To ask if the law conversion course is worth it?

[superstarheartbreaker]

I am fed up with being a teacher, I am rubbish at it anyway (or been made to feel rubbish) and am fed up with the poitics. It brings out the worst in me.
I have a 2:1 in English, a PGCE and I am a hard worker. I have always fancied doing the law conversion course with a view either of becoming a solicitor and/or a legal secretary. I know it is competetive but I like using my brain.
Anyone done a law conversion course and loved it? What is it really like being a solicitor and as a single mother, should I give up any dreams of a high-flying career and start a bunting and cupcake enterprise instead? (no offence intended as having my own business is one of my dreams!)

thepurplepenguin interesting, I thought the LPC was a walk in the park compared to the GDL and certainly much less work. At least the LPC had dome (tiny) relevance to actual legal practice.

I'm a barrister rather than a solicitor, and I bloody love my job - I have great job flexibility and it works well with kids - well once you've already got them! But I would advise no one to come into the Law at the moment - it is massive period of flux - huge cuts to what is publicly funded and an attempt to shrink other privately funded areas. The result is that there are less jobs to go round, and more pressure on the jobs in unrelated areas. Go back to the drawing board!

Oolong shopping. The only positive post. So what did you hate about teaching? Did you find the politics hideous too or am I just crap at office gossip rubbish?

Don't do it, if you can find anything else to do do that instead. Law is expensive to get qualified in, once you are qualified you don't earn nearly as much as you would expect, every mistake you make you can be sued over, there is just as much office politics as in any other job. It's horrible! And it isn't child friendly, it fries your brain, wakes you up at four worrying about it, you have to spend your time hanging out with other depressed lawyers who hate their job too and all so you can take home not much money. And things are really changing within the profession with loads of cuts and changes so it is not the guaranteed job it used to be.

Another vote to say don't do it!!

DH is a solicitor and wants to get out to go into teaching!!

He could not manage his job as a single parent. As others have said, you work until the job is done, whether that be leaving the office at 8pm or midnight... Regularly he wouldn't get home until 1am, and then have to get up at 6-ish to get the early train back into the office. He hasn't had a proper day off ever- i.e. not being pestered on the b-berry/calls. He thought he had made a mistake earlier this year- a genuine mistake due to being under so much pressure, it did sort itself out, but he was physically ill with the stress of it- unable to sleep or eat and vomiting with worry.

His friend from his first firm is in corporate and has regularly had to take a cab back home at 6am after working all night, which waits outside whilst he showers and changes, and then takes him straight back to the office.

I think this thread should be mandatory reading for all undergraduates contemplating a legal career.
The Bar is more flexible as a parent but even harder to get into and more debt to accumulate. I often do careers evenings and try to be fair and balanced but I just want to scream DONT DO IT!

And do not overlook the pension. A colleague left City firm to go into teaching. Bloody hard work to begin with she said, and some horrid children. She changed schools and things improved. And she said the much maligned teachers' pension was a bonanza compared to the scheme she had been in while a solicitor.
Changing school sounds like the solution.

I did high street work then mid level firm then corporate law in a Magic circle firm for 6 years. High street work was interesting but badly paid no more than a teacher. City law firm well paid but you bloody earn it. I worked evenings/weekends sent overseas at zero notice. Ok as I was single but tough on those with young families. You can succeed friends of mine made partner with babies but you need to be very tough and committed. And accept you will need to delegate alot to the nanny (most people I worked with had 2 nannies one for day another for the evening shift). It's certainly not the easy option but has its upsides.

I was in law, both in-house and a stint in private practice. I have been a SAHM for the last few years and I am not going back to law. I certainly would not pick it for a career if I was starting out now. That said, I would get a formal qualification in it, even if it was just a 1-year course, just to add to my CV. IMO it just adds a good skill-base for other careers.

I would say don't do it because you don't seem to have any idea what a career in law involves. What interests you about it? What area of law do you want to 'do'?

If you pick an area you enjoy it can be a very good career. If you pick an area which bores you then you are signing up to a slow lingering death. I also second the poster who warned you against high street firms in the current climate. i can't see anyone will have much appetite for having a trainee; most seem to get para legals who are cheap. You may get a training job after a few years. Or you may not.

It is VERY expensive to train.

I wouldn't do it unless I had identified an area of law I was very interested in and I could afford to lose the money on training. You have to recognise the significant risk that you won't get a training contract and the conversion course is a pretty useless qualification if you aren't using it as a spring board to the profession.

Don't do it I'm a solicitor in a high street practice I'm very lucky in that my employers are very flexible with child care, but I can't imagine this being the case when you are starting out.

The cost of qualification is ridiculous as a trainee you will be on a pittance. Even after qualification the salary is not great in high street.

The pressure is high and it is a very stressful job.

