Oxbridge :showing subject passion "for law"?? How?

Looks like LSE run the Pathway to Law course

www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/Undergraduate/widening-participation/Sixth-form-college/pathways-to-law-london-years-12-13

It's a long time since I applied for uni but these are the things that I did to show my interest in law:

Spent a week shadowing a barrister - I had a lot of rejections but I kept persevering to find a chambers who would take me
Spent a week at a local law firm - again had to contact quite a few before I managed to secure something
Attended court and sat in the public gallery to watch some trials
Contacted a local free legal advice clinic who let me sit in with their volunteer advisers - citizens advice might also allow this
Near where I lived there were a couple of headquarters of companies who had internal law departments and they let me shadow one of their in-house lawyers for a couple of days
Got involved in school debating competitions

I think you are fixated on her having to spend time in a barristers chambers but there are lots of other ways to be exposed to the legal system.The other thing I would mention is that some unis did run Pathway to Law (after my time) so worth checking out the qualifying criteria for that.

An A level that is taken seriously when applying for Law is History. The ability to extract salient points and collate facts from a variety of sources are good foundation skills.

Everyone who gets into Oxford or Cambridge is a top student though. And they don’t all get 2:1s or 1s. A good proportion get 2:2s and 3s.

I read law at the same time as a really clever bloke who’s now a High Court Judge. He got straight As at O and A levels (before A* existed as a grade) and he barely scraped a 2:2 every year in his exams. Law is a subject which is a combination of being able to assimilate and retain a lot of information, analyse it and apply it to a random fact pattern under time pressure and write coherently and convincingly. Certainly when I did my law degree, it was 5 essays in 3 hours, closed book and the fact patterns were twisty!

That’s what she’d need to voice. Make sure she understands the why behind just the enjoyment side of things. Also she would need to look at what she can offer the profession. What qualities does she think she has that would make her good at law etc. doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.

Start with why they want to study law. Is purely for the salary? Parental pressure? If so, law is not the right career path.

DS did a free residential at Oxford in 6th form. At least one of the colleges had essay competition for 6th form. Look on college websites for outreach opportunities. He got pooled after interview but didn’t get a place. They gave them a case study at interview so i would say read GCSE or A level law textbook. They say you don’t need prior knowledge but previous experience of example scenarios and key concepts would have been helpful. If you’d done law before you would definitely have had an advantage put it that way. If doing epq or a project eg in history pick something law based as can then talk about that. Many unis have taster lectures online now as part of virtual open days.

She needs to look back at both the scandal and inquiry, not rely on a dramatic interpretation. Basing long term decisions on one piece of work seems unrealistic.

What do you mean by humanity? Evidence of essay writing, logic and critical thinking is important. However you don't have to study a Law degree to become a solicitor or barrister, there are conversion routes, but a degree at 2:1 or above is usually required.

DS didn't end up applying for Law, but as a teen he suffered badly from insomnia and told me he literally used to lie in bed at night reading law books out of interest in how the law is structured, weird tort cases, key differences between US and UK law or English and Scottish law, to pass the time. It just fascinated him. Very geeky but as a starting point, I'd say reading up on the law, its structure, history, looking at historical law-defining cases, getting acquainted with quirky tort cases etc would help.
Interest and success in public speaking and debating at school could indicate strengths required of a barrister.
Closely following any big cases over recent years, like Wagatha Christie or the Post Office would help too, especially if you can talk knowledgeably about how law was applied and why given outcomes were arrived at.

Employment tribunals too

If she’s engaged with the news and current affairs she’s already engaged with legal issues. Get her to drill down into passion subjects she can speak about.

Following wars, genocides, conflicts? International and national humanitarian law.

Social justice issues? Equality law

Online safety, social media accountability, digital harm, power of big tech companies? Online Safety Bill. Maybe look at the EU’s stronger regulation- the Digital Services Act and speak in the interview about how Brexit impacted on protection of British people against tech risks (as our law is weaker than the EU law)

Not wishing to sound goady but it doesn’t actually sound like your daughter IS passionate about the law if she isn’t doing any of what’s been suggested already or anything else! Are you sure studying law is her dream and not yours?

Law is an academically challenging course and can be very dry. It’s also a difficult profession to enter these days (I’ve been a lawyer for more than 30 years and it’s really tough now and with new AI tools being made available it’s going to be even harder in 5 years time to get a training contract or pupillage as there will be far fewer around).

if your daughter is pretty lukewarm about it, she’d be much better applying for a different degree anyway

F

During A levels took part in mock trials, which I helped the school to organise. Also volunteered at local prison visitor centre, and read the law section of the Guardian. We also visited courts during that time, sitting in the public gallery. Magistrates and crown.