I’m too old to consider a career in law aren’t I?

[zippyswife]

I’m 43. I should have studied law 20 odd years ago but I opted for an easier life at university and did a geography degree.

I’m now a police officer with 3 primary age dcs. I feel entirely underwhelmed in my current career and need a new challenge. I worry that my brain isn’t nearly as sharp as it was years ago but I was previously very academic and found studying breeze. As I say this was years ago now- and sadly may not be the case now.

Is 43 too old to be considering such a career change? And 20 years to long out of studying to get back into it?

And if so does anyone have an other career ideas?

@pegasusreturns It is neither minimum wage nor a ‘hobby career’

I hope you’re not in Inner with that username and attitude!

I don't know anyone with cilex who has made partner other than in high street type practice.

Rumpole the pay rates for criminal bar juniors are appalling.

Agree, criminal law is very poorly paid and shit hours for the average solicitor. . Defending some scroat for shop lifting, brawling or drunk and disorderly, and called out at all hours too.

Other areas of law are very highly paid if you’re not high street Ie you work for one of the Major law firms, Ie commerical or corporate etc. But that’s the most competitive areas to get into.

Barrister is a different again and also as hard.

Take a look at legal twitter. Pay for barristers is shocking, and some of them make barely anything for hours of work. There’s quite an active community on there and from what I read it isn’t the lucrative career everyone thinks it is...

Op rumpole raises a very valid point that the cps would most likely look very favourably at you depending on your experience. You can do your training with them I think. The pay will probably be comparable to that of a police officer though (less if you were senior).

You're not too old, but I wouldn't spend the money. Are there not opportunities at work that could fulfil your desire for something more academic?

Secondment to the NCA? Anything at CPS in a support capacity?

Yes the cps isn’t well paid, it’s about 27 k for a prosecutor starting and only goes to about forty for a senior prosecutor. Police generally earn more.

You're not too old to change career. We'll be working til about 70 so do it!

Totally retraining will mean lower pay etc so think about how you feel about that.

What about a move into a related field... Probation? Prison service? lecturing? Safeguarding something!

I really doubt it would be worth it.

7 years minimum of training ahead of you and 20k+ of debt and realistically you’re going to find it very difficult to get a training contract when there are mouldable bright young things out there.

It’s underpaid in the first few years. You’ll have to work at least 8-7 every day just to be breaking even, let alone standing out. And it’s a career that’s fun and challenging at times but that stops after a few years and it becomes monotonous. It’s just corporate bullshit - licking each other’s arses, pretending to be better than you are, listening to motivational shit that means nothing, networking (For free, in your own time) with dickheads who’ll never give you any work. It’s all so fake it’s untrue.

And yes, I’m an ex corporate lawyer. Leaving the profession was the best thing I ever did (and I used to love it)

I love it so obviously some like it and some don't and if you have a degree already it is 2 years full time study and 2 years on £40k a year (if you get a training contract) although I agree it is longer if you do the course etc part time etc.

2 years on £40k a year (if you get a training contract)
Firms offering TCs are only required to pay NMW
Maybe have a look on Legal Cheek, op

Have you done any vacation schemes or legal work experience, OP to help you to narrow your options? The advantage of going through the system in your 20s is that you can afford a few false starts before committing to a niche. By way of example, I was sure at university that my career would be in medical negligence. I've been doing M&A in-house now (latterly as a consultant) for over 15 years!

As with most careers, there's a whole host of options: @Xenia trained at a very different place to me; my old training partner now combines an employment law practice with lecturing on the LPC etc etc.

Not too old at all. But think very carefully about what you are doing it for and what type of law you want to do.
I love my job, but a lot of lawyers don't! That's s combination of it being the right fit for my personality and having found a niche that suits my motivations and personal life (flexibility, making a difference)

Most firms do not pay for your training, unless it's one of the biggest most competitive ones.
I think trying to get into it via cps is probably the simplest way. As your back ground will count there.
Overall it would be a lot of money (£20+k training plus your living costs for the study time) and no guarantee of a job.

motor, I was following on from my earlier advice to do what my daughter did - you apply for those big firms - I linked to one where I used to work - who pay that. People might as well aim high. I am not saying it is easy to get those top training contracts but your 2 years at law school is then paid for plus an annual allowance of £8k or £9k so surely worth a try!

Not to be a pessimist, but I wouldn't bother. Law is way too competitive. Myriads is young graduates vying for training contracts and jobs. Exhausting.

In your shoes, I would also consider how much childcare support you can reasonably access. Like some others on this thread, my DH was happy to be a SAHP, which was a huge advantage in terms of progression when the DC were younger.

Do it OP! Law graduates on their second career have so much to offer. You won't be starting from scratch or competing with thousands, you will have a history, maturity, a point of difference.

You might not be too old to switch and do well. However as a solicitor, I'd advise anyone who is already in an established career to think very carefully about jacking it in to have a go at law. It's usually expensive, it was massively competitive even before covid and it's increasingly common for people to be expected to paralegal on often not much more than NMW for ages to get their foot in the door, particularly in high street type firms/legal charity sector. The financial rewards as compared to other professions just aren't there for lots of areas of law. I enjoy it, but I'm not having to start out now.

Also worth pointing out that the firms who'll pay the GDL and LPC are almost all commercial/corporate type stuff, which is fine if that's what you want, but it might as well be a different career entirely from eg crime. OP hasn't specified what area of law she's interested in, but if her goal was to specialise in something completely at the other end of the spectrum like care or asylum, I wouldn't advise her to waste another two years at a City firm for the sake of GDL and LPC fees.

I would also say that in my experience, the second career people who do best in law are the ones who manage to leverage their previous experience to give them an advantage over other applicants. So ex nurses for clinical negligence, sciencey people for patents law, that type of thing. The obvious 'in' for you OP would be criminal law and that's the area I suspect you'd be most attractive, but obviously it may not be what you want. And financially it would be less attractive than police.

I googled a bit a while ago and found that graduating in law even late 20s is seen as ‘old’ and will find it hard to get the training posts. 30s episode be a real push and 40s, forget it. That was just a google though, hopefully I’m wrong.

*30s would be a

not too old. But you might want to think about where you work afterwards. Usual training contract routes might be more difficult (although I did have a trainee once who was over 40). Criminal would seem an obvious choice, but also other public sector or family law. Would be a good idea to build up contacts/get part time work experiene. I also know of someone who retrained as a barrister at 50 and didn't retire until past 70... so perfectly doable.

No, you do get people in their 40s transitioning occasionally. But I've only ever met one who did it who was doing something completely new, the rest were all people who were doing the legal side of something they already knew about iyswim.

It’s never too late, but do you really want to do it? You might find it easier as a mature entrant to get recruited into the Government Legal Service (includes the NCA) or CPS, depending upon your degree classification, as they are better at not discriminating on grounds of age. So, it depends what area of law you want to do really.