[NeverEatFish]

Hi

I have studied law at A level and will hopefully start a law degree in September. I find it really interesting and would love a career in law.

However, standing up in a courtroom doesn't appeal to me, the paperwork and research etc does.

What job would include this? Like solicitors assistants?

Apologies if I sound like an idiot, I'm not familiar with job roles, just find the subject really interesting.

Thanks!

[MQ003C]

Paperwork? Don't think you'd want to be a support officer for solicitors. I'm one at the moment and well in all honesty its great to have an insight into the what solicitors actually do. But the kind of work I do is mostly case closing and managing documents for court and the usual admin stuff. Also learn about legal database systems and such that you use in the workplace... Maybe you'd want to be a legal assistant? They basically support senior solicitors with their work and take some of their case loads from them. Or even a legal executive who also do similar work. Paralegalling is a good way to get a taste of the legal profession probably not as fierce as getting a training contract to be a solicitor but its an avenue to help you get there.

tl;dr do some research into the kind of roles in a firm.

[zaliack]

You don't know what it's like to stand in a court room yet though .

Non courtroom work is mostly paralegals and you could also be an arbitrator.
Very limited courtroom work would be commercial/corporate solicitors.
Limited courtroom work would be chancery barristers.
Semi-limited courtroom work would be commercial barristers.
Mediocre courtroom work is probably everything else, except criminal solicitors and barristers, which require heavy court room work.

Oh yeah, you could just become an academic. No court work required, just a constant stream of paper work.

And one more thing that just popped into my head. There are going to be several thousand solicitors working in WHSmith, thanks to a new law about legal partnerships, so they will most likely just be giving legal advice, and may not have as much court room appearances as other jobs.

[NeverEatFish]

(Original post by MQ003C)
Paperwork? Don't think you'd want to be a support officer for solicitors. I'm one at the moment and well in all honesty its great to have an insight into the what solicitors actually do. But the kind of work I do is mostly case closing and managing documents for court and the usual admin stuff. Also learn about legal database systems and such that you use in the workplace... Maybe you'd want to be a legal assistant? They basically support senior solicitors with their work and take some of their case loads from them. Or even a legal executive who also do similar work. Paralegalling is a good way to get a taste of the legal profession probably not as fierce as getting a training contract to be a solicitor but its an avenue to help you get there.

tl;dr do some research into the kind of roles in a firm.

Legal assistant/executive sounds good, will look into them, thanks

(Original post by zaliack)
You don't know what it's like to stand in a court room yet though .

Non courtroom work is mostly paralegals and you could also be an arbitrator.
Very limited courtroom work would be commercial/corporate solicitors.
Limited courtroom work would be chancery barristers.
Semi-limited courtroom work would be commercial barristers.
Mediocre courtroom work is probably everything else, except criminal solicitors and barristers, which require heavy court room work.

Oh yeah, you could just become an academic. No court work required, just a constant stream of paper work.

And one more thing that just popped into my head. There are going to be several thousand solicitors working in WHSmith, thanks to a new law about legal partnerships, so they will most likely just be giving legal advice, and may not have as much court room appearances as other jobs.

Thanks, and academic like teaching it?

[NeverEatFish]

(Original post by Wildman)
become a City solicitor and you will never need to stand up in a courtroom.

don't write off the courtroom stuff though. You may change your mind as you get older. Definitely try mooting when you are studying law.

How come? And I won't, I hope I do change my mind and atm I guess I don't know much about it which is probably why I'm a bit hesitant.

[NeverEatFish]

That sounds like what I think I'd like to do, thanks

[helpfulcynic]

Not sure I've ever been to a courtroom, can't remember it. Corporate law is where you want to be. You get the glamour, the girls, the money, the kudos, the cool little deal trophies...

However you also get circa 1 day a week on average not actually getting any sleep and just working at your desk. Standard day for me is 8am until oh around 9pmish at the earliest, generally get out around 10:30 but towards the end of a transaction rarely get more than around 3-5 hours sleep and completion meetings are pretty much guaranteed to be 'all nighters'.

Btw, Legal executive is not the same as a legal assistant.

Legal execs are vaguely qualified and able to act on transactions. Legal assistants can't be trusted to set up datarooms correctly.

The route i took was:

non-law degree
gdl
lpc
2 years paraweaseling in corporate
tc + nq offer, qualified into corporate.

It hurt but 4y pqe now and banking over 100k, it's worth it in the end if you get into a good shop but you have got to put the hours in and they don't ever stop. Partners at my place work similar hours to me well into their 50s. Bit of a reality check when I worked that one out, but I can deal with it!

[NeverEatFish]

(Original post by helpfulcynic)
X

That sounds hard but rewarding... Thanks! Think I'll just have to do a lot more research while at uni