Advice re retraining as a lawyer please?

[ZiggZagg]

Hi any lawyers here who would be able to advise?

I have a BA (Hons) Social Work gained in 2011 and have worked as a Social Worker since then.

I am considering retraining and would like to talk to someone about what I would need to do to retrain as a lawyer. Would my degree be helpful at all or would I need to start from scratch?

I've tried googling but clear as mud I'm afraid!

Thanks in advance!

It will only take one year longer than if you’d done a law degree as you would need to do a 1 year conversion course first. (PGDL - used to be called CPD)

After that, a year at law school (think still called LLP) plus 2 years training contract, all of which you’d do even if you’d done a law degree.

However there are alternatives, if you work as a paralegal or contract manager in a company might lop some time off the 2 years training.

You could study for the GDL/LLP part time over an extended period if needed.

It will also depend on which areas of law you want to go into- commercial, family, private practice ( ie in a law firm) or in- house within a company.

there are two routes - the traditional GDL (conversion course) and LPC (“how to be a solicitor” course) followed by a 2 year training contract route, or the very new SQE which is on the job training with exams. I don’t know much about the latter route as it’s so new, but they are the options to explore.

Thank you both!

There's also cilex route which is much cheaper than LPC + training contract and the SQE route. You study and work at the same time

cpq.cilex.org.uk/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_term=&utm_campaign=CILEX+-+Prospecting&hsa_acc=3020588658&hsa_cam=15918102956&hsa_grp=141823277948&hsa_ad=581911604843&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=dsa-1619744110309&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=Cj0KCQjw08aYBhDlARIsAA_gb0fPiVR7BNjlccI4nEhgiU1Jl3Hu-XTDxj5YEdOrQOBeHw7RFDX6MbIaAirZEALw_wcB

If you want to do care proceedings work “on the other side of the fence” maybe have a chat with the solicitors you see regularly during your work?

Or even your own legal department!

I don't know if you're interested in care proceedings work - you may want to do something completely different! But if you do, I can see how a social Work background would be a massive asset. And local authorities are crying out for more lawyers. As people have said above, there are quite a few different routes now. Definitely have a chat with your own legal team - they will be a great resource for you (but don't let them recruit you if you really want to go into banking law!). Good luck

Social work wouldn’t cut it for banking law! Family is obviously the best route. A lot of family law is divorce though so it’s not entirely related to social work. You can still
do a GDL. If you don’t get a scholarship, they are expensive! DDs was £9,000 in 2014!