Law degree A Level choices

[Cannotbelievepeoplecanbesojudgemental]

My DD is currently deciding upon her A Level choices. She wants to go onto university to study law. She is expected to get 8s and 9s.
This is really a question towards thise who have studied / are currently studying law. Which A Levels do you think would be best out of the following?
History
Sociology- this is her favourite GCSE currently.
Economics
English Literature
English Literature and Language combined
Law

It was on Discover Uni as public information for at least the last 10 years. No idea why it's gone.

Am a lawyer at a city firm and have been involved in recruitment.

definitely not law or sociology

@Piggywaspushed My cynical view is that it’s a pretence that all people can be all things and let’s pretend all A levels are the same. It’s frankly dishonest. The competitive courses should say what the trends are. What subjects were most commonly taken? Everyone knows for most competitive engineering courses it will be Maths, Physics and FM. Where no A level is required, which ones are most frequently taken by successful candidates? Discover uni was unknown to me I have to say. Why cannot info be published on the course page by the unis?

Have just found this.

I find it weird sociology is getting short changed here. In fact, I was pleased as a poor student my sociology text book was on the reading list for Jurisprudence. So yes, it is very relevant. I also did history and English language.

Doing a law degree is probably one of the biggest regrets of my life, it had far more work in the first year than other subjects so it impacted on my whole uni experience and it’s quite limiting. There’s a disproportionate number of tests on the course. Do a subject you love at uni is always my advice.

i would say History is almost a must for law

Why not sociology? Do you have issues with Jurisprudence on a law course? I used my A level test book as part of the required reading for jurisprudence

Has she considered an apprenticeship in Law? No debt, earning a wage and by the time she graduates with her SQE will be head and shoulders above her peers

Law is a difficult one because a lot of the top law firms are happy to scoop up the top graduates across pretty much all uni courses onto law conversion courses so the actual job can be done with any degree at elite level, including modern languages, Classics, History, PPE, Science, Engineering, Economics and Maths etc etc potentially. Same for investment banking. So whatever the unis say for law degrees is relevant for A level subjects, it isn’t for training contracts? High IQ, people skills, ability to analyse and please clients and work really long hours is what matters ultimately.

If anyone were to analyse the A levels taken by all Senior associates and current junior parents across let’s say the top 30 law firms by revenue and profit per partner that may provide some long term insight? And same for the bar? It would be interesting to see if most did do English lit and History A level or didn’t?

They are (generally - not particularly by me) considered soft compared to the traditional subjects. The aim is to find the most academically gifted, logical and commercial candidates and there is residual scepticism around social sciences and quasi-vocational subjects. But this is the city view, perhaps not so widely adopted in smaller firms.

The content of a law A-level is so far away from what is needed for the actual job that it is considered irrelevant, and it’s also teeth-achingly high level and woolly but people think it gives them some kind of practical insight. In fact it’s more of a hobby subject.

My ideal A-level combo for a graduate applicant would be maths (or economics), history and a language.

@toadstool32 I would advise against psychology if she’s looking to go into law professionally. Can she do something which showcases her maths and commercial abilities (ideally maths, or economics).

I’d go with chemistry, economics and one of English literature or politics.

This may all be true. But that reality is that those with sociology or another soft science on their CV will be at a slight disadvantage to those with maths, history, languages. It’s not good advice to pretend otherwise.

There is no issue at all with getting women into law firms. Trainees are often 50/50 women or slightly higher. (The issue is getting them promoted to the highest echelons or keeping them when they have children.)

From the perspective of a city law firm, we need people who are mathematically able and commercial. It is amazing how many people (including applicants) misunderstand this and are quite open about the fact that they are “word” people, not “numbers” people.

A maths or economics A level indicates a degree of necessary competence. Ideally this is then combined with hobbies which demonstrate commerciality and entrepreneurial spirit.

Candidates who have taken only essay subjects cannot easily demonstrate this skill. It leaves a very significant gap in their CV.

All this may be irrelevant if you are not looking at going further than a law degree.

@Naturesoaks These are like hens teeth plus the Bar hasn’t got very far with them.

@Araminta1003 The problem with the Bar is that chambers recruit quite a lot of mature pupil barristers who have experience in their field of expertise before converting to law. Therefore their A levels might be relevant to that career and not the Bar. It’s probably more instructive for anyone wanting to be a barrister is to know what area of law they want, and look at the highest ranked chambers for that area of practice. The chambers list their recent tenants with cvs and these are worth a read to see what they studied and where. Two main rankings exist for chambers and it’s worth a bit of research for the area of law that interests you which can of course be much wider than city law firms.

I'd recommend she picks subjects she's really interested in, as law is a very diverse subject (and career) and is most enjoyable when you practice the law in relation to a field you are also interested in. For instance in the very niche area of law I practice I often draw on my science background

Plus of course pretty much all.lawyers need to develop a strong understanding of the world of business, because the majority of legal practices are run as businesses (and even if working in -house you probably still need business skills)

I did sociology A Level many moons ago... about half my class went on to do law degrees so it is certainly relevant, ultimately it's an essay subject that teaches you two sides of an argument.

@JazzyBBBG many moons ago is not now. Competition for training contracts or even paralegal jobs is fierce as so many law graduates exist plus all the other grads. 1800 train to be barristers each year for around 450 pupil places. Then the ones who don’t get pupillage the year before and the year before that apply again etc etc. Ditto with dc wanting to be solicitors. DH has a solicitor friends from moons ago when no one didn’t get a training contract! Times have changed for 1000s of law grads every year now.

I was more interested philosophically because unis push students down early specialisation (including elite unis), whereas the reality is that the job market at the most competitive level in say Finance, Banking and Law etc wants to see candidates who are all round skilled, equally literate and numerate. And this can be confusing for the YPs.

DD is at a grammar school in Year 12 with a lot of gifted boys who started at 11. A lot of them are doing Maths, Further Maths, Economics plus eg History or a Language or Physics and they typically have 11 x 9 at GCSE and will get A stars. The reality is that the Law and Banking sector are competing with each other over those graduates and potentially also AI too now for those who did Physics.
Somehow in the last 30 years, Economics as a subject has become elevated and popular not least because it is taken in combination with Maths. It is the combo I think that makes it relevant. So I was more interested to see whether the same may or may not happen with Sociology or Psychology eventually or not. Perhaps if taken in combination with Maths. Maths A level is the most popular A level taken currently and English lit is on the decline. However, in 20 years time you may be super respected for taking English lit due to the rarity. It is quite difficult to tell. Same with languages. Hardly anyone is taking them anymore so in some ways the argument could be that it actually could make a candidate stand out.

@Araminta1003 I think MFLs make a candidate stand out already. Certainly above psychology that’s studied by the world and his wife.

By the way, only 545 pupils got 10 grade 9s at GCSE in 2024 and 145 got 11 or more. Government stats. I don’t think they are filling your 6th form!

@OhDear111 - two of DDs close friends definitely got all 9s and are doing those types of subjects (2025).

A lot of them do have at least 8x9 (GCSE 2025) though and plenty have 9x9. And DD definitely also has a friend from primary school who got 11x9s this year.

in 20 years time this will likely all be irrelevant as AI will have taken over the majority of lawyers jobs. Honestly this really worries me.

@TheaBrandt1 - you think AI is going to negotiate contracts live and do risk allocation accurately?