Law conversion after St Andrews

[pingu]

Hey,

I have recently been thinking (more seriously) about what i really want to do after university, and it seems to me that Law is the answer. I applied for Law at every other university after school, but obviously it was never a possiblity at St Andrews, and this was where i wanted to be. So now that I'm coming to the end of third year I feel that I need to decide what I want to go on to do after I graduate. My degree is in English, and I was wondering if anyone knows what the best way to go about getting in to law is.

Am i right in thinking that I can apply for a 2year conversion course in law, and then you go to get direct work experience for a further 2 years with a firm etc.

If anyone knows the best route to take, please do post your ideas. obviously i will be going to ask at careers and various fayres but i thought i'd see if you good people were in-the-know about such things.

(I'd appreciate any serious posts, please resist the temptation to lecture me on the immorality of lawyers, my lack of knowledge in this subject, or even any grammatical errors i might have made... hijacked threads are soooooooo unhelpful).

[bdw]

Scots or English law?

[Lyeta]

Hey
I was looking at doing the same thing but have changed tack now so I will see what I can remember! Im pretty sure Nottingham uni does a 1 year conversion course (or two years part time) as do Oxbridge. There are plenty of them around so your best bet is probably to go to the Careers service as I seem to remember they had a whole booklet on law conversion with the places that do it. I was looking more specifically at Environmental Law so the places I looked at were more focussed on that, but I'm sure the careers service library will have something to offer! Good luck

[HeronAddict]

Quoting Lyeta from 13:55, 10th Mar 2006
Hey
I was looking at doing the same thing but have changed tack now so I will see what I can remember! Im pretty sure Nottingham uni does a 1 year conversion course (or two years part time) as do Oxbridge. There are plenty of them around so your best bet is probably to go to the Careers service as I seem to remember they had a whole booklet on law conversion with the places that do it. I was looking more specifically at Environmental Law so the places I looked at were more focussed on that, but I'm sure the careers service library will have something to offer! Good luck

[Guest]

Hey, I'm in fourth year at the moment studying IR and Modern History, and have just got a place on the College of Law in York's Graduate Diploma in Law course starting in September. It is a two year course, but quite how I'm going to pay the £5500 a year fees I haven't worked out yet...

Anyhoo, as a third year your best bet is to start doing some research into the type of law you want to practice - basically whether you want to be in commercial law (putting together deals for major clients) or criminal law (as a barrister, defending criminals). I went for commercial law for a few reasons - more variety of work, the challenge of working with major international firms, more opportunity for foreign travel, don't need to defend guilty neds etc...

So if you decide to go for commercial law, your first step should be to try and get some relevant work experience - through a friend I was able to get a week in a small high street solicitor in my area, which was really good as it gave me some first hand experience of what the work actually involved (given I haven't studied it obviously), plus it looks really good when you start the dreaded applications process. You could also try your local Citizens Advice Bureau, and the major firms are really big on "commercial awareness" (whatever the feck that is), so anything that involves working in finance is well looked upon as well.

So then (there's so many hoops to jump through its ridiculous!) in about October or November of your final year you should be applying for vacation placements with major law firms. Again, you have to do some research into each firm and where you actually want to work - if you're happy going to London there's tons to choose from, if not Leeds, Birmingham and Bristol all have a wide range of firms offering vacation placements. Scotland isn't so good - hardly any firms offer training contracts two years in advance, and the conversion course in longer and more expensive, so England would probably be your best bet.

If then by some miracle you manage to get on a vacation placement (I haven't yet), then you have a good chance of getting a training contract with a major firm, and they will pay your fees - this is the holy grail, but its incredibly competitive, as i've found out.

My main advice would be to be totally convinced that a career in law is something you really want to pursue, because it takes a huge amount of time, effort and bullshitting to even get an interview for a vacation placement (i've had one so far and it was a bit of a disaster). Good luck!

[TheUnixKid]

hi,

I'm also planning to have a career in law. Apart from knowing you want to do law I think the most important thing you have to decide is whether or not you want to be a solicitor or a barrister as this will dictate the type of qualification you need to aim for.

Generally speaking solicitors are the first point of contact for clients with legal matters who then refer them to a barrister to represent them in court. These distinctions are blurring with the idea of solicitor advocates however. Anyway,.

To qualify as a solicitor you have to complete a law conversion course (one year) then complete the legal practice course (LPC) for one year and then spend two years on a training contract working in a firm.

For barristers you do the conversion course, then the Bar vocational course (BVC) for a year then a one year pupillage in a barristers’ chambers.

If you are any way creative (which studying English you may be) I'd stay clear of being a solicitor because it's probably the most boring job imaginable (perhaps second only to accountancy). I did an internship in for a v large firm and spent literally hours in meetings listening to arguments about whether a ":" should appear in line 2 or line 3 etc.

I'm not quite sure what the second unregistered user is on about in the distinction between commercial or criminal law. He/she may mean choosing between criminal and civil but I'm not sure. As a qualified barrister/solicitor you can do pretty much anything you want like intelligence law, commercial law (mind-numbing also but very lucrative) property law etc.

Please go to the Careers centre, they have some really good books and stuff on law that you can take with you. They detail everything you need to know for a career in law. Try TARGET Law 2006 and Prospects Law. Also check out Learning the Law by Glanville Williams, it’s pretty dry and boring but tells you everything you need to know from a legal dudes viewpoint. For now try looking at www.doctorjob.com/law.

I hope this helps,

P.S make sure you definitely want to do law before applying, it’s incredibly expensive and very hard work for the first few years. The rewards are many if you do do it though. Also you’re at an advantage doing a non-law undergraduate degree because you are more of a rounded person, or so they say…
P.P.S I forgot to say try doing a mini-pupillage for a week or two at a barristers chambers or just sit in on a court case and you may get a better idea of law is for you. For solicitor stuff try doing what unreg user person said and get a placement. Or talk to anyone you know who's doing it or has done it.

[TheUnixKid]

There are a tonne of places to do conversions, here are a few I can remember:

Northumbria Uni
Nottingham Trent (very good, where Oxbridge people go)
BPP (London)
College of Law (London)
City Law
Keele
Middlesex
Oxford Brooks

There are a lot more but generally the first 5 are regarded as the best, I think BPP and City are the best, or it may be College of Law, I can't remember!

[Guest]

Quoting TheUnixKid from 23:18, 10th Mar 2006
intelligence law

some might say a contradiction in terms - do you mean intellectual property law?

[pingu]

thank you so much to everyone who has posted adviceon this thread, its much appreciated.

[TheUnixKid]

Intelligence law, intellectual property law, big difference. I'm allowed one minor error I think.

Hope it was of some help Pingu.

[AS]

Hi! I recently got a place to study at the College of Law in York starting in September. As has already been said, make sure law is what you really want to do - it can take some commitment to accept a lot of rejections that most people seem to get from the law firms. But i think if you keep at it, it will eventually pay off and be worth it! Go to the careers centre and pick up the Chambers Student Guide to the Legal Profession. It tells you everything you need to be thinking about now and also has a list of all the law firms offering vacation placements and training contracts with some useful extra information. Good Luck!

[AS]

Hi! I've just got a place at the College of Law starting in September. As has already been said, make sure that you really want to do law as you have to be committed to take many of the rejections that will probably come your way from the law firms. But if you stick with it, you probably will have some success and it will hopefully be worth it. Go to the careers service and pick up the Chambers Student Guide to the Legal Proffession - it will give you a really good idea of what you need to be thinking about and it has lists of all the firms that offer vacation scheme places and training contracts. Good luck with it all.