calling those with a legal career, can anyone help me with

[cluedupless]

a question about starting a career in law?

My current career has gone belly up while I am on mat leave. There is no going back. I have to retrain.

So, I was thinking about a career in law relating to environmental issues.

Can anyone advise me in what direction to look for more information on how to train in this area?
What qualification am I looking for?

(yes, at the moment things are really this vague...law is related to my current career though...)

if you want to work as a trained lawyer you need a professional qualification.... either as a barrister or solicitor. if you have a degree in another subject already you can do a one yesr diploma in law course which is the equivalent of a law degree in a year (but bloody hard work!) followed by a one year solicitors finals or bar finals course then paid training (training contract or pupilage)...... you may be able study part time for these qualifications but i dont know how possible that is. that is route to professional qualification.

you may be able to get paralegal work (assisting in law firm) without requalifying but career opps would be limited.

could you try to get some voluntary experience to see if this is really for you? greenpeace? big environmental deptmnt in solicitors firm?

the work you would have to do to qualify would not be about enviro law.... it would be contact / land / crime / trusts etc. environmental law would be a v niche speciality.

err, did i put you off?

Would echo controlfreaky in saying that environmental law is very niche. The solicitors City firm I work for does have a specialised environmental law department but I am not sure how viable an option it is outside of the largest firms.

You need to research what sorts of organisations would hire such lawyers (I can see a BP or Shell doing it). Would local councils need lawyers in such a speciality?

On balance, I think it is best to keep an open mind about what area of law you want to go into.

You do need a first degree to get on to the diploma in law btw, I take it you have one?

I agree these are the classic routes into law but OP does not say much about what she has been doing or whether she is a graduate.

There is the legal exec route, open to non-graduates - study and work at the same time. There are "contract administrator roles" which involve working for large corporates and need some knowledge of the law - if you found a job with an environmental organisation would that be enough? There are jobs in local authorities where one would check if the law was being breached, and for environmental consultancies where people advise on what permits and consents are needed for a given activity on site.

Cluedupless can you be a bit more specific?

yes of course
sorry I have been mumsnet missing in action!

I am a graduate: BSc and MSc.

I have previously worked in government advising on compliance with specific European law. This did not require a legal qualification.

Now I am hoping to pick myself up off the floor and branch out.

(I am a bit daunted, I have two small small children.)

Apart from the studying - which is not inconsiderable- you should be aware that while you are a Trainee (if you opt for the Solicitor route) your hours could be long and unpredictable so childcare will need to be watertight and flexible (if that is not an oxymoron!). Your fellow trainees will predominantly be bright young things with no ties and you will need to keep up with them if you want to survive the mix at the end of the Training contract - a job is not guaranteed at the end of the 2 years.

On the positive side your past experience will, in the right firm, be a massive plus, and maturity comes with it a certain amount of common sense that young graduates do not always display!!

I did the CPE - the one year conversion course for non-law graduates. I have to say that I did not find it excessively hard work, although I had no children at the time. You need to be organised, and have time to memorise stuff, but I had spent 2 years earning a living in a proper job before doing the CPE, and I thought it was fine.

If you decide you want to be a solicitor, the trick is to get a training contract with a firm which will sponsor you through law school for two years before you start to pay the fees. These firms, sadly, are typically those most likely to require long hours of you.

When you are looking at firms to gauge the risk of long hours in the training contract, you could ask how many of their partners are mothers. This should give you a bit of a clue. Or with your background the government legal service might be a good place to look.

I did the CPE conversion route from a first degree, and worked for a big firm, they really liked graduates with a different background.

It does take quite a lot of time - One year CPE, one LPC, and two in a training contract to qualify, and you'll have to pay for the courses, though of course you are paid for the traininh contract.

Are you happy to work full time? It would be hard I imagine (but am happy to be contradicted!) to get a training contract part time.

This might be of some help? www.lawsociety.org.uk they have a junior lawyers section.

Good luck!

I'm a lawyer with DEFRA which sounds like it might suit you. I definitely can recommend it as very family friendly - I work part time and do home working for some of that. My work is excellent, a mixture of advising and drafting mainly on community instruments. Hours can be long if you are on something which requires that (eg getting a Bill through Parliament) but you tend to be able to dictate your own workload to a certain extent and won't be pushed into work which requires a lot of out of hours facetime. If you go on the government legal service (GLS) website you might see about trying to do a placement so you can get a feel for it. One factor is that they do like to move you around to suit business needs. You might want to specialise in environmental law (and might be able to swing it to do that over your career) but you should not go into an interview with too much of a fixed idea.

I did a post grad diploma in law after a history degree and really didn't think the year was excessively hard work at all (met my husband at law school so perhaps rose tinted glasses!). I'm pretty sure the GLS does sponsership through law school (may be wrong) but you might investigate that. It would give you the reassurance of a training contract at the end and money throughout the course.