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...?

[DisgraceToTheYChromosome]

Pandora: I went to a careers day and a rep from ILEX told me that although my degree was good enough, my age was not in my favour. Nor was my employment history, consisting as it does of solitary outdooor work.

Money was rubbish too.

[MorphineDreams]

Disgrace you shouldn't have let that put you off! Loads of 'mature students' do the ILEX.

Didn't you do any sort of placements whilst you was at uni? Most people I know got jobs in law firms, or got jobs after uni as paralegals so they had some experience.

[MissBeehiving]

I found my LLB deathly dull and can't conceive of doing it unless you had some idea about practising tbh. I only did it because it cuts out the GDL (or conversion as it was in the dim and distant past) which I couldn't afford to do. Law school was pretty grim too but the practice of law is interesting if you're in the right areas

I recruit all my trainees based on whether they can work as part of the team, interact well with clients and have a pragmatic approach. A first is not necessarily indicative of that