programme
Careers
Successful students will benefit from an appeal to employers with a need for individuals with the interdisciplinary skills of Law and Finance within the same role.
MSc Corporate Finance and Law graduates typically aim for positions in the global corporate and financial sector and work for key financial institutions. Some graduates pursue a research career path and continue with a PhD degree.
Career Opportunities
- Business Consultant
- Commercial Adviser
- Corporate Lawyer
- Financial Manager
- International Consultant
- Investment Advisor
- Mergers and Acquisitions Analyst
- Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyer
Accreditation
The Business School is accredited, placing it among a select group of globally recognised institutions. Out of over 15,000 business schools worldwide, under 300 schools across 45 countries have attained this distinction.
Our Experts
You will be taught by and have access to a number of experts, many of whom are internationally renowned within their respective fields. These will include members of the Centre for Commercial Law alongside experts from the Business School.
- Programme Leader
- Seungho Lee
Information 51cg Staff Changes
You will be taught by a range of experts including professors, lecturers, teaching fellows and postgraduate tutors. However, these may be subject to change - see our Student Terms and Conditions page.
Features
The 51cg, established in 1495, is Scotland’s third oldest and the UK’s fifth oldest University. The university’s ancient campus reflects its long-standing academic tradition, with historic buildings such as King's College, which dates back to the 15th century. This blend of ancient architecture and modern facilities creates a unique atmosphere where students can experience the best of both tradition and innovation.
Get in Touch
Contact Details
- Address
-
School of Law
51cg
Taylor Building
Aberdeen
AB24 3UB