My career plans no longer make sense?

As an AS-Level student of Maths, Physics, English Language and Theology, I've kept my options open between scientific and humanitarian university courses.

About two years ago I drafted a plan of what I wanted to do after high school and that encompassed finishing college with a set of subjects that allow me to get an undergraduate Law degree, get an MSc in Corporate Law and then go on to pass the BPTC and become a barrister.

My issue comes in at the fact that I seem to be enjoying the scientific side of things a lot more than I expected. I intended to do Maths because it would help with the number crunching in the corporate world and Physics because I enjoyed it, but I never considered doing either of these in university. Now, after having understood that one can pass the BPTC without having taken a Jurisprudence undergraduate course, I'm considering doing a different course in university in order to broaden my education.

Approaching my question - I would like to know what section of law would be opened to me if I decided to take Physics or Maths in undergrad? Is there such a profession that combines the courtroom spotlight, thrilling rush with the nerdy, mathematical aspect of physics and maths? My plans seem to be crumbling because of my now continuously fueled passion for the sciences which is growing at the same rate as my passion for the humanities, and if they are equal by the time I have to apply to university the decision is going to be incredibly difficult.

Thank you.

Reply 1

Hubrillity

Original post by J-SP

Any area of law is open to you with a science/maths degree. You are not limited in anyway.

If you want to use your degree knowledge in a legal environment then the area of IP/ patents might be of particular interest to you if you do a science course and tax if you do maths. These areas tend to recruit more people from those backgrounds given the cross over. But you could have studied any degree subject and still potentially get into the majority of these areas.

I'm not an expert in the bar route, so it could be slightly different if you want to be a barrister, but if you wanted to be a lawyer instead the above is based on my experiences of recruiting and working with those type of lawyers.

Posted from TSR Mobile

I understand that I wouldn't be limited, but would I be at a significant disadvantage? If an undergraduate course in Law isn't mandatory, then why do people actually take it as opposed to taking something that would help them further specialise?

Reply 2

michelliki

Previous posters have already given good overviews of legal areas that benefit from a science degree. I'd like to throw in real estate / construction law, especially if you were into engineering. Banking & finance is also interesting for people with good quantitative skills.

I did law as an undergrad (I'm not a UK lawyer so the GDL route was not available to me) but had I had the choice, I'd have done a different undergraduate degree. That's not because I did not enjoy my law degree (I enjoyed it at least as much as I enjoy legal practice now) but because like you, I was interested in vastly different subjects and would have very much loved to do a humanities degree first, had I known the legal route would be available to me later on. It allows you to explore more than one subject and also gives you greater flexibility if you ever decided legal pratice wasn't for you after all.

Bear in mind, however, that doing an unrelated undergraduate degree and then a GDL will take more time (duh) and also be a lot more expensive. If you are comfortable that you'll achieve a very good honours classificiation in your undergraduate (I'm talking first class honours) then you may be able to secure sponsoring for the GDL and the LPC/BPTC (at least that's the case if you secure a training contract with a good law firm, I suspect it is substantially more difficult if you want to go down the barrister route, which is even more competitive). If the money is not an obstacle, then I'd recommend doing the GDL route given that your interests are this varied.

I also found a very interesting article on Legal Cheek (I hope it is okay to post this here) that advocates for the GDL route (some of the comments are also interesting to read):

http://www.legalcheek.com/lc-careers-posts/how-to-become-a-city-of-london-lawyer-with-a-scottish-law-degree/

Reply 3

TurboCretin

Original post by Hubrillity

It's not an issue. As J-SP has already said, studying a science could give you an advantage in some spheres of legal practice.

People study law (a) because they like the idea of studying it, (b) because they want to be a lawyer and have nothing else they'd rather study or (c) because they suffer from lack of imagination.

Doing a law degree would cut a year or two from your route to qualification and be cheaper, but if you would really rather study something else then please don't be dissuaded from doing that because you think it will impact on your options for a legal career.