granddaughter wants to be a solicitor

poet123

The post grad qualification (LPC) is now rarely paid for by employers. One of my sons paid for his own the other has been lucky and his employers agreed to fund 70% of it. It can be done full time or part time, and is costing in the region of £10,000 currently. Most firms want this qualification in place now before awarding a training contract.

KiKi

cheepskate wrote: »

Why find things to put her off?

??? The OP has said nothing about trying to put her off. Simply helping her to understand what being a solicitor is.

Sorry OP, not sure where to direct you to (as my understanding of solicitors pretty much comes from the BBC's 'Silk'), but good on her for having ambition!

KiKi

jazzyjustlaw

It is cheaper to become a Legal Executive. These days there is no difference as they can become partners and Judges. They run their own caseload and even train some Solicitors. They do the job whilst qualifying. I did a law degree but could not afford the LPC. Look at the ILEX website!

onlyroz

Don't they do work experience at around age 15 these days? If this is still done then I'd suggest trying to secure a position at either a solicitors or at a court house.

Also, there are other good jobs in the legal field to consider, e.g. patent attorney, which are interesting and pay well, although also require a lot of study.

margaretclare

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

Where I used to work and where my H works the article clerks aka trainee solicitors (don't actually think anyone refers to them any other way these days) are paid a wage during their 2 year stint at the firm. No one works for free.

It was a while ago now...

lika_86

I think it's great that your granddaughter is thinking about what she wants to do already as it's certainly never too early, especially for a law career.

I'm currently a trainee solicitor in a firm in London due to qualify next year, it's been a long hard road so far and I still have a way to go yet but it's a job that is constantly different and challenging.

Firstly, it's important your granddaughter works out whether she knows what solicitors actually do, mostly it's a lot duller than people expect, solicitors mostly spend their lives at a desk, not in court or anything else exciting, although the nature of the work does vary massively between practice area. Also, solicitors aren't like GPs who do a bit of everything, the vast majority practise one area of law (property, crime, family, intellectual property, competition etc).

Secondly, it's important your granddaughter realises that law is unbelievably competitive, for example, my firm recruits around 18 trainees each year and receives 600 odd applications. High street/niche firms are arguably harder to get into as most take few trainees and recruit from within their paralegal base without offering funding for the vocational stage of training. Academically she will need good grades (As and Bs and a 2.1 degree from a 'good' university) as many firms make you list everything from GCSE onwards including every module result from your degree course.

The best thing to advise is that she get some work experience at a local high street firm, it's not representative of the work all solicitors do but it would give her an idea.

If you (or her) have any specific questions, please feel free to PM me on here, I never knew anyone who was a lawyer when I decided I wanted to be one and so I'm happy to help anyone who is interested in the profession.

kiss_me_now9

I don't think anyone I knew at 14 (apart from a couple of people who wanted to be doctors from a very young age) is now practicing or studying the career they wanted back then, 8 years on.

Try and get her shadowing or work experience in a solicitors office; my work experience and shadowing opportunities put me off many a job. Not sure why you'd want to discourage her from a career that she wants to do but hey.

Yorkie1

Just to point out that 'Silk' is about barristers, not solicitors. Although there's increasing overlap between solicitors and barristers in the advocacy side of things, the rest of it is still pretty distinct.

This page gives a useful overview of those two routes, plus the CILEx route.

I endorse the element of competition. I read recently that the CPS has just advertised for 15 trainee places (either solicitor or barrister), and had 1000 applications.

For purely financial reasons, if she definitely doesn't want to do the CILEx route, I would advise doing a law degree so that she doesn't have to then pay for the extra conversion course and living costs for that year.

melancholly

Yorkie1 wrote: »

For purely financial reasons, if she definitely doesn't want to do the CILEx route, I would advise doing a law degree so that she doesn't have to then pay for the extra conversion course and living costs for that year.

It's tricky. I'd usually advise to do a different degree to keep options open, but the drop in people being paid for the conversion course changes that a lot. Give it a few years and it may all change....

Either way, the reality of any career is usually a lot more boring than tv shows about it would suggest. Work experience might be a good way to check that. Probably worth saying that I did work experience with a solicitor at 16 and decided it wasn't for me. A very useful week for me, even if I think my parents are probably still a bit disappointed!

vax2002

Is she a good liar ?