Vet to lawyer career change advice please

[careerchangego]

As the title says really. I'm thinking at the moment about into heading to a role serving medical/veterinary clients.

There seem to be a few routes in - any views on the conversion degrees? (I have a 5 year degree and an MSc already)

Also any advice regarding training + juggling family life, finances etc .

Many thanks :)

Oh dear. So say more

I can’t give you details, as it’s only someone I know vaguely (everyone in the vet world knows someone etc) but a guy who was an orthopaedic surgeon did do this- binned off the vet work and now has a very successful law career. Don’t think he has anything to do with veterinary legal work though. Sorry, can’t be more help!

AFAIK there was no family btw when he made the switch.

I would suggest as your first move researching firms that offer the service you want to give and get in touch with them to do some work experience so that you are clear what it actually entails as opposed to what you think it does. I imagine it will mostly be professional negligence claims against vets. You might also consider claims roles within the PI insurance field - your training will be useful and you would not have to retrain as a lawyer (expensive, time consuming, not necessarily family friendly)

If you're looking at being a solicitor, you'd need to sit the SQE1 and SQE2 exams (together would say it takes 1 year full time to prepare, 2 years part time/evenings) although you could potentially do it faster if you worked incredibly hard.
Then you need 2 years of qualifying work experience (can be done before/alongside/after your exams). Needs to be anything where you're providing legal services. Bear in mind these roles pay pretty poorly if you're used to being a vet (~£25k, maybe up to £30k at a good London firm).
Then you're newly qualified. It takes a while in law to build up to a decent salary so be prepared to take 10 years of hard graft to get up to the level you're likely at now!

Not to put you off, but just to be aware x

Contact the BVA, and possibly the RSPCA. Have a look at job ads and the legal work they do.

there are more opportunities for vet/lawyers than you’d think. Animal cruelty, medicines regulation, practice regulation, as well as malpractice etc.

Very interesting- thank you!

Thanks @feelingalittlehorse that's interesting