To think just because you're studying law doesn't mean you want to be a lawyer?

[IAmOlderThanILook]

I've always been interested in doing a law degree and I've decided that I am going to get round to fulfilling that aim next year by studying it through the open university.

However I don't actually want to be a lawyer. I just want to study it because I am genuinely interested in the subject and want to learn more about it.

Whenever people find out that's what I want to do though, people always assume that I want to be a lawyer and the conversation generally leads to (without prompting from me) how long it takes to become a solicitor, the training involved after the degree, how competitive the legal profession is, how snobby it is, etc. I've even seen it on threads here - whenever people mention they or their child wants to/are studying law the general assumption is that they want to work in the legal profession (be careful what university you go to, it's very competitive, etc).

Given that most people with law degrees aren't lawyers then it doesn't really make sense to assume everyone studying law wants to become one. I wonder if people assume that people studying French want to become French...?

YANBU OP, I find it rather sad in a way that education is seen only as a means to an end, not as an end in itself.

Law is an excellent subject to study, it will teach you a myriad of skills that are very transferrable; judgement, reasoning, ability to evaluate facts, structure an argument, interpret complex written material, the list goes on forever...

It's not for the faint hearted though - very academically challenging and most people need some serious dedication to get into the 2:1/first classifications.

I did the OU law degree a few years ago, in fact I was one of the very first people to do it and each academic year we were the first students to use those materials so were guinea pigs in a way.

I was in my mid twenties when I started, and had spent a few years in low paid jobs, feeling underqualified and depressed (didn't go to university after leaving school due to turbulent home life).

I went into it on the suggestion of an older friend and tbh was flattered that someone thought I would be capable of doing it! Although I had no particular career in mind, I did think that it could be useful for a variety of jobs, not just as a lawyer. My feet didn't touch the ground once I started - I got a temporary civilian job with the police while I was studying and was given lots of opportunities to do extra projects to help with my studies. After that, I started temping for a legal services firm who offered me a job as a legal systems developer (kind of a trainee role but was more throw in at deep end), and by the time I finished my law degree I was fairly established in IT as a profession.

The course was a long slog, it cost a lot and many years of annual leave were sacrificed so I could write essays (I still have nightmares about the deadlines!). I got a third, but am very proud of the fact that I finished the course and graduated.

People often asked me if doing it was a waste of time as I didn't end up being a lawyer but I don't see it that way at all - it was the doorway to a whole new life and the minute I started studying I just seemed to become a new person, leaving behind the depressed, downtrodden little mouse.

Having said that, I'm not sure I would recommend that course to everyone - studying law in relative isolation is a very difficult way to do it, although I imagine the OU make more use of technology these days (internet was in its infancy when I studied).

Sorry for long post! Good luck if you go ahead with it

Eagle that's a brilliant post. I do think OU is fab and often life-changing in the way the standard 'going to uni at 18' is not.

Oh and it's all online these days, lots of forums for the different subjects, tutor groups are all on line etc.

You aren't BU in your statement no. You are B a little bit U in thinking that other people will automatically know that you don't want to become a lawyer. They are just applying instinctive common sense.
If you tell them straight away your intention is to learn and to have a good degree, then they will know won't they?

I have a degree in mechanical engineering. Unlike you, I didn't know I didn't want to be an engineer until I was halfway through it (I actually had no real clue what it entailed). I continued with it, however, because it is a good degree to have, and it got me a place on a masters degree in IT (I work in software).

word of warning OP you will get this from the other angle when you've finished your degree. I did a law degree and went on to be a chartered accountant. Any conversation about what I studued at university provokes the follow up question 'why didn't you want to be a solicitor?'

also, good choice, I loved my degree, law is so varied and fascinating. I think out of my course friends at uni we all loved different modules (although I think I was fairly unique in that I hated criminal law but loved tax - hence becoming a chartered accountant). I'm actully quite jealous of you!

I don't think they are really that bothered about whether or not you want to be a lawyer - I think they are just making conversation.

