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 Thank you. The pro bono work that i have done so far is mainly on the employee side, but hopefully one day i can gain the experience to do it from the employer side . That would be an interesting perspective

@Bluntness100 @Hargao is right i did the llm conversion course

What’s heart breaking

Is that the OP has spent tens of thousands of pounds to get here

@Motherofking how about researching firms local to you which do the area of law you are interested in to see if they have any vacancies for work with a view to them sponsoring you to do your LPC?

@lentilsforever i did it because i couldnt self fund the gdl and with the llm i was able to get a loan. Everyone else who did it along side me also had a non law background. The large majority of those that did the gdl already had firms who were sponsoring the gdl. For those of that were not lucky in getting a sponsor the only option was to do the LLM . Either that or go back to university and do a 4 year law degree. Hope this clarification makes sense

@lentilsforever

What’s heart breaking

Is that the OP has spent tens of thousands of pounds to get here

you sound mad. I am not sure what exactly you are talking about.

So there are no dyslexic (for example) lawyers anywhere?

In view of the amount of reading and drafting involved, which - for someone with dyslexia - would be a daily chore, I think this would be an unlikely choice of career. Happy to be proven wrong, but I say this as the parent of a severely dyslexic DC. Engineering, on the other hand, ...

@lentilsforever, yes all us qualified lawyers have spent a lot of money previously to train and qualify, that's the process.

@Chocolatetrifle I will do that too. thanks

[quote kirinm]Honestly, just Google it. Also check out 'roll on Friday'.

workingfamilies.org.uk/news/top-30-2020/[/quote]
This is great. Thank you !

@Lemonsyellow

So there are no dyslexic (for example) lawyers anywhere?

It would be very difficult, too difficult. It’s not just a matter of using a spellcheck to fix any written mistakes. It’s that the whole volume of reading would be too much - it would take too long, and you would be too slow. I know a highly qualified professional - not a lawyer - with a degree from Oxford, who was unable to take up some jobs because she couldn’t read the hundreds of pages of complex information fast enough for her to appear as an expert in court, for example.

My dh is a Barrister of 20yrs call, in a very niche area...he is dyslexic but also has a medical degree from 1 of the country's oldest medical schools plus 10 years of training expertise and Consultant for 4 years in this specialty ...took him over 100 applications to various Chambers before he got a pupillage but because of his previous profession can whizz through files of medical evidence and type out a 5000 word opinion in an afternoon thank god for spell check

What lentilsforever is talking about is that you have spent a lit of time and money on securing qualifications, with the aim apparently pf being a solicitor, but don't seem to have the most basic clue of what law you want to study, what firm you want to work in, or the limits of your qualifications, or which route to take.

In the age of the internet, that is really poor to be fair. Hargao nailed employment law in her/ his post

You were talking about international and global firms in your early posts, and this has morphed into employment law, during the course of this thread.

@GrasssInPocket

So there are no dyslexic (for example) lawyers anywhere?

In view of the amount of reading and drafting involved, which - for someone with dyslexia - would be a daily chore, I think this would be an unlikely choice of career. Happy to be proven wrong, but I say this as the parent of a severely dyslexic DC. Engineering, on the other hand, ...

See my response to Lemonsyellow above....dh ( Medical Consultant and Barrister) has IQ of 160 and 3 degrees....might take him slightly longer to process information initially but his long term memory is amazing All 3 of our dcs have dyslexia/ dyscalculia/dyspraxia and have all got degrees with at least a 2:1 classification ( despite people's antiquated, misplaced perception of dyslexics being 'thick')

@wewereliars

What lentilsforever is talking about is that you have spent a lit of time and money on securing qualifications, with the aim apparently pf being a solicitor, but don't seem to have the most basic clue of what law you want to study, what firm you want to work in, or the limits of your qualifications, or which route to take.

In the age of the internet, that is really poor to be fair. Hargao nailed employment law in her/ his post

You were talking about international and global firms in your early posts, and this has morphed into employment law, during the course of this thread.

Not trying to be deliberately contentious but I did my law degree and came out of uni having no idea what I wanted to do. I started out as a legal secretary whilst I was trying to work things out. It was only once I became a paralegal I eventually decided I'd try to qualify and then it was only during my TC I realised what area I was interested in. Not everyone knows what they want to do from the outset.

