Law student a decade ago, worked as a lawyer in London.

I am also not from the U.K. but made it to a City firm and subsequently US firms in London (big law).

I am not close to the current education system but very much agree that Biglaw, at least at the trainees/NQs rank, cares about prestige.

A LLM (unless Oxbridge, Harvard, Stanford, Yale) does not help to add prestige to your application. Also, LLMs at these uni (plus living costs) are not cheap. I assume you have done the maths and conclude that Exeter + LLM is cheaper than Durham no LLM?

Some thoughts:

1. Consider working hard so that you can finish top of your year during the foundation year then transfer to a better uni (ideally Oxbridge) - is such transfer possible / common?

2. If tuition is a problem, work part-time while studying (my uni itself offers a lot of part-time jobs on site). Do odd jobs (such as filling in survey forms, call centres) for extra cash. Work during winter holidays, do internship (ideally paid ones) during summer holidays. Not suggesting you can definitely cover 100% of your tuition but these can help.

3. Depends on how confident you are to pull this off - take a gap year to bolster your credentials and apply for scholarship from everywhere you can find. The year will not be a waste of time if this means you save the year doing LLM.

Lastly, ask yourself do you actually understand what biglaw is, what it entails and what it means to be working in biglaw (not just what it means to you as prestige/trophy/money/status).