Order, order! You CAN become a lawyer without going to university first
The legal profession is notoriously hard to get into. There’s three years of a degree and then numerous professional qualifications before you can call yourself a lawyer and start saying things like “Objection!” and “This whole courtroom is out of order”. But actually, what you might not know is that that isn’t the only way into the legal profession.
Yep, that’s right. You don’t necessarily have to spend three years at university to become a solicitor. There is another option, that doesn’t involve spending £50,000. Taking a chartered legal executive qualification is currently the only way to becoming a lawyer without incurring so much debt.
It’s possible to become a chartered legal executive by taking a level 3 qualification (equivalent to A Levels) with the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) as a school leaver. It’s a four year course, that includes three years of relevant experience in the legal profession and then another two years working in qualifying employment. For all the information have a look at the CILEX website.
And there is more good news for those of you who don’t fancy uni but still want to go into law, the Legal Education and Training Review is looking at ways to transform routes into the legal profession. We spoke to Nigel Spencer, director of learning and development for Europe and Middle East at Reed Smith, about the proposed changes.
“I went to a breakfast seminar at the House of Lords during National Apprenticeship Week and one of the things that they were talking about was the launch of the higher level apprenticeships. So what they’re planning to do possibly from September 2014 is what they’ve titled the higher apprenticeship in legal practice,” Nigel said. “And the aim is that that would be a non-university route into the profession.”
The apprenticeship, if it’s agreed by The Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, will work primarily on work based training. Apprentices will earn while they learn and gain valuable experiences in a legal setting.
“Learning on the job is everything. One of the challenges is the transfer of the learning from the classroom back to the desk,” Nigel said. “Have a placement, learn on the job, apply your learning in a real situation. For me that’s absolutely everything. For that reason I’m a big fan of apprenticeships.”
We also asked Carolyn Pepper, a partner at Reed Smith, for her advice for people wanting to get into the legal profession. Here are Carolyn’s tips for making it in the legal profession:
Yep, that’s right. You don’t necessarily have to spend three years at university to become a solicitor. There is another option, that doesn’t involve spending £50,000. Taking a chartered legal executive qualification is currently the only way to becoming a lawyer without incurring so much debt.
It’s possible to become a chartered legal executive by taking a level 3 qualification (equivalent to A Levels) with the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) as a school leaver. It’s a four year course, that includes three years of relevant experience in the legal profession and then another two years working in qualifying employment. For all the information have a look at the CILEX website.
And there is more good news for those of you who don’t fancy uni but still want to go into law, the Legal Education and Training Review is looking at ways to transform routes into the legal profession. We spoke to Nigel Spencer, director of learning and development for Europe and Middle East at Reed Smith, about the proposed changes.
“I went to a breakfast seminar at the House of Lords during National Apprenticeship Week and one of the things that they were talking about was the launch of the higher level apprenticeships. So what they’re planning to do possibly from September 2014 is what they’ve titled the higher apprenticeship in legal practice,” Nigel said. “And the aim is that that would be a non-university route into the profession.”
The apprenticeship, if it’s agreed by The Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, will work primarily on work based training. Apprentices will earn while they learn and gain valuable experiences in a legal setting.
“Learning on the job is everything. One of the challenges is the transfer of the learning from the classroom back to the desk,” Nigel said. “Have a placement, learn on the job, apply your learning in a real situation. For me that’s absolutely everything. For that reason I’m a big fan of apprenticeships.”
Tips from those in the know
We asked Nigel for his advice for people wanting to work in the legal profession. He said: “When you talk to people at law firms, just cross check what the qualities they look for are. Often the applications are quite competency based, often it will be qualities like determination, motivation, working in a team.”We also asked Carolyn Pepper, a partner at Reed Smith, for her advice for people wanting to get into the legal profession. Here are Carolyn’s tips for making it in the legal profession:
- Be determined. “Being determined and being confident are two of the most important things because it is hard work, being in the legal profession, so be prepared to work hard. Be determined and be ambitious as well. You need to be all of those three things if you want to be successful at it. The rewards are great if you’re determined, ambitious and prepared to work hard, the rewards are really good both in terms of job satisfaction and financial rewards so for all of those reasons you need those three qualities.”
- Network, network, network. “Don’t be afraid to try and make as many contacts as you can. Go to as many events as you can. There are a lot of people wanting a limited number of jobs, it’s a very competitive so you have to make yourself stand out somehow and one of the ways to do that is to go along to as many free talks or lectures as you can. There are so many people going for it, you want to be remembered.”
- Volunteer. “Volunteering is a very good thing to do if you have some spare time to help out at the Citizen’s Advice Bureau or anything like that, it just gives you a bit of experience. It doesn’t have to be in a law firm, which can be a bit more difficult to get. Just anything that gets you a bit more experience of legal related things. Can you write to the courts asking if you could follow round the staff in the court for a while. It doesn’t have to be through a law firm, just show that you’re keen, show that you’re determined from the beginning to do this.”
- Think outside the box. “Work experience is key because you would not get a training contract at a law firm unless you can show you’ve done some kind of work experience. But the thing to remember is it’s not just law firms that have lawyers working in them. Most big companies these days have a legal department so even if you don’t know someone working in a law firm, you probably know someone working in any kind of firm. Wherever it is, they’ll probably have an in-house legal department. All sorts of companies do, local councils too. There are lawyers in almost every big organisation these days. A lot of people concentrate on getting into big law firms for work experience but you don’t have to do that you can get the work experience from going in and shadowing someone in a legal department instead. Work experience is so important but just think outside the box about where you might find it because you can find lawyers everywhere.”
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