Anyone trained to be a solicitor in their forties?

[silver73]

Hi

I'd like to change career. I've had an offer to do the CPE but worried about prospects of getting a training contract in my forties. Anyone else done this/attempted to do this?

Thanks

S

I've no knowledge of Law whatsoever, but I really don't see why not.

The law improves with age, does it not? If it's your calling, I think you should reach out at grab it with both hands.

Hi Desiderata

Thanks v much for that!

S

There were people on my LLB course of all ages, a few in their 50s. They were more committed then the 18 year olds.

I lectured on CPE and on Legal Practice Course. The mature students whom I taught (and there were many), were without exception, incredibly interesting, highly motivted, committed and hard working. They were always pleasure to teach and to talk about practice.

As for training contracts, I think it depends upon the type of practice in which you would like to work. Small practices like mine tend to prefer older applicants because it likes to retain people for succession.Young people with less committments tend to be more mobile in the job market and will move about. Older trainees tend to settle and stay, perhaps because they have experiences life as employees elsewhere and know what office ife is about.

If you do retrain, I wish you every success.

My mate is just finishing her training contract, she is 43. the training contract she is doing was more or less designed around her by the company because she didn't fit the mould and it has worked really well - the companies were falling over themselves ot take her.

The only thing she found really tough is that she's had to take a big drop in salary for the moment though it will catch up soon. And I think a couple of times she's had to bite her tongue when she's seen less experienced managers mess up

I almost switched careers myself - I am just finishing a masters in HR - if I could afford to I would move into HR strategy in a heartbeat, but unfortunately I am too senior where I currently am to be able to hope to climb back up if I started from scratch...

I know quite a few. When I was I worked with someone who had qualified at 39 or 40. Older people can be very valuable and useful to have around.