What About Non-Commercial?

You read so many threads here about wanting to work for commercial firms in London because of the huge salaries.....but does anyone on here want to do non-commercial?

I don't see why people all want to go for the commercial firms. You can still earn a great salary (60k-70k) working in crime, personal injury, conveyancing etc. And personally, it all looks far more interesting.

Anyone agree?

Reply 1

thats_my_poison

forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is non-commerical?

Reply 2

HappinessHappening

Anything that doesn't involve commercial law like crime, personal injury, conveyancing etc

Reply 3

thats_my_poison

how do you know so much about law if you're still in yr11? also, i've wondered this for a while actually, how can you be so sure that you want to study law when you havent even done any formal studying for it (well im assuming you havent anyway). im just asking becuase i was talking to a girl i used to be friends with and she has always been convinced that she wants to do a law degree and then go on to be a solicitor and i could never understand how she could be so certain.

Reply 4

HappinessHappening

It's like knowing you want to be a doctor. You don't have to do any experience to knowit's what you want to do. You just know you love science and want to help people medically.

It's the same with the law. You know you want to be putting those cases together for people and helping them. You know how fascinating it looks and how brilliant it can be. I've also done a lot of my own reading.

Reply 5

TommehR

I can think of nothing worse than practising Criminal, Personal Injury or Conveyancing for the rest of my life. The idea of being an high street solicitor is not nice. Probate, divorces and dealing with very minor things isn't exactly interesting. I don't know how you can call it fascinating.

With criminal you are quite likely to have a dilemma: which side are you going to be on? On the side of the prosecution there are going to be cases where you have to prosecute a man whom you personally feel might well be innocent. With defence, you're going to be defending people who you believe are guilty and trying to get them off on technicalities and the like. Sure, people like Michael Mansfield make it look glamourous but I'm in little doubt that such is not the case. This may not be a dilemma for many people who might be able to distance themselves emotionally but I think I'd find it quite difficult.

Reply 6

Manatee

TommehR

Well, we all find different things fascinating. Personally, I can see the appeal of working in a high street practice, doing something like matrimonial law - at least you would be helping people in a fairly important way (if you did your job well!). Having said that, I expect a lot of the work would be fairly routine, but not everyone likes constant challenge which, let's face it, can be pretty stressful. The downside of doing, say, corporate law in the City is that it can feel rather impersonal; acting for large companies and dealing with directors/company secretaries/other lawyers/bankers is not necessarily the same as acting for someone who has a personal stake in the matter.

Just my two cents.

Reply 7

Lewisy-boy

At the end of the day its personal preference. Every one will have their own preference and someone must find everything interesting or there would only be one type of solicitor!!

Dont listen to what everyone else says, and do what you want. Personally I cant think of anything worse than resolving petty family disputes for the rest of my life when I could be in the fast moving, ever changing business sector. But that is a personal preference, and I have nothing against those of the opposite view.

Reply 8

killiefan

I don't want to work in commercial law, I really want to work for the CPS, however if that isn't possible I'd like to do family law or personal injury. I know too many people who work in litigation doing the same old thing day in day out. While I appreciate that there will be an element of this no matter what you do, I want to practice in these areas for hte human interest factor!

Reply 9

Oddity

Liam Deakin

Yeah I suppose, I agree. But I dont think that people dont go for that because of the money, I suppose that it has to do with the face that the idea of talking to a criminal might be scary.

Reply 10

dragon_1706

It is to do with the money in some cases. I know people who've done or who will be doing training contracts with commercial firms despite having no interest in that type of work. They've chosen those firms because they've been able to get funding and know that they'll be paid more if they choose to stay in that sector once they're qualified.

Reply 11

TommehR

dragon_1706

For the amount of work you are going to be doing, the amount of monetary compensation surely must be a factor when choosing which jobs to apply for?

Reply 12

Baadshah

If you're not doing commercial law it doesn't mean that you'll be working in a high street firm. There are plenty of places in central London who are practice 'non commercial law' who are at the real top of their fields. Off the top of my head, theres a firm called Christian Khan who deal with human rights. Theyve had a job going in the Times for a 100K salary. Belive me, theres a lot more to law then the commercial side.