How hard is it to become a solicitor in England?

abdelb

Do you have to be ridiculously smart?

Enlighten me, please.

Reply 1

dhokes

abdelb

Do you have to be ridiculously smart?

Enlighten me, please.

Ridiculously smart? No. Will you have to work hard? Yes.

Reply 2

MelesMeles

Well, it depends what you mean.

How hard is it to gain the qualifications necessary to practice as a solicitor? Not terribly hard. Get a 2:1 from any half-decent uni, take a training contract wherever you can find one (if you're not picky, they're not too hard to find). Or, take the ILEX vocational route and qualify that way.

But, if you mean "how hard is it to establish yourself at a firm of your choice practising a specific type of law", well, it's a bit harder. You don't have to be ridiculously smart, but you do need to work quite hard both in the classroom and with your extracurriculars and placements.

Reply 3

MelesMeles

dhokes

Ridiculously smart? No. Will you have to work hard? Yes.

There's a bug in your sig.

Edit: That joke also available in the following flavours:

Your sig is bugged.
Someone is bugging your sig.
Your sig is really starting to bug me.

Reply 4

DannyBoy123

Hard work is more important than a razor sharp intellect. Obviously you can't be stupid and the equivalent of 3 A's at A-level and 2.1 Degree from a good University are pretty standard.

Reply 5

Tufts

High street legal aid or big commercial firm?

Reply 6

mistermeowingtons

Not ridiculously smart, but you have to have a certain amount of intelligence to enter one of the most competitive fields of work.

You need strong A level grades to get into a half decent University to study law, and at least a 2:1 to get into a half decent firm.

Reply 7

blinkbelle

My best friend has just decided she's moving to Austrailia to practice law over there instead of here, mainly because her family's moving but also because she's fed up of being rejected by firms here and gets the impression that it's much less competitive over there. I hope she's right for her sake!

My experience so far is that the recruitment system is tough, but if you want to do it, you'll do it. xx