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Law and Accounting in UL or Commerce in UCC?

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  • 20-06-2009 3:27pm
    #1
    Tevez101
    Closed Accounts Posts: 111 ✭✭


    I have abit of a dilemma here....i have a good interest in business(mainly accounting) but also have an interest in law. I'm thinking about beecoming a solicitor but tbh i'm not all that sure about it as i know the legal profession is extremely competitive at the moment and I don't know whether i'd be up for that. The thing is I desperately want to go to cork and i dont want to do law on its own as I dont want to be tied down to it so to speak. So I feel that the perfect course would be law and accounting in UL but I really don't want to go to Limerick.

    Anyone know would it be that much of a difference if I did commerce in cork as opposed to law and accointing in UL. And would I still be able to pursue a career as a solicitor after a degree in commerce and if so, how difficult would it be for me as opposed to my chances with a degree in Law and Accounting.


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    #2
    pathway33
    Registered Users Posts: 2,229 ✭✭✭pathway33


    Tevez101 wrote: »
    I desperately want to go to cork .......but I really don't want to go to Limerick.

    And would I still be able to pursue a career as a solicitor after a degree in commerce and if so, how difficult would it be for me as opposed to my chances with a degree in Law and Accounting.

    I desparately want to go to.....but don't want to go to.....well there's your answer to that

    You can pursue a degree as a solicitor after a degree in anything by doing the law society exams and securing a training contract. Any degree will exempt you from the preliminary examinations. I don't know about exemptions for the FE-1 exams of which there are 8, and then there's more exams after that.

    Definitely go for commerce in cork doing a course you are interested in in a place you want to be. You can start thinking about the law exams in 3 or 4 years

    P.S I know of only 2 people who have done Law in UCC and both dropped out. One changed to european studies and the other did speech therapy


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    #3
    ALincoln
    Closed Accounts Posts: 222 ✭✭ALincoln


    Ok, well firstly don't listen to horror stories about Law - every course has its dropouts. Statistically, I think Law in fact has slightly less than most courses, but I'm not entirely sure.

    Commerce in UCC (as far as I know) involves a Law module in first year, and you can carry on after that and major in Law. Bear in mind however, that you'll only ever encounter commercial Law subjects (contract, commercial, company etc), and you may miss out on traditional subjects like Constitutional and Crim, which are compulsory for Blackhall and vital to know if you are considering Law (even if you just know the basics to pass the exam).

    It looks like you want to do Commerce - in that case, I'd say go for it. Don't do Law and Acc if you think you might end up regretting it.


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    #4
    Tevez101
    Closed Accounts Posts: 111 ✭✭Tevez101


    There is one thing that I really want to know.....


    How much more difficult would it be for me to pursue a career as a solicitor by doing commerce as opposed to law and accounting, say on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being extremely difficult/virtually impossible.


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    #5
    ALincoln
    Closed Accounts Posts: 222 ✭✭ALincoln


    I'd say about 6/7 - a Law degree exists for a reason. Bear in mind that if you did Commerce you would be competing against people who have been studying Law for 3 or 4 years - you would be at a disadvantage. Not a huge one if you put in the work, but a BCL graduate does have quite a significant headstart on Comm/Government etc. graduates. (If it was any other way a Law degree would be rendered a bit pointless.) There's the additional issue that even if you do get past the FE1s, you need to wrangle a traineeship. Employers may favour Law graduates over graduates from other courses, for obvious reasons.


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    #6
    KnifeWRENCH
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,148 ✭✭✭✭KnifeWRENCH


    If you do Commerce at UCC, you can choose to major in Law for your degree. You'll still be awarded a degree in Commerce but you cando up to 40 credits out of 60) of Law in 4th Year.

    Source: http://www.ucc.ie/calendar/commerce/com002.html

    As someone said earlier, you don't necessarily need a Law degree to become a solicitor. (Although it is a huge advantage)

    If you really don't want to go to UL, then don't. No point going for a course if you're going to be unhappy with where you are.

    If you think you want to be a solicitor but don't want to do just do Law, you could study Law with a language at UCC. It's always handy to know a foreign language and it would look impressive on your CV! :)


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    #7
    pathway33
    Registered Users Posts: 2,229 ✭✭✭pathway33


    Tevez101 wrote: »
    There is one thing that I really want to know.....


    How much more difficult would it be for me to pursue a career as a solicitor by doing commerce as opposed to law and accounting, say on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being extremely difficult/virtually impossible.

    According to this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055143169 I'd say 4 based on the fact that it seems you do not get any exemptions from FE-1 even with a law degree as there were people with BCL from UCC asking if their college notes would suffice to study for the FE-1 exams.

    Check it out for definite with the law society



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