Work experience for law

I was wondering what work experiences I should do in order to pursue a career in law and have the chance to become a lawyer in the future. I am currently in year 12 and the only work experience I have done is in an accountancy firm and in Tesco. Would these be okay to do, or do I HAVE to do work experience at a lawyers' firm?

Depends on the question you're asking.

If you mean career, get as much experience as possible -- focus on the competitive stuff. If you mean to be admitted to a law degree, work experience does not help.

You will need to do 2 years legal work experience as its likely you will need to take the SQE when it comes to effect in 2021 since you'll be starting uni by 2020. What will count towards legal work experience includes placements, volunteering, paralegal experience.

More info here: https://www.lawcareers.net/Information/Features/04122018-The-Solicitors-Qualifying-Exam-everything-we-know-so-far

While, non legal work experience is good, the focus is on legal work experience under SQE

The 2-year period of recognised training is pretty much what we have under the current regime. I.e. you will do it under a TC.

J-SP was talking about it before. Firms responsible for your training can currently sign off placements and volunteering to reduce the 2-year period of recognised under the current system, but they're not willing to do this becuse the non-TC experience is perceived as inadequate. There is no real reason to suppose the scheme would be different under SQE, although I hope it will be.

But in other words, I think your response is liable to confuse the OP. Let's treat work experience as the doss stuff people do to jazz up their CV and the period of recognised training/TC as the 2-year one.

Ahh fair enough. But ist TC being scrapped once SQE comes? I was under the impression it was. Unless they'll continue to use that for the 2 year recognised training period and simply expanding what could count as recognised training.

I was wondering what work experiences I should do in order to pursue a career in law and have the chance to become a lawyer in the future. I am currently in year 12 and the only work experience I have done is in an accountancy firm and in Tesco. Would these be okay to do, or do I HAVE to do work experience at a lawyers' firm?

OP - you are only in Year 12 and don't have to worry yet about having specific work experience in Law - most people who apply to Law degrees won't have any experience in a legal firm. The time to get work experience is during your degree course and a good Uni will help you achieve this by running Law clinics, etc. If you don't feel that your Uni is offering enough opportunities to gain legal work experience, you can apply to the Citizens Advice Bureau to volunteer with them - they are well respected and offer good tranining.

Hi - have you considered solicitor apprenticeships? You'd have 4 years of extra work experience whilst studying for your degree.

I haven't actually, that's actually a really good point. I'll definitely look into this.

More like 5-7 years

On that basis it is actually 3, as the current time period for an apprentice in 5 not 6 years (60 months).

But that’s on the assumption that you do the apprenticeship within the allotted time (many aren’t on track to do that) and with the SQE now delayed, apprentices are more likely to be waiting more than the original 5 years to be at the same qualified level.

And also on the assumption that people think they will be comparable - there’s no evidence to suggest they will be.

Solicitors apprenticeship framework is based on 60 months.



If if you do an apprenticeship you don’t do it and then do a TC, the TC is integrated into the same time period.

many apprentices are not on track due to a number of reasons. Training providers have been slow at getting up to speed, employers haven’t anticipated the difficulties of juggling work and study, apprentices have failed modules. All this delays the process and can mean it will take more than 5 years. Also many employers won’t put someone on the apprenticeship standard until they have passed a probation period (typically 3-6 months).

Apprentices are also completely reliant on the SQE being ready - which it isn’t. And the SQE is in two stages and exams will only be every six months. For the time being people could still take a law degree and take a more guaranteed qualification route and timeframe through the LPC.

The issue will be whether firms truly see an apprentice as comparable to a graduate. I hope they do, but considering how sniffy the profession is about a lot of things, I suspect when they look at NQ recruits or qualified lawyers, they will still be looking at their background and where they studied.