Training as a solicitor / working full time as a mum

[Motherofking]

I have just completed my Masters in Law, I have done a few vacations schemes and opens days and i am planning to apply for training contracts. I have a 1 and a half year old so no plans to look for training contracts in city law firms , Just international law firms, national and regional firms which offer a better life work balance. Can someone give me tips on how i can manage a full time job and be a full time mum . I will put my son in nursery but i want us to spend alot of time together, i dont want to spend the only hours i have at home cleaning or cooking id rather spend it with him ?

And another question, alot of training contracts give you the job two / three years in advance, For example if i get the job in 2022 my start date will be 2024 or 2025. Would it be a bad idea to get pregnant and have a baby within that gap. I really want another baby especially because once i start my career i dont want to have any more babies. I just want to keep working until i am established enough within my career without any breaks or interruptions.

@Hargao

Bluntness - she didn't do the standard BPP LLM, whatever she says, because she didn't have the qualifications and it's not a conversion course. There is a BPP option that is (was) the LLM (Conversion) which seems to have now changed its name. I'm pretty certain this is what OP is talking about. It's causing confusion with lawyers because until recently you couldn't get LLMs that acted as conversion courses as well. Technically it's a Masters but it's not worth anymore than the GDL in terms of job applications. OP says she did it for funding reasons, which makes sense.

OP employment is a highly competitive area of law. It's also often not what people think it is. What attracts you to employment law?

I am not sure what to say to this.

Op this poster feels you did not do the course you said you did and you’re confused, I don’t think any of us can argue it any more on your behalf.

However as said I also don’t know how you were accepted other than they needed to make up the numbers.

[quote Motherofking]@Bluntness100 this is not true. I dont need to do the gdl. I can go on to train by doing the LPC. please google it on bpp website or any law school[/quote]
I have op. The standard llp does not enable you to do the lpc. That’s why people think you’re confused and must have done Something else.

I just can’t understand why you did this masters of law at bpp

It explicitly says that it’s for professionals looking to focus on a particular area of law

OP, what was your specialism? You don't just get an LLM at BPP. It's an LLM in something. So (eg) LLM in Commercial Law. If it's the L
LLM Law and Legal Practice, it's the GDL top up everyone's talking about.

[quote Motherofking]@JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon With the Cilex route would you need to only choose field to specialize in? I believe that is what i gathered when i went on their website[/quote]
Yes generally CILEX lawyers practice in one field only but so do the vast majority of solicitors.

You can have multiple specialisms if you want to.

It would be worth you speaking to CILEX it is a more family friendly way of qualifying. The expectations of a paralegal are much more realistic too, firms really expect trainees to throw themselves into all the extra curricular stuff as well as going above and beyond on the work front. You can stop and start studying and do as many or as few modules per semester too.

@Borgonzola I am looking into the SQE route too and firms that can sponsor it. Also your partners firm sounds great .Would love an opportunity like that.

Bluntness-. Ok, not read full thread. Yes, agree LLM not enough to go straight into applying for training contract. Op needs the vocational training course.

@Takemetothe90s It was supposed to say 'assuming' lol

@Bluntness100 I know but it seems unbelievable to me she would have gotten the point on it covering the GDL wrong plus the modules she described earlier aren't the ones on the main LLM page. She described the top up LLM!

@Bluntness100

Can you please stop haranguing OP? She has repeatedly told you that she does know what her course entitled her to. If you feel she is wrong, well you've said so multiple times now!

It's clear to me that at least a few posters are not up to date with course offerings.

OP, I can't offer any advice in this area but wanted to say well done for completing your Masters with a baby in tow, that's not easy just on its own!

This is carnage!

@Hargao

Bluntness - she didn't do the standard BPP LLM, whatever she says, because she didn't have the qualifications and it's not a conversion course. There is a BPP option that is (was) the LLM (Conversion) which seems to have now changed its name. I'm pretty certain this is what OP is talking about. It's causing confusion with lawyers because until recently you couldn't get LLMs that acted as conversion courses as well. Technically it's a Masters but it's not worth anymore than the GDL in terms of job applications. OP says she did it for funding reasons, which makes sense.

OP employment is a highly competitive area of law. It's also often not what people think it is. What attracts you to employment law?

This is it. Thank you for clarifying. I was not aware the name had changed but maybe this is what is causing confusion. Also i did my research project in employment law. I have also done pro bono work specializing within employment work and found it to be interesting. The modules i enjoyed were tort law and contract law and it seems like both modules play a predominate role within employment law from my experience

[quote EarringsandLipstick]@Bluntness100

Can you please stop haranguing OP? She has repeatedly told you that she does know what her course entitled her to. If you feel she is wrong, well you've said so multiple times now!

