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Why do law degrees rarely offer a year in industry?

Most universities have variants of courses with a year in industry, however it seems this isn't the case with law. In fact, the majority of the top universities I am looking at don't offer this. Is there a reason behind this? If anything I feel like with Law being so competitive, surely a year in industry is something that should be offered especially for this course?
I guess the expectation is that students will undertake work experience though vacation schemes and mini-pupillages, which are timed to occur in the vacation periods. Also as you wouldn't yet have a law degree there would likely be some limitations on what you could practically do; it may be law firms would find it hard to justify paying a student for a full year if they have a very restricted range of things they could do.

Also the training contract/pupillage is the year industry of a sorts I suppose, since you won't be a fully qualified lawyer or barrister until after completing that. Additionally there are (or maybe were) restrictions on how long you could take to complete a law degree after beginning one and have it count as a qualifying law degree (QLD), which was I think seven years. So adding an extra year in the mix could make things a little narrower to complete within that timeframe if there are serious (non-academic, extenuating) issues that arise which delay things.
1. there are no 'top' employers willing to offer them. no business need

firms struggle to find work to give to a vac schemer, let alone a year long placement person!
most firms have plenty of applicants and don't need to use the placement year as a recruitment thing
there's a formal training period (the PRT/pupillage) for successful applicants. you're not expected to arrive having all the skills and expertise to hit the ground running.

2. too many applicants/interested ppl for too few places

3. law firms prefer to train permanent paralegals and secretaries instead of temps for rote work, especially when the pay is similar. they stick around

p.s. i remember seeing something between exeter and reed smith. not sure how many places are available but it does exist.
(edited 3 years ago)

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