I'm very much in favour of studying a subject for pleasure/for its own sake (have degrees in three different subjects but never worked in any of those areas!) I don't think I'd expect a prospective law student to want to be a lawyer, but I'd probably chat about the difficult career path of law (as I know quite a few people who have struggled with it post graduation). I definitely think that law is a good solid subject to study. I've had to deal with people questioning my subject choices but to be honest I don't have any issues with telling people that I'm studying the subject simply because I enjoy it. I think some of them are envious because so many people these days have to drop subjects which they're really passionate about, and choose a degree subject based primarily on their employment prospects.

I did a law degree. Had no intention of becoming a lawyer; instead I trained further in offshre tax planning (though I tell people I spent that part of of my life killing small puppies) and then went to work for a bank (I tell people I spent time working as a communications officer for the BNP).

Most people who study with the intention of becoming lawyers actually study something else (modern languages and engineering or biology being the favourites). Law Firms can train you to be a lawyer - it's more useful to have another discipline.

I read law at Oxford. I knew when I applied that I didn't want to be a lawyer. I loved the degree. I didn't go to law school. I'm not a lawyer. I don't regret any of my decisions except the one not to continue studying to a higher level

This is an interesting thread. I do think that it is different in the US. You have to do a four-year undergraduate degree first (I studied history), then law school is three years after that. It is very expensive and very intellectually challenging, and I don't know anyone who went to law school who did not start out planning to practice law. But a law degree is very useful in many other occupations, and many people find other things to do, but usually after having been a practicing attorney for a few years.

Of course you are not unreasonable to study any subject purely for the love of it, but I think you are slightly naive not understand why people assume you want to become a lawyer; law, like say medicine and architecture, is considered to be a vocational degree; there is a general assumption (whether right or wrong) that you are studying the subject in order to have a career relating to it.

I'm sure you know that however, so I'm wondering if you are really asking this question as you need/want justification to study something for "fun". As has already been said, if you have the time, money and inclination, go for it - I agree law is fascinating (incidentally, you should study maths/electronics as well as fundamentally, a legal agreement is just a very complex logic statement!)

Its a perfectly reasonable assumption and a bit odd that it bothers you. Yes there are lots of people who study law and don't become lawyers but many of those don't become lawyers because they can't get a job as a lawyer. Some law degrees now accept people with academics that mean they stand very little chance of working in the legal profession.

A lot of people also start work as a lawyer and then hate it and leave the profession.

Preach I wouldn't say law was a vocational degree, I would say it was more an academic degree, at least mine was. I admit that might differ between universities, but the vocational training to become a lawyer doesn't actually start until after you've finished your degree.

I am a lawyer and I did a law degree. I think it is perfectly reasonable for people to assume that you are going to go on to a legal career (I think law is regarded as a fairly "vocational" degree in comparison with, say, history) but if you tell them you don't want to and they still go on about it, I can see that would be annoying.

The nice thing about doing a law degree and not wanting to be a lawyer is that (assuming things haven't changed since my day, which was a long while ago) you don't have to complete the "compulsory" elements needed to go on to the LPC or the Bar course, whatever it's called now. So you can focus on the subjects that really interest you.

I agree with brokenhearted. Whilst there are many lawyers who have degrees other than law (myself included) if he thinks he might want to be a lawyer why pick something else and have an additional year of study?

If the DS who wants to be a lawyer studies something else first, but gets good results and applies for a training contract before he finishes his degree, the firm that offers him a job will more than likely pay for his two years GDL and LPC. Unless he has his heart set on an area in which firms don't tend to pay eg criminal, human rights, high street conveyancing, the cost of doing a non law degree first shouldn't be a factor.

I have an OU LLB, awarded 2 years ago. Howver, as it's a 2:2 and I'm in my 50s, I'm an untouchable as far as training contracts go. I looked into ILEX; same thing.

But I wouldn't have missed it for the world. It allows me give genuine help to friends and neighbours. It might be threatening the council with judicial review to get a school bus reinstated, or telling a colleague he doesn't have to put up with bullying, or walking a mate through a small claim.

As far as I can tell law is an excellent base subject for all sorts of careers from politics to PR. It's never struck me as a course that meant a person had to do law.