Law or Economics degree?

Hi everyone

Basically, I want to be a corporate solicitor (lawyer) in the future, or in house legal counsel (maybe even a barrister)

Because of this I thought I would have to do a Law degree but because I want to do corporate law specifically I’m thinking of doing an econ degree and then doing a law conversion course (PGDL).

This also opens more doors for me if I decide to move away from law in the future because it opens more doors for me

I have to pick my a levels in December so I have to pick some that correspond with what I want to go with too and I’m not sure 😭

Does anyone have any advice on what I should do?

Reply 1

cksiu

Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by smellyyear7

Hi everyone
Basically, I want to be a corporate solicitor (lawyer) in the future, or in house legal counsel (maybe even a barrister)
Because of this I thought I would have to do a Law degree but because I want to do corporate law specifically I’m thinking of doing an econ degree and then doing a law conversion course (PGDL).
This also opens more doors for me if I decide to move away from law in the future because it opens more doors for me
I have to pick my a levels in December so I have to pick some that correspond with what I want to go with too and I’m not sure 😭
Does anyone have any advice on what I should do?

You are divided between two options:
(1) LLB Law + MSc Law and Finance (or MSc Finance/Economics)
(2) BSc Economics (or Finance) + PGDL

You may research the unis or institutes providing LLB, BSc, MSc and PGDL. It appeared that, without rigorous research, there are plenty unis offering LLB, BSc and MSc but only limited unis offering PGDL. So you may have more opportunities under option (1). Good luck.

Reply 2

UniofLawstudent3

Official Rep

Original post

by smellyyear7

Hi everyone
Basically, I want to be a corporate solicitor (lawyer) in the future, or in house legal counsel (maybe even a barrister)
Because of this I thought I would have to do a Law degree but because I want to do corporate law specifically I’m thinking of doing an econ degree and then doing a law conversion course (PGDL).
This also opens more doors for me if I decide to move away from law in the future because it opens more doors for me
I have to pick my a levels in December so I have to pick some that correspond with what I want to go with too and I’m not sure 😭
Does anyone have any advice on what I should do?

Hello,

You can absolutely go into law with either a law or economics undergraduate degree! Law firms and chambers tend to recruit pretty evenly between law and non-law undergraduate students. I did a law conversion after my history degree and I think it is a great route.

Doing an economics degree does not necessarily provide you with an advantage in applying for jobs in corporate law beyond potentially making it easier to develop the commercial awareness skills which will be assessed in your applications. You are right that it could open more doors for you in other fields, but this would probably only be if you took more quantitative modules. You could get into quite a few finance-related jobs (e.g. investment banking, consulting, accounting, insurance) directly with an undergraduate law degree, but certain positions (e.g. data analyst, actuary) will more likely require the background of an economics degree (or similar). Both degrees provide you with transferable skills that would be very helpful in other fields.

Ultimately, I would recommend choosing the degree you think you would enjoy more and also achieve higher results in! This will have the best impact on your career prospects.

It is possible for you to pick A-level options which will allow you to apply for either degree. Whilst economics tends to require maths, law often does not have any A-level subject requirements - you should check this against the universities you are interested in as some may ask for one essay-based subject. In any case, you can always pick maths and an essay subject within your choices! I did history, mathematics and chemistry at A-level and really enjoyed it 🙂 Again, picking subjects you like and think you will do well in is a good baseline if you are unsure.

Good luck, and I hope this helps!
Layla
SQE LLM student

Reply 3

Prabhustat

Original post

by smellyyear7

Hi everyone
Basically, I want to be a corporate solicitor (lawyer) in the future, or in house legal counsel (maybe even a barrister)
Because of this I thought I would have to do a Law degree but because I want to do corporate law specifically I’m thinking of doing an econ degree and then doing a law conversion course (PGDL).
This also opens more doors for me if I decide to move away from law in the future because it opens more doors for me
I have to pick my a levels in December so I have to pick some that correspond with what I want to go with too and I’m not sure 😭
Does anyone have any advice on what I should do?

You can easily pick a levels that are liked by both. Econ likes maths/FM and essay subjects. Whilst law likes essay subjects humanities. You could pick maths (maybe FM) and then any of econ, politics, history, English, geography etc

Reply 4

BPPUniRepStudent

Official Rep

Hi @smellyyear7,

As a future trainee at a large international law firm in London and someone that did economics at undergraduate level and is now currently doing the pgdl at BPP, I think I should be able to help! Firstly, with regards to your a level choices: I would recommend choosing whatever you are strongest at. I chose to do maths, economics and Spanish at A level because I got A*s/9s in these at GCSE. These weren’t the subjects that necessarily interested me the most, but I think if I chose subjects that interested me then I wouldn’t have been able to get 3 As at A level. As I’m sure you’re aware, law is a very academic profession, therefore, many corporate law firms have A level requirements ranging from BBB-AAA, so grades are really important.

Since you know you want to do corporate law, you're absolutely correct that you do not need to study law at undergraduate level. In fact, I would even go as far as to say it is better to do economics than law. This is because you will most likely have more time to do applications to law firms since an economics degree is arguably less intensive than a law degree (depending on the uni and the modules chosen etc etc).

Economics will also teach you commercial awareness naturally which is an essential skill needed for law firm interviews and assessments. You will find that you are able to comfortably use words like debt, equity, profits, revenues etc which will provide you with a really good foundation and will make you stand out amongst law graduates. Economics also has a lot of overlap with company law since you will study topics like shareholders liability, debt and equity finance etc. and this has been really useful for me personally when studying company law during the PGDL.

Finally, as you rightly mentioned, doing economics does indeed open doors to many other lucrative career paths. With my economics degree, I was able to secure internships at various banks, consulting firms and tax advisory firms before getting my training contract with a corporate law firm.

TLDR: Focus on choosing A levels which will maximise your grades. And if you are dead set on corporate law, then I would recommend the econ degree and then doing the PGDL after.

Thanks,
Ronak