solictors and lawyers,why did you choose your career....

[brimfull]

and are you happy with it?

DD considering this but would like to know

what qualities do you need?
what subjects at a level did you do?
tia

I'd just add that in my experience, the best bit about being a lawyer is court work.

I really love a good head to head in court, especially if the other side's a male, cocky barrister and I win!

Thanks for hte link, Scottishmummy.

Glad to help ... oh, that's another lawyery trait - the kind of person who thinks "Oh lovely a juicy problem (and not mine own) to solve". (Which actually is not ungermane to the sadly well-known phenomenon of solicitors dying intestate - as sorting out clients' wills = fun, but dealing with one's own notoriously doesn't get done.)

I did think of one further trait, which you have to have if you are going to be magic circle partner material - and that is: an appetite for always doing new things - eg not being quite satisfied with the way last week's problem was solved, but continually dreaming up and testing better/quicker/more elegant solutions; and so genuinely enjoying the constant flow of new developments in law, practice, business. That needs an intellectual & commercial energy that's a bit beyond me, I think.

Great post from Bink.

My utterly anecdotal experience was that big sisters made good solicitors and younger sisters preferred being barristers - I guess because people have to shut up whilst they are speaking!

I was a corporate litigator and one of the things I loved and miss was getting to grips with different industries. If you were working on a case for a car auction house say, or a publisher, you learned loads of things about that business. It changes the way you look around you.

Crap for family life, though which is why I've given it up.

this is v interesting thread.. i have just started a law conversion course as i have a degree (in english and theology) and have been working (not in law) for a number of years. Am hoping i will enjoy a law career, def not the magic circle type but hope to do family law stuff...and hope it will somehow fit with having little kids?!

You need to pick both your firm and specialism carefully cheritongirl. Then you can make it work with little ones. I have a friend who does family law part-time, which can be stressful sometimes, but I think all jobs can. Interestingly the firm she used to work for felt the job could not be done part-time, whereas the current firm has lots of part-timers. This is the same story re-told on here by city lawyers every year - the flexibility problems are not exclusive to the Square Mile.

thanks for all your replies,very interesting reading for dd and loads to think about.

she's also interested in accounting so may start another thread another day

I would second the advice to get any work experience possible in law firms. This is for several reasons:-
You will find out the areas of law in which you do not wish to specialise - for me family and conveyancing - and maybe the one you do..
Any opportunity to "get your face known" is a great one. I had a firm pleading with me to send in my CV and apply for articles (showing my age - now a training contract). Having helped with the recruitment for trainees at a later stage in life, so many are bined straight away that anything which makes the firm remember you is a great thing.
You do really get a feel for how a particular firm operates and so know whether you wish to apply to them.

finally, would beg to differ that Law is not a "proper" A level !

[Bink - judging by your necessary list of traits - our dses are not going to follow in our footsteps]

Oh yes I agree indignatio! (nice thread cross-fertilisation there )

My daughter though ... but I would sort of hope that, if she did law, she would choose it in the sensible long-sighted way ggirl's dd seems to be thinking - not default into it like I (& lots of others of us) did.

I would recommend it as a career but I would caution against thinking that a law degree and an LPC will result in big earnings; lawyers are not always well-paid. At the top end of the earnings scale, the hours are truly horrible and not one bit family friendly.

Caroline, I don't disagree in every sense but it does piss me off if we are telling this to our daughters - that the jobs at the top of this tree are effectively off limits to women.

I do this. Its not that bad. There are a huge number of good things about the job. My DCs are happy, healthy and doing well at school .

Did science a levels (originally thought I'd do medicine and then changed my mind), an arts degree (part of the mind-changing), then went into law by doing a conversion course.
I worked in a magic circle firm (with Issy! So that was obviously marvellous and I miss her ...). Then in industry for a bit, then a couple of years off having and playing with babies and now am about to start being a judge part time. So there are lots of options around.
I agree, get work experience, but don't get let her get stuck in the trap of thinking that because you start working in one type of firm doing one type of law that is all you will ever do.
But it is easy to start in a major firm doing major work (eg when you are young) and then move onto something a bit smaller and a bit less pressured - it is almost impossible to do it the other way around.

PS agree completely with Binks post APART from the bit that says you have to be a child who always remembers their gym kit.

I was the child who never remembered her gym kit, or that I was meant to be at the gym, or, quite often, where the gym was. But if you are at a magic circle firm you will have a secretary who ensures it is clean, fresh and pressed, and who drops you at the door (so to speak) which is one reason to Go Large. The support is tremendous.

How do you get to be a part time judge?

