Law Jobs

Is the LPC really worth it? It's a lot of money and you're certainly not guaranteed a training contract at the end of the course. You're actually not even certain to get a good grade or even pass the course. So yes it is a massive risk.

If you do pass, and get a good grade you're still not certain to get a training contract. Even if you're a competent individual.

However, whose fault is this? The law colleges obviously aren't wrong to offer and promote the course. They need to make money after all. Nor are students wrong to follow their dreams. Law firms can't be blamed for the amount of training contrats they offer. They can't risk their own business.

To me it seems like a faultless situations. Frustrating on all fronts but no one is really to blame. Everyone is acting reasonably.

A several years ago one of my friends who got a 2:2 at uni easily got a training contract. He interviewed once and got it. That was it. This sort of situation is years off for the current selection of graduates.

What Skills Do You Need In Law?

Here we will look at what skills you need to succeed in the legal sector. For more information on this see www.studyinglaw.co.uk

Overall in the legal sector you need drive and ambition to succeed. Any job in the legal sector needs loads of effort. This is regardless of whether you're going to be a solicitor, barrister or legal executive. You also need great organisation skills, memory, critical thinking skills, and be quick at thinking on your feet.

There are some great skills you can teach yourself to prepare for a career in law. Generally reading lots can help so much; it greatly improves your comprehension. Also keeping up to date with the latest news can help with commercial awareness. Again this will help regardless of your position. If you're a paralegal with great commercial awareness it may prompt your boss to give you a chance in a bigger role or even sponsor you for a training contract if you are a highly consistent performer. Keeping up to date is also key in the legal sector. You could try subscribing to a law based news agency to keep up to date on the latest case law. This is 100% necessary if you're a solicitor, you should never stop learning.

There may be various courses you can take to teach you these areas of law. Also you can look at courses which offer non legal training. For example courses on how to properly use a new technology. There are also more profession based skill courses. These are courses which are more directly aimed at specifical legal roles like legal secretary courses, legal executive courses, and parelagal courses.

The LPC

The LPC or legal practice course is what you need to take in order to become a solicitor. It is usually the last stage of you legal training before you need to complete your training contract. You can do the course over 1 year full time or 2 years part time. On the course you won't just learn about certain areas of law, but also the skills needed within the legal sector. These skills are:

• legal research

• drafting 

• interviewing

• negotiating 

• advocacy

The completion of these areas does count towards your final score. 

In relation to the core subject areas, you have a good deal of flexibility as to which areas you want to study. If you already have a training contract your law firm may tell you which areas to study. If you don't just study the areas of law you want to go into - simple! There are routes which involve corporate law & business law, then other areas such as criminal and civil law. You can really start to specialise in the second half of the year where you can pick the exact subjects you want to take, rather than general areas.

At the start of the course you should be applying for training contracts and using all the resources at your disposal. Talk to your tutor and ask for help for getting your training contract. They may be able to set up mock interviews or give you access to verbal and numerical reasoning tests.

Remember there are loads of other jobs available even if you finish your training contract and don't want to be a solicitor or barrister. Have a look at http://www.totallylegal.com/ for the range of legal careers you can get.


Here are a few of the more common roles:

Legal Education

Studying law is a great subject choice at university. It looks great in the eyes of employers. So you don't even need to go into law if you take it. Also you can do the Graduate Diploma in Law course if you just want to increase you career prospects for the future. This will be especially good if you're already working in the legal sector, or a career which values legal skills. An example of this would be working in real estate, criminal or working for a charity. Studying law simply provides great skills.

On this site we will look at some alternative ways to get where you want in the legal profession by looking at the legal courses available. We also will take a look at the law from the point of view of students, and see how you can get ahead from an early age to increase your chances of getting a training contract.

So hopefully we will give you a good overall idea about how to get exactly where you want within the legal profession / legal careers. This will be through various courses or work experience. Law is a fun, challenging and rewarding career and great for those who have the drive to succeed.