Is City Law really that bad?

[profen]

My ds is a first year historian at a good univ.
He has been on an insight scheme for law and enjoyed it. He saw some work that they do and said it was dull, but other bits were more exciting.

He’s had his eyes on a career in law for a few years. He’s been reading online and people have said “Don’t do it blah blah” for XY reasons. Usually, the hours are brutal. Pay is not super compared to the same hours in finance. Boring.

Is city law really that bad? Should he start looking into Consultancy or Banking more? (He isn’t a natural mathematician!)

I lked it. I would have stayed had I been made a partner (instead set up my own firm but even with that the financial and personal rewards have been tremendous and I adore what I do every day - even at 7.15am on a Sunday at my desk at home). My daughters are solicitors in London too.

The hours can be very long depending on the department and firm so you do need to be able to work hard, not get sick, keep going, but I think it's worth it as even if you do something different after it is a very good start. £100k pay 3 years after you finish your training contract is not something most jobs offer. I am not saying it is the best paid job of any but it is well paid and I have never found it boring.

It does vary for departments as to how busy you are and standard hours so it is quite hard to generalise about hours but eg it would be silly in many of these firms to make social engagements after work during the week for example and you might have to work some weekends.

It also gives you lots of choice. One of my daughters works in-house at a company in London and loves it. I set up on my own. Other people I know have set up businesses (I think the man who owns Wetherspoons pubs started out as a lawyer). Some lecture in it. Some move out of London later to regional firms or even abroad. In other words in my view it gives you quite a few choices later too as most people are not made a partner at the firm in which they start.

I’d echo a lot of what Xenia said.
I trained in the city and honestly it wasn’t really for me. Hours were a bit brutal and I found the work a little repetitive. However, I moved in house and it’s mostly great. I love my job and I like that I have the security that I could probably get contract work if my job vanished.

Ex City lawyer here. It’s not very PC to say this but it’s a lot better for men - yes hours are brutal, some work at junior level is very mundane, but the vibe is electric and rewards are big compared to other graduate level jobs. HOWEVER I found it entirely incompatible with family life, hence the “ex”! For men this is not so much of a consideration - my husband is still in that world-

If your son is serious he needs to apply in good time for summer internships - extremely competitive, realistically limited to students at a handful of universities- as these are effectively first screening for training contracts

Thank you all for the insights. It at least seems that there are some exit options if he finds it’s not for him.

As he’s non-law, only some internships are open for him to apply to in the coming year. The rest are in his final year. I’ve advised him to try his best to get on one to see
if it is for him.

At his recent insight scheme he was surprised at the breadth of universities there. He sort of expected it to be all Oxbridge, but there were quite a few “rogue” ones. However, he did find it helpful being at Oxford, for networking as a good chunk went there to; giving them
something to chat aboutt!

Many city firms now do blind cv recruitment so whether one attends Oxbridge or what you call 'rogue' would be on zero consequence in those companies. He may be advised to find out which ones and avoid them if he can only network with Oxbridge candidates.

No need for the claws hollowvictory.

No claws just advice.

I love that a “good university” is now Oxford!!! Have I misunderstood that?

However it really depends on whether he gets a training contract and gets through all the recruitment hoops. Not sure how many city law firms recruit blind though. Even if they do, I would still expect their ranks to be very Oxbridge as they are for Barristers. Some people are just better at the tests than others! An insight day isn’t necessarily representative of successful candidates! It just ondicates those who are interested.

Try and get a vac scheme and see if it’s for him. There are a myriad of city law firms and you don’t have to just look at the top tier. What he does need to ensure though, is that he gets on a trainee scheme so all his conversion course and training fees are covered.

DD1 has friends doing this career and it is very long hours but so far all are still there! Whether they will be in 10 years is debatable I suspect. However if it’s what he wants, why not try?

Bubbles it can't be that Oxbridge blind since one of the firms DS2 got an offer from spent a long while in his interview talking about Cecil Rhodes and whether him falling would be a good or bad thing - directly Oxford related.

It is certainly worth applying for vacation schemes. Your daughter can do that in about August/September to Dec in the Autumn of her coming year 2 for summer paid vacation schemes in her summer holiday after year 2.

On institutions, the best places recruit the best candidates or try to - examples at:
www.chambersstudent.co.uk/where-to-start/newsletter/law-firms-preferred-universities