[quote Motherofking]**@Bluntness100* @Hargao* is right i did the llm conversion course[/quote]
Ah ok. That’s the confusion I think. You did the Pgdl which does allow you to go straight to the lpc. So you did this one.

www.bpp.com/courses/law/postgraduate/pgdl-law-conversion-course

The llm is this one, the masters of law, which does not allow you to do the lpc, you still need to do a gdl.

www.bpp.com/courses/law/postgraduate/llm-master-of-laws

They are two very different courses, so you don’t have a masters nor have you done the llm , you actually have done the pgdl which is the law conversion course.

No Kirinm but it's so madly competitive now, and the OP seems to have spent a fortune on an irrelevant qualification. Legal sec to fee earner was once a realistic and solid route, I doubt it is now.

Most law graduates or LPC graduates don't know which area they will specialise in and yes that is after they have spent all that money.

@wewereliars

No Kirinm but it's so madly competitive now, and the OP seems to have spent a fortune on an irrelevant qualification. Legal sec to fee earner was once a realistic and solid route, I doubt it is now.

I don’t think she has, she’s now saying she didn’t do the llm she did the (p) gdl. I think that’s what’s caused all the confusion.

ok, fair enough. I am not up on the new entry routes, but OP seems all over the place re time frames, areas of law etc. These seem particularly cut throat times. I told my son, unless you can get into a niche practice, and you love it, it's not worth the demands. I wouldn't go into it myself now.

He has no interest, and that's fine by me.

Haven't read the whole thread OP as seems to be a lot of contentious opinion not entirely relevant to your original questions!
Firstly, I presume you have done the LLM which is a law conversion course - some do the GDL others do the extra credit on the independent legal project to make it a Masters qualification and therefore eligible for student funding unlike the GDL.
For solicitors you have the training contract or the SQE route. In either case, a job in a law firm willing to sponsor you is where you need to be looking. Get yourself signed up to online events - Legal Cheek for example do some great engagement events where you can meet potential firms. Also get your CV out there, and a profile on LinkedIn to start networking. Ask if you can shadow a solicitor/firm for a few days. A lot of people find themselves with offers of mentorship via this route.
In terms of how to balance that with having a little one there is no getting round the fact that retraining is not a light task. It can be workable though, but you need to be a) extremely organised, b) committed - when you've made your plan you stick to it c) well supported - do you have a partner, family etc... that will pick up the slack? I decided early on what I would and wouldn't compromise on e.g Christmas Day is out, but I don't mind studying on Boxing Day or New Year's Eve, swimming night is out but Sunday mornings are fine.
As to whether you should have another baby in between that's much harder to answer tbh. If you keep in mind the significant financial investment of training you, it's understandable that firms will want to see a certain level of commitment to them. Some may be happy to take you for a training contract spot in 2 years on the basis that by 2 years in you've had exposure to at least a couple of different seats and you know if the firm is right for you so will be more likely to stay once qualified. If you take time out, you may find they will ask you to defer entry for 12 months. Others might not be as bothered as long as you pass a successful probation period.

It’s not uncommon for providers to change the name/parameters of course, so I’m not surprised that the OP’s description of her course doesn’t fit with what is on BPP’s website.

And I would also confess that I spent lots of money doing in my LPC without a clear direction in mind - it’s not uncommon. (Fortunately I got a TC part way through and the firm reimbursed me.)

OP - if you decide to look at CILEX, I would recommend calling and asking what exemptions you would get for your course. The CILEX qualification has recently changed from Level 3 and Level 6 to the new CILEX Professional Qualification, so some information online might be out of date.

@wewereliars

What lentilsforever is talking about is that you have spent a lit of time and money on securing qualifications, with the aim apparently pf being a solicitor, but don't seem to have the most basic clue of what law you want to study, what firm you want to work in, or the limits of your qualifications, or which route to take.

In the age of the internet, that is really poor to be fair. Hargao nailed employment law in her/ his post

You were talking about international and global firms in your early posts, and this has morphed into employment law, during the course of this thread.

yes , global firms specialize in many areas fields and one of them too is employment law . I have not contradicted myself . Im sure many lawyers discover what area they want to specialize in after studying . That is the whole point of a training contract to be exposed to various seats within a firm before deciding what to specialize in .

I presume you have done the LLM which is a law conversion course

No it is not 😂

Bluntness I've gone back and read OPs posts and its very clear she did the LLM top up to the PGDL. Its a specific LLM that BPP do which is a conversion but goes one step further than the PGDL and is an LLM. That's it.

However, OP, some of your posts were confusing to read and could've been clearer. You don't seem as clear as you probably should be about all of the various routes you can take for law and it would be wise to do some research online. It wouldn't take you very long at all and it would help you to be clear in applications as well as clear yourself as to what is available.

@tailspin21 thank you for offering useful advice . I will take this on board