Mature student, kings inn or law degree?

Pinkasaurus

I'm looking into the best path to take to become a solicitor. I'm 23, have never to college and have been working since I left school. I did some research but finding it very confusing as to the best way to go about this. Should I just apply to do the diploma in kings inn as I'm a mature student and would need a degree to do it otherwise? Or would a law degree (or anything else) be a better way to go?

okioffice84

Pinkasaurus wrote: »

I'm looking into the best path to take to become a solicitor. I'm 23, have never to college and have been working since I left school. I did some research but finding it very confusing as to the best way to go about this. Should I just apply to do the diploma in kings inn as I'm a mature student and would need a degree to do it otherwise? Or would a law degree (or anything else) be a better way to go?

The Kings Inns has nothing to do with the solicitor route. The Law Society looks after solicitor training.

http://www.lawsociety.ie/Pages/Public-Becoming-a-Solicitor-CMS/

Pinkasaurus

okioffice84 wrote: »

The Kings Inns has nothing to do with the solicitor route. The Law Society looks after solicitor training.

http://www.lawsociety.ie/Pages/Public-Becoming-a-Solicitor-CMS/

Thanks for the help. So from looking at this it seems i can go the route of doing the preliminary examination without a degree? Is it realistic to consider doing it this way or should I be looking at a degree?

Manach

Depending on where you live, would it be viable for you to do a part time/evening course on the law either to diploma or degree level? It would allow you to gain an understanding of what it entails as well as providing some career advice.

Valentine1

Do a degree, it doesn't have to be law but that might be best.

Any prospective employer in the legal world will expect you to have a degree and to be honest you'll need the skills a degree will teach you. At 23 you've loads of time yet.

Bepolite

Have you researched what it's like to be a solicitor? Have you done any work experience in a solicitors office? I would highly recommend doing so before committing yourself.

One option might be to do a year IILEX (Legal exec course) and then start working for a firm as a paralegal of some description, finishing a full law degree part time. You can then bum round for a couple of years doing the FE-1s.

If you can though, throw yourself headlong into a full law degree full-time, you may find your opinions changing on what you want to do. You may even decide you want to wear a cape!

Valentine1

If you do want to pursue a career in law then a Law degree will always be the natural first step. Even if you do decide to go into a different field afterwards Law Degrees are highly valued by employers and will stand to you.

okedoke

Not to dampen your enthusiasm but the employment prospect for solicitors is not good at the moment, to put it mildly.

hullaballoo

It's hardly that bad. The salaries for traineeships are pretty miserly and may not improve for some time after that but contracts aren't as thin on the ground as they were from 2008-11 or so.

Valentine1

hullaballoo wrote: »

It's hardly that bad. The salaries for traineeships are pretty miserly and may not improve for some time after that but contracts aren't as thin on the ground as they were from 2008-11 or so.

it is actually pretty bad and wages are worse than ever. Luckily for the OP it will most likely be 5 years before they are at that stage so who knows what will have happened by then.

chops018

hullaballoo wrote: »

It's hardly that bad. The salaries for traineeships are pretty miserly and may not improve for some time after that but contracts aren't as thin on the ground as they were from 2008-11 or so.

I agree. It still isn't good, but, it definitively isn't as bad as it was 2008-2011. Things in the legal sphere seem to be slowly getting better.

Pinkasaurus

Thanks for all the replies they were all really helpful After doing more research I have a better idea of what's involved! hopefully I will be in a position to being accepted into a full time degree next year, I'm not under any illusion about the salary or anything like that, im looking to do this because i think il find it interesting and something i could succeed in with hard work.

Bepolite

Pinkasaurus wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies they were all really helpful After doing more research I have a better idea of what's involved! hopefully I will be in a position to being accepted into a full time degree next year, I'm not under any illusion about the salary or anything like that, im looking to do this because i think il find it interesting and something i could succeed in with hard work.

The areas you can work in are exceptionally diverse. If you're interested in the area my advice would be a law degree, with as much extracurricular and work experience as you can do. This will help you form an educated idea of whether you want to be a barrister, solicitor, academic, in house counsel or some other form of legal professional.

Enjoy yourself!