I want to become a Lawyer!?

Shaylee

1) In the UK we don't have 'lawyers'; we have Solicitors and Barristers.
To put it very basically, Solicitors do all the paperwork and give it to the Barrister who will stand up in court and put your case to the Magistrates/Judge.
Occasionally, in very low level cases (Magistrates' Courts) a Solicitor will appear in Court and advocate instead of a Barrister.

2) The pay is not always great, especially for the first few years of your career, you will have to be prepared to work very hard for not a great wage.

3) Downsides are the long hours usually required (12 hour days are the norm for trainee solicitors) and for Barrister there tends to be a lot of waiting around in Court and as you will be a trainee for a while you will be given the most boring jobs!
Also, having to defend a person who you may know is guilty (Barristers in the UK have to abide by the "Cab-Rank Principle", they can very rarely refuse to defend a client)

4) Well the obvious is sending an innocent person to prison or letting a guilty person go free and whether you can live with that on your conscience. Other than that, if you continually lose cases, it'll be your reputation that is affected.

5) Starting wage for a Solicitor/Barrister is around Â£15,000-Â£20,000 a year and when fully qualified can rise to around Â£40,000+
However, this is completely dependent on where in the country you work, and for what size firm.

7) To be a Solicitor you will need a Law Degree (LLB) which takes 3 years (Costs Â£3,000 per year), followed by the Legal Practise Course (LPC - Costs around Â£7,500+) which takes a further year, you will then need to get a Training Contract in a Law firm where you will work as a trainee for a few years. (Nb. If you manage to secure a Training Contract before you start your LPC, the Law firm you are going to work for may act as your sponsor and pay for this for you...Not always the case though)

To be a Barrister you again will need the Law Degree, then you will need to take the Bar Vocational Course (BVC) which takes a year, then you will need to get a Pupillage at a Barristers' Chambers where you will work under an experienced Barrister for a few years and learn from them.

Bear in mind that as more and more people enter the legal profession, it is increasingly more difficult and competitive to get a Training Contract or Pupillage (You need to apply several years in advance) so it all depends on the University that you studied at and the grade of your degree. Also, do not expect to be a fully qualified Solicitor/Barrister overnight, as you can probably tell, the whole process takes around 6-8 years so it's not a career to jump into lightheartedly!

If this is the career you decide to pursue, then good luck :)

mailaccount63

No, it does not always pay good - it all depends on how hard YOU want to work.

Warning: Jobs in the field of Law are drying up FAST!!! This is NOT a good field to get into!!! Reasons? Very bad economy, there are simply TOO MANY lawyers (look in your phone book, in the Yellow Pages under "A", today many people think they can do their own legal work thanks to the WWWeb, today there are WAY TOO MANY law schools churning out WAY TOO MANY graduates for the economy and the demand (but the law schools won't tell you this - law students are easy money).

So.....even if you DO make it through law school, you probably won't be able to find a job. After law school, you will probably owe $150,000 in school loans, etc.

IF you do find a job, be prepared to do A LOT of paperwork. Being a lawyer is not like what you see on TV. What you see on TV actually only makes up 1% of what a real attorney does.

Suggestion: Go into the field of Healthcare!!! <<< LOTS of jobs there!!!

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