Becoming a Forensic Pathologist with a Law degree?

Hi,

So I’m currently in my 3rd year of studying law at university. I’ve always been very confused about what I wanted to do in the future. I’m not sure why I settled on law, I was panicking a lot about picking the ‘right degree’ and settled on the most ‘prestigious’ one out of the ones I was looking at back then. While I haven’t hated law, I certainly know it hasn’t sparked any sort of a ‘passion’ in me and I’m starting to regret my choice (and also hate the education system for presuming we’d know who we wanted to be at such a young age)

My course recently offered a forensic medicine module as an optional module for law students to take to pick up over a law module. It lasts 2 semesters (as opposed to the usual 1) and after completed the first semester I absolutely love it. My friends have even noticed how I’ve sparked up somewhat in study sessions when working on it in contrast to my usual law work, not to mention I’ve been told by the module organiser that I’ve shown a very good understanding of it so I believe I’m doing very well?

Point is, I’ve found something that’s really inspired me. I’d love to work as forensic pathologist or something in a similar area.
Is there any way I can work towards this once my law degree is completed? Would my law degree be beneficial in any way or is it useless now?

And before anyone comments “you need a med degree”, I know, but I can’t afford to fund a second degree. That’s why I’m here, I want to know if there’s any other similar job opportunities I can reach with the degree I have, or if there’s a way via work experience etc. I’m very passionate about this and I’d be willing to put some work in.

If it’s relevant at all, I have 3 A-Levels (A*,B,B) in Art&Design, Psychology and English Lit&Lang. With an additional A* EPQ.

((also apologies if this is in the wrong forum, I wasn’t sure where to ask this))

Reply 1

Bookworm784

Often, the fact that you will be a "graduate" regardless of type of degree, will allow you the opportunity to apply to any career. Therefore, finish the law degree with your best possible result and just start applying for jobs or work experience in the area you are interested in. Hope that helps.

Reply 2

Kay7475

How about working in law in the area of medical negligence?

Reply 3

ErasistratusV

Pathologists are all trained medical doctors. You cannot be a pathologist and understand trauma, injury or disease without the background knowledge of what any doctor would know. Pathology training is a very competitive specialty and pretty demanding to complete.

I suspect the reason you have a forensic medicine module in law is to give would-be legal professionals some bare understanding of what forensic pathology can and cannot do given the limitations of current technology in the context of the law and in the courts. A lot of people in the legal profession, in common with much of the general population, would not have much knowledge in medical matters. A key illustration of this is where coroners are involved- many of them do not have any medical training and they have to rely on expert witnesses instead.

I suppose it is possible you could end up working with the police as a member of the forensics team, where they examine, collect and document forensic evidence for the purposes of prosecutions. A very good understanding of the law would be needed for this.