I have just graduated from college and desire to take a year off prior to attending law school. I would like to live and work in London for the year. Please offer suggestions for employment (websites, etc.) and how I might obtain a visa.

A few years ago, a Fodorite did her best to get a job in London and was unable to. In the same field as you are going into.
I think it is extremely difficult, unless the company you work for, sends you there (which is what our niece got to do)..
Good luck! and Congratulations on your graduation!

If you can settle for a six month work permit, check out www.bunac.com

They help obtain a work permit and provide extensive support and information once in London.

I lived and worked there after college and went through Bunac, as did a few friends of mine. We had no trouble getting jobs, but it was 1999/ 2000 when the economy was better. I think as long as you are open minded about what you do though, finding employment should be possible. The agency will be able to answer these questions.

I don't think you can get a full year work permit as an American (are you?), unless you are sponsered by a company.

Another option is to attend some type of school and work on a student visa, but I think you can only work part time that way.

Anyway, if you haven't already, look into Bunac; 6 months is better than nothing!

...or sponsored by a company, either way.

Finding a job in London is easy.

Unemployment has continuously fallen since 1994, and is still falling (what IS pandaschu talking about?): the simplest thing to do is just turn up here and look. As always, good jobs go to people with the resourcefulness to get off their rears and walk the streets. Without a special skill, you're likely to be working in a bar. But, the state the employment market's in right now, you'll be managing the place in six months and being asked to be regional manager within a year if you've got the tiniest hint of initiative, honesty and common sense. Wisest move is to get a cheapo over here for a week, walk the streets, chase the ads in the Evening Standard, then decide your strategy.

Legality, OTOH, is a different matter. If you've an EU/EEA citizenship, just come and look. If you're a citizen of most Commonwealth countries, there's a series of schemes for working holiday visas (WHVs). If you're American, BUNAC offers a scheme which is similar to WHVs, but a lot less flexible

Otherwise? Well, there are thousands of illegals here, and the police are as excited about looking for them as the NYPD is about ferreting out overstaying Irish barmen. However, if you DO get caught, you'll be deported, and Europe's passport control systems will carry that information about you for a long time. Reasonable risk to take if you're a starving Moroccan: not a wise long-term strategy if you want to be a hotshot international attorney in 10 years' time.

The only other realistic option for Americans or Brazilians is to get a company to swear you've got skills they can't find in the EEA, and apply for a work permit for you. (There are a few other options - Britain's Highly Qualified Migrant scheme or an intercompany transfer - but these aren't really practical for a Gap Year, and the ability for diplomatic missions, foreign armed forces and their suppliers to hire their own nationals, but it's also unlikely they'd be that interested in Gap Year candidates).

In truth, you're unlikely to have any such skills. But no-one's going to police that too aggressively in a place like London. So you need to network like crazy - probably amonng your parents' chums more than anywhere else - to find someone happy to bend the truth a tad in return for some other favour.

London's dinner parties, now that house prices have got less interesting, talk of little other than how to get their 20 yo's decent internships, and London life is increasingly dominated by mutual backscratching about Gap Year placements. Get into these networks and you'll have little trouble finding Chelsea matrons queueing up to lie on your behalf.

Oh, and check the Thorntree site.

oops sorry. the rest should be accurate though...

good news for KNP, anyway.

As always flanner gives a good though off-beat advice. If you want to go down the illegal route, remember you only get a permission to stay as a visitor for 6 months and it's unextendable. If you are to leave the country and come back hoping for further 6 months, you're likley to be grilled by the immigration about your real intention and can be refused entry. Basically you have to have funds to last your expected length of stay without working, a reason for going home and preferably a return ticket.
I'd personally be above board and get on to Bunac program, save up and travel for further 3 months in Europe and 3 months in UK/Ireland.

That Fodorite who tried to get a job was in an odd field to easily work abroad, I think. First, she was a lawyer (I believe), and I imagine that is a difficult field to transport. Even in the US, they often want people who know local laws and have passed the local bar. Anyway, the reason she was unemployed, as I recall, was that she was in a field that was going bust all over the world -- telecommunications. I know lots of people that lost jobs at that time, got transfers abroad cancelled, etc., who were working in that field (including for law firms or consulting firms, specializing in that field). So, I just don't think that example of that Fodorite is very relevant.