It's clear to me that at least a few posters are not up to date with course offerings.

OP, I can't offer any advice in this area but wanted to say well done for completing your Masters with a baby in tow, that's not easy just on its own! [/quote]
Thank you, I appropriate your comment. It was not easy indeed but i am grateful .

[quote Hargao]@Bluntness100 I know but it seems unbelievable to me she would have gotten the point on it covering the GDL wrong plus the modules she described earlier aren't the ones on the main LLM page. She described the top up LLM![/quote]
Yes it’s hard to comprehend

@EarringsandLipstick, give over, no one is trying to harangue her, it’s vitally important if she wishes to practice she understands the routes available to her.

Solicitor here, previous international firm and now in-house. Like some other posters I’m baffled at why you would embark on a long and expensive road when you don’t appear to have much of a clue about what goes on in a law firm of any kind. I haven’t read the whole thread but what work experience have you done? What do you know about employment law? I’ve interviewed plenty of candidates for various roles and if someone walked through the door for an interview with that little insight I would be quite appalled.

@Chocolatetrifle

Bluntness-. Ok, not read full thread. Yes, agree LLM not enough to go straight into applying for training contract. Op needs the vocational training course.

yes it not enough, but some training contracts sponsor the LPC so you could do both

Ok now we've got that clear 🤣

The reason I ask is that employment law is one I often see trainees coming in thinking they want to do and then they meet reality! Depends whether you go employer side (where more of the money is) or employee side, but on employer side there's a lot of policy drafting, covering employer's asses and a lot of sacking people. On the employee side (which I haven't worked on so I may stand corrected) there's a lot of managing unreasonable expectations and dealing with individuals for whom this case is their life and so they think it should be yours.

That said (as may be clear), I don't like employment law 🤣

Some corporates are now offering training contracts, this might be a more regular hours type job... look into Flex Legal. They just ran a pilot with ASOS training a lawyer. The billable hour is not your friend if you value family life so makes sense to try to avoid that if possible.

@MurielSpriggs

Firstly, ‘alot’ isn't a word.

Well 'manners' is, so I suggest you look that up and get some hmm

I usually find grammar-correcting posts pointless, but in this case if the OP writes to law firms her English has to be utterly flawless. Proper written English is a crucial skill for a lawyer, because so much can turn on it. The competition for training contacts is huge Any letter containing "alot" (or any of the other relatively trivial slips in her posts) is going straight in the bin!

And I also agree with what @Bluntness100 has politely said. Anyone going into this should be completely realistic.

Agreed - an aspiring lawyer's written English needs to be perfect, and if it isn't then she needs to get into the habit of using Grammarly or similar. There's a commonly held notion that spelling and grammar don't matter and that it's rude to point out mistakes - all well and good for Facebook posts and MN etc., but Muriel has done the OP a favour here. A mistake like that in a letter of application could send it straight into the bin, and OP would never know why!

DAC Beachcroft are a good firm known to be family friendly. They do employment but I suspect it's on the business side rather than employee. I'm not sure if they fund anything but they have offices throughout the country and they have a very flexible wfh policy.

@Rollaroundtheclock

Solicitor here, previous international firm and now in-house. Like some other posters I’m baffled at why you would embark on a long and expensive road when you don’t appear to have much of a clue about what goes on in a law firm of any kind. I haven’t read the whole thread but what work experience have you done? What do you know about employment law? I’ve interviewed plenty of candidates for various roles and if someone walked through the door for an interview with that little insight I would be quite appalled.

I have done a some work experience , pro bono and vacation schemes . Two of my experiences where from Magic circles. I was aware of the type of firm it was but this was before i became a mother . Now as a mum i would even look twice at a magic circle firm, and the purpose of this post was to gain an understanding of other firms when it comes to work / life balance. I have done some research into global firms and some of them online seem to offer the 9-5/6 hours, now from what people are saying on here this is not the reality. So I will continue to look at other firms or routes into law that offer me work / life balance . This was the purpose of my post to gain a deeper understanding

@GrasssInPocket No one has done me a favour on here .

kirinm I don't know who is recruiting or not, I was giving examples of large regional firms, as the OP does not seem to have a clue.

From my own experience, I know some claimant firms are struggling for work because I have seen them trying to re litigate long dead hopeless cases. This is a new trend, to me anyway.

To be clear, you certainly don't need to have a 1st from Oxbridge to be a solicitor, but because there is such an over supply of would be solicitors, many firms can demand this type of calibre.