What with it being Easter break there is little I can write regarding legal education. Instead I thought I might ask a (somewhat) rhetorical question.
Why do certain individuals wish to become lawyers?
I don't know if I have an answer to this question myself. In previous posts I have made note of the fact that I am unsure about exactly what type of lawyer I wish to become, but I know that I want to enter the field in general. (Whilst I am on the subject - as it may be possible to tell - I have been looking more seriously at the barrister route than solicitor, though nothing is yet set in stone). I know what I want to do, but I do not know why.
Fortunately I have a little time to formulate an answer to the question I anticipate I am soon to be asked - Be it at pupillage interviews, mini-pupillages, work experience, joining an Inn etc. When I was slightly younger I thought that I would quite like to try medicine as a career path. After all, it's a good honest profession, (possibly) befitting a product of a Grammar school education. I wanted to help people.
I ruled out medicine when I decided that there where certain aspects of the job I did not think I could handle. However, before I had these idealistic notions of a career in medicine I had already contemplated Law.
A few years later I am a law student (rather quickly) approaching the end of his first year. I have looked more seriously into law now. I am very interested in getting into family law, again, as a means of helping people. But I know if I am completely honest, two of the overriding reasons why I want to become a lawyer are money, and the prestige that goes with the job.
I'm not entirely sure that those last two points are wise to bring up during interviews though.
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The Diary of a young man setting foot into the world of Law.
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2 comments:
Prestige! Most of the public rank us somewhere between Sharks and politicians!
There are a couple of issues with both prestige and cashola that may not be obvious when one is still a student. The bottom line is that law is not - on average - a career for those looking to become wealthy while still young. A very few will, but that's not representative of either branch of the profession as a whole. Nor is it a way to become well-known. It's my opinion that the best reason to practise law is that you enjoy doing it - and in