I'm 28, contemplating doing a Law degree next year

[divaprincess09]

Ive been told that I have to do humanties qualification (access course level 3) before I apply to do law degree... By the time I start I will be nearly 30, is this too late and whats it like doing a law degree??? I'd like to specialise in criminal law...

[boxtops]

You're never too old, I'm twice your age and I would do a law degree if I had a chance.

[dothawkes31]

How will having a law degree help with your chosen career as a make up artist, will you become one of those forensic type people who';s father is in ZZtop and you can construct a face from pipe cleaners and paydoh?

[craft1948]

I didn't know a law degree took such little time. I lived near the Law College in York. The courses there took 1 year but you already had to have a university degree under your belt.

[boxtops]

LOL @ dot, I must admit I thought it was a change of career myself!

[Prudie]

Well if that's what you want to do then you're experience in using Mac and Benefit should at least help you to not look 30 when you've finished.

[boxtops]

:-)

[dothawkes31]

Well I might actually retrain as a figher pilot with the US Navy, I've sold shoes in Debenhams and am able to react quickly to a vast range of ridiculous situations and I can throw a rounders ball 176 feet (well i did when I was 14)

[boxtops]

I was school athletics captain in 1966, what can I do?

[dothawkes31]

well if you are light on your feet you could be a high wire act and join the Circe de Soluer or whatever they camm themselves

[mike11111]

I was 43 when I started a law degree part-time and graduated at the age of 46 (was credited with 2 modules on account of having a degree already). You cannot 'specialise' at undergraduate level as you must pass the 6 core subjects, viz Crime,Tort, Contract, Constitutional and Adminstrative, Equity and Trusts and Land. You need a good memory and a capacity to apply what you know in an analytical fashion. If so, you shouldn't find it too difficult.

[boxtops]

Mike I would love to have done something like that. I enjoy what I've done with my life and enjoy my work now, but in my twenties I'd known what I do know, I would either have done Law or Civil Engineering - neither attractive to me at that time.
Dot, I have no head for heights, I can't even peer off the top of a cliff without the dreaded feeling I'm being drawn over the edge....

[mike11111]

The course for graduates in other disciplines is called the Common Professional Examination and is not a law degree per se. It involves only the 6 core elements (see my previous answer). This allows candidates to progress to a career in law (in which competion is very tight!).

[Eve]

It's a lot of hard work, hours of reading and analyzing and a lot of written work as well.

To progress to qualifying you would also need an additional year at law school which is very full on as well as being expensive and with no guarantee of a job at the end of it.

Competiton for legal jobs, especially training contracts (the two years on the job you need to qualify) is incredibly fierce.

As said above, you don't specialise at degree level (unless you want to go and do something like Criminology) but will do criminal as one of your core modules in the first year.

You will also have electives and should be able to do some criminal related ones such as evidence or criminal justice, dissertation etc... it depends on what the uni offers.

If you really want to go into criminal law then often a damn good dose of reality is what is needed. If being called out at all hours of the night to attend a police station to deal with all kinds of crap sounds like the kind of job you would be interested in then that's a good start.

I'd recommend going and sitting in the local Magistrates court watching something like bail applications, see the kind of work (and people) you would, in the main, be likely to be dealing with, at least at first, and watch the lawyers.

[Prudie]

If you look at all the posts this person put in beauty last night it might explain why others have not been so kind and helpful as you two have been.

[boxtops]

LOL Dot, is that what you meant?!!

[dothawkes31]

I meant the judges make-up tut

[Eve]

I should say as well that the majority of your law degree is decided for you unless you combine with another subject like criminology. If you want to practice you would have to do all the core modules in any event or have to do a further year to get them.

As well as the ones referred to above (Crime,Tort, Contract, Constitutional and Adminstrative, Equity and Trusts and Land) I also had to do two lots of European Law, Legal Process and Legal System. My whole first year was core modules as was a large part of my second year with just Equity and Trusts in my third year. So you do get electives but they are the minor part of the degree.

Having been in practice for a good many years and been part of recruitment processes I would also say strong academics right through are also looked for closely especially with the high level of competitions out there. I recently waded through around 175 CVs for just one training position and that is quite conservative.

When there is that much competition, things like grades and the university attended and additional experience and skills are crucial deciding factors.