Ex solicitor, youngest just started school..Sorry thread hijack.

science a levels and a science degree - I specialise in techy patent law - if you are fully qualified in this discipline then you can earn b/w £60 - 90k (ie in your late twenties onwards)...without having to work for huge corporate law firms...

if you become a partner in private pratice or head of IP in industry (eg IBM etc)then you could expect to earn b/w £100k - 200k (double for larger private practices). I'm a partner in a v small practice located outside of London part time ish (ie hours to suit) - the key is to specialise and you can command you own work/life balance.

apply to be a DDJ Kaz
max 50 days a year, pick and choose when you sit...

what sort of part time judgery minty? recorder? dj or do you mean part time permanent appointment??

deputy dj
so very very part time
thought I'd do it for a few years and then become a salaried dj (which you can do 4 days a week) once dd2 in school.
could also be a rec at the same time to get some crim experience which would be beneficial if I'm to make circuit judge within the decade

here you go for all you highly experienced and qualified women lawyers who are sitting at home wondering what to do next - how about the judiciary? see if we can get the first mumsnetter on the high court bench or beyond

I wanted to do a degree that led to a career, I had seen children of my parents friends leave university and drift. So chose law but livened up the law degree by doing law and sociology. This worked for me as it meant I qualified with an llb so could go straight to the lpc rather than having to do the conversion. But I also got to do a "fun" (well I thought so) course as well as the more rigorous law degree.

Trained in a high street practice (interesting/badly paid and chaotic). Moved to a magic circle firm (cool international colleagues, buzz of working in the city, occasionally exciting deals, international travel but brutal long hours meant no life outside the office).

Unless she is set on private client work I would say go for magic circle firm when you are young if you can. Great money and buzz and experience, but dont stay too long. I know too many women who woke up at 40 with no DH or kids and told they wont make partnership having spent their whole adult lives working like maniacs. shudder..

Caroline, Anchovy - I agree with Caroline here .

I was a strategy consultant. Same long hours and hard work culture as law (plus long stretches living in a hotel when on international cases).

All my female colleagues have left that career behind. It is a myth that you can combine that sort of job and a family. The only woman I know of my generation who has stayed the course (and is a VP at McK) has 3 nannies for her two children (ie permanent nanny cover night and day).

Yes same experience as Anna888, and Caroline is spot on. In my experience women working at the top level senior positions in magic circle firms or who are partners either had no families and devoted themselves to the career. Alternatively they had day and night nannies, as no one nanny could be expected to mirror the hours they worked. My old department had 50 odd partners. 2 were women and one of them was on gardening leave.

Although the family friendliness or not of the job is not something you think about when you are an invincible 20 year old!

It isn't really worth arguing this one (though for what it's worth I'm on the Anchovy side of the divide) as it is totally a matter of working environment, individual personality and the fit between the two.

I do not feel ground into the ground by my job - it does have its rip-tide moments when there is more paper flooding into your room than leaving it - but in my firm, with my team, that's by no means every day, and there are really quite a lot of breathing spaces. It's not the brutal environment it's painted (or, perhaps more accurately, it doesn't have to be the brutal environment that I realise people do sometimes experience. I'm pretty sure that sort of experience is more due to management failure than anything inherent in lawyering).

However, thinking about that has made me come with Two New Further Traits that would be useful (both of which I do have):

• liking spending your time with the kind of people who are City lawyers. I like brains and lateral thinking and verbal precision - I get a genuine enjoyment out of seeing how my clever colleagues operate. They are really very good at punctuating ... and

• being very resilient - bouncing back super-fast from a bit of stress or a setback. I've always managed this, & as trivial explanation I think it's because I sleep easily - it is not a fun job for an insomniac or someone who suffers from anxiety.

PS - if minty doesn't have the Efficient-Child gene & still got on well in law - I bet that's because she has a double dose of the Telling The Wood From The Trees gene. Am I right?

agree both points
really noticed when I went into industry how I had taken the intelligence and general QUICKNESS of all my law colleagues slightly for granted. definitely had to slow down a bit and explain and wait for lights to dawn MUCH more in the real world, in the firm you could discuss things almost in shorthand and people would always be racing off with useful and interesting thoughts.
also agree re the bouncing and sleep you have to have a bit of a safety valve that can say "ahhhh.... fuck it" and go to bed. and accept that not everything has to be perfect, sometimes "good enough" is (a) good enough and (b) all there is time/money to achieve
I am a champion sleeper, can sleep any time any place any where, was famous for going to sleep at dull parties and clubs while at university. just needed a corner or (often) a table to crawl under