The Student Room Group

How to move from Commercial law to Criminal Law?

Hi there, so I graduated from a top university with first class honours, and started my career working as a paralegal at a large city firm. Since then, I have taken a new job, also at a large reputable city firm. My original plan was to qualify as a solicitor at a large firm, but since working in them I have decided that it is not where I see myself in the future. I am quite interested in becoming a criminal defence solicitor at a high street firm (and building on my skills by becoming a solicitor advocate) but I cannot seem to find a clear route on how to achieve this goal. I have contacted many small high street criminal firms and most of them do not have any jobs advertised or any training contract opportunities advertised. Is there a way I can make the shift to criminal law? I do not want to spend too much time at my new commercial job as I think it will make it harder for me to to switch to criminal later on. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you
Reply 1
I'll try and be helpful as my girlfriend is currently training to be a legal aid criminal defence solicitor through the SQE and so we went through this stage barely a year ago. She started as a police station rep, I know you've probably heard this before but you will need to try and get as much criminal law experience as possible, and from anywhere you can because as you've said there aren't many opportunities available. One of the feedback she got was that they could see the genuine interest she had, they were recruiting for a while but they got the impression that most of the candidates weren't really keen on the role they just wanted to qualify and try their luck somewhere else.
Would you consider prosecution? The CPS are taking trainees at present

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