I am a solicitor. Went for the bar first but couldn't find anything so ended up being a paralegal then did th qualified lawyer transfer test. I work long hours and it is highly stressful. But I work in house for a company with an ethos focused on family (household name city firm). But I am lucky and got to the position that meant I could be more dictatorial about my hours and balance before having children.

I'm a contracts manager. I used to work in publishing, now I work in the university research sector. I have no formal law qualifications, but I trained on the job. I've worked part time for the last seven years around the DC, but if I was FT I'd be earning £35K plus and I don't have any of the stress of a solicitor role or the long hours of a teacher (DH is a teacher, so I've seem it). There are lots of ex teachers in educational publishing, for obvious reasons. Would you be interested in either an intellectual property role in the publishing/media sector, or something like a law publisher where you could combine your interest in teaching and resources with your interest in law.

thereinmadnesslies I used to be a contracts manager as well. In the IT sector. It is a great balance between applying law and commercial knowledge. Plus as you wrote, the pay is good.

Op, could you switch to a smaller independent school where ther aren't the death threat issues?

Or what about school business manager?

I am a solicitor and dh is a teacher. Being a solicitor is no easier than being a teacher, there is still politics, still stress and long hours, so if you want to get away from all that the law is not the answer.

I second what earlier posters have said, at the moment there is an over supply of people looking for training contracts and the entire future of legal aid is in the balance.

Use your lovely long teachers holidays and spend time with a local law firm, find out more of what is involved before you make your mind up.

I love my job, I miss out on a lot of family things because of trial preparation late into the night and at the weekends, but I wouldn't want to be a teacher. However, I envy the long summer holidays and the chance to do stuff with the family. You can't count on finding a firm that will be ok with term time only or othe part time only working arrangements.

Sorry to Hijack this thread but I'm a SAHM at the moment and have been for 3 years. I can't face going back to be a solicitor for all of the reasons stated above but feel like I want to do something.......

What alternative careers are there for solicitors? I just draw a blank

Any ideas would be very much appreciated

I have been both an English teacher and a solicitor and hated both. I found teaching was harder work than law, but more flexible in terms of working hours and a lot better in terms of pay time work and being able to resume a career after part time working. Also, wroth teaching the first few years are very hard and then it gets easier as you get better at your job whereas law is pretty much constant pressure. It's also still a very macho profession.

Have you considered becoming a lethal librarian? The pay is pretty good, the hours are much better than if you are a fee earner and you get to do interesting research.

Legal, not lethal.

I think that lethal librarian pretty much sums up my fantasy alternative self.

Some reasons to stay in teaching rather than move to law

1. Teachers are hardly ever dismissed or made redundant and there appear to be more jobs, as the demand for schools increases
2. Schools hardly ever shut down whereas a number of law firms have been closed in recent years due to the economic climate with more expected to follow
3. Teachers have longer holidays
4. If a teacher makes a mistake they are unlikely to be sued for negligence
5. Pensions - despite the teachers' vocal unhappiness on this point, public sector pensions are generally far better than those in the private sector.
6. Job satisfaction - I can see that both jobs have pluses and minuses and one of the pluses in law is achieving a good result for a client; in teaching, I am assuming that there must be many occasions when a good teacher knows that they have made a real difference to someone's life. I don't doubt that teaching can be stressful, but many law firms are like factories these days. I am still in contact with friends at my last firm, and they are without exception unhappy and stressed to the point of illness, and looking for a way out.

The problem is, office politics/gossip, poor management etc happen in all careers, so picking a new career path to get away from that won't help.

I think a different school would be your best bet - then you can see if it is just your current job that is clouding your view of teaching, or find out teaching is just not for you.

If its not for you, I agree with previous posters that you should pick something related to your skills. Someone mentioned higher ed. I used to be a lecturer, left as I don't enjoy the pressure of publishing and the 'never being able to switch off' thing. I imagine lecturing and research would be tough with children.

Have you considered doing specialist tuition in specific learning differences? You can work as a private tutor or in an FE/HE institution. Those who do work in institutions often have more flexibility in their roles (eg. 3 of my 4 staff are part time) and also as they tend to see students 1:1 and are not involved in the general curriculum etc they are outside the office politics. Could be what you are after? Check out the PATOSS website if you want more info on quals etc.

Really interesting thread. I did CPE about 10 years ago and got paralegal work in a magic circle firm (are these terms out of date?) in the hope of a training contract and funding for an LPC. I quickly saw that sort of life would never be for me. The constant pressure, the life subsumed into work, and the quite tedious nature of a lot of the work, proof reading vast commercial agreements until 4am etc. It caused me to examine properly what I was actually interested in about law and I now work in public sector management with a strong legal/ advice element but also practical stuff too. The work is still challenging but it is a lot more flexible round the kids and no one expects you to live at the office. Ironically I probably earn slightly more than most of my CPE friends who went on to work at provincial firms. I