Law or English?

[mountainboo]

It's approaching crunch time as I will soon be finishing my English A'Level. I have been accepted at my chosen uni and have the option to study English or Law. I'm struggling because I've enjoyed English but have been keen to study Law for some time. I will be paying for this degree so there is a great deal at stake. I am also a mature student. Should I stick with the safe option or go for Law? TIA

[bednobs]

are you doing the degree for personalsatisfaction or to get a job? if latter, what job do you want to do?
is there more study after a law degree?

[ubasses]

If you study law you will have to go on and get your LPC which you will need to finance but the rewards at the end will be a good salary

[Eve]

It's a big weigh up though with law as there are so many people going through the study these days for not very many positions for a training contract/pupillage to qualify.

The amount of graduates out there with a law degree and LPC/BVC who just cannot get even close to qualifying is worrying really, especially considering how much it costs to finance the study.

There are junior paralegal jobs, predominantly personal injury, (used to be more conveyancing but now the market is so bad, there is not a lot going there) mainly low level RTA claims which can get entry into a firm, however, even that way, there are often many candidates vying for any possible training contract. Quite a few people who do the job don't have legal qualifications as they aren't really needed as the work at that level is pretty simple and very process driven.

Some firms work on a bonus scheme too so potential to increase your salary. Salaries can vary widely from the lower teens upwards depending on the firm.

It seems quite popular these days to get a day job in a law firm and do the LPC part times on evenings and weekends (usually over 2 years) so they at least have an income and additional experience.

Qualifying isn't everything - you can still have a legal career as a paralegal or similar and it's a route many graduates are having to take.

If you are thinking vocationally, what would you do with an English degree as, for example, if you wanted to teach, you would still need to fund a PGCE or appropriate for the level you wanted to teach at. However, given the demand for teachers, I would imagine it's cheaper than the legal route.

[anneasquith]

ive never met a poor lawyer !

[boxtops]

I think you need to decide what you want to do with it afterwards. I'd love to have had a law degree (from personal interest) but an English degree, with a teaching qualification afterwards, could see you teaching in other countries if not here. It depends where you see it taking you!

[Buenchico]

If you're planning to study to further your employment prospects, see here
http://www.prospects....s_law_job_options.htm
and here
http://www.prospects....glish_job_options.htm

Otherwise simply do what you think that you'll enjoy most. Three (or more) years is a long time to spend being bored!

Chris

[Eve]

You have to make it first though Anne, that's the hard bit.

I got there ok but know a lot of people who have struggled and many who have given up at various stages.

[factor-fiction]

How do you know you haven't met a poor lawyer, anneasquith? Most lawyers earn a good living but it takes quite a few years of training to get to this stage. After a degree there's an expensive one year course and then a period of low paid work doing 'articles'.

[mountainboo]

Thanks for all the responses. It is a tough one. I would eventually like to teach at Access students or A'Level standard. I know the route to teaching English, I presume the route is different for becoming a teacher of Law?

[boxtops]

I have a friend who teaches Law in an FE college, he had to gain his full qualification first then the PGCE to have credibility to teach the subject.

[joggerjayne]

I wanted to do English ... but I did Law.

I really, really wish I'd done English.

You get to spend three years, closely studying something you love, with people who love it too.

Or ... you can do Law.

Professionally, the Law pays "okay" ... it's not the financial gravy train that many people think. I finally qualified doing Media Law but, at the end of the day, you still spend your life staring at a pile of paperwork. It's not like you see on the telly!

Within a fairly short time, I gave it up, and started doing freelance agency work for some of the fashion companies I'd dealt with when I was doing Law, and I earn more than I could ever have made doing Law.

And the worst of it is ... I SOOO wish I'd done English. That's probably my only real regret; paying too much attention to the advisers who said that I should do Law because it would lead to a good, secure job. But frankly, nowadays, everyone who can't think of anything else to do plumps for a Law degree. There are hundreds of Law graduates applying for every job.

You have the chance to do something you want to do. Something you will always look back on, and think ... those were the best three years of my life.

[mountainboo]

Thanks Boxtops and JoggerJane. As someone who studied Law, what did you dislike? My husband thinks I would be stupid to do Law, he is convinced that I would not enjoy it at all or in fact be intelligent enough to study it. He wants me to study English, which I imagine has a great deal more reading involved than Law as it is a Lit degree. I get frustrated with Shakespeare, which is a major component of the degree. The thing is, I have no idea what to expect with Law, but with English I do. I think I would enjoy criminal, tort and property law.

[Eve]

Law is a lot of reading but it's all quite similar in structure (cases, statute etc...). Try reading some law text books if you can get some from a library and some statutes and case reports, it's pretty dry stuff really but, like anything, interesting if it interests you.

The subjects are quite wide as you cover a fair amount of different areas on a standard law degree. I found some more interesting (and understandable) than others. It's a very wide subject area at degree level and quite academic with quite a bit of history involved.

The LPC is very different, more intense and practically based as it's meant to prepare you for doing the actual job (it doesn't, in the slightest, more a learning base).

Practice itself, as Jayne says, it's not the gravy train people think. Yes, some lawyers do earn very good money although, like many careers, there is often a sacrifice to be made in terms of hours, life balance etc...

The larger salaries are more found in the larger firms - they are businesses so you have to earn yourself so the more money you can charge in fees, the larger the potential salary so it's more the commercial firms who pay larger salaries.

What you specialise in also makes a difference.

Noting that, as training contracts are so hard to get, you find quite a few people don't get to train in their chosen subject area, or, if they do, get a job in it afterwards so can end up doing something different. Once you are into one area it can be incredibly difficult to move as the areas are very different. People seem to lump it together but it's like, say, a teacher saying they fancy switching teaching from, say, languages to science.

Essentially, it's an office job (maybe with court/police station etc... work depending on what you do) and can be very stressful. There are areas I'd never have practiced - sitting in a local Magistrates watching bail applications put me

[Eve]

...off criminal law - never fancied being called out at all hours to attend some ungrateful little scroat who probably should be locked up anyway (don't really have the mindset for it either haha) or family (work experience in a specialist family firm listening to people go on about their divorce issues put me off that as well). I'm happy to volunteer but wouldn't want to get involved in child cases or domestic violence etc...

I do wonder about the mindset too, have heard criminal lawyers moaning about who gets the juciest cases - put out as another lawyer got to a murder first - and a family lawyer who liked doing domestic violence as they are quick turnaround. You need to be quite hard faced for a lot of areas.

I remember an interview I had once where part of the role was defendant personal injury. They asked me if I would feel comfortable arguing against things like why an elderly person dying of say asbestosis he got from working needed specialist equipment etc... For me, the answer was no.

Property is my thing, procedural, office based, doesn't argue with others etc... I find it interesting and enjoyable. It's all down to personal taste really.

[mountainboo]

Thanks Jenna, it's great to hear your opinion. Well, I'm definitely not hard faced, in fact I'm quite the opposite so that would probably hinder me. Also, I am definitely not (as much as I would love to be) a straight A student either which would certainly count against me in terms of positions available. I think that I would be about as likely to become a lawyer as I would a doctor! I've always thought that I would like to teach young/mature students at A'Level, but is it necessary to have practiced for at least two years first?

[mountainboo]

I've decided. I'm going with Law. Thanks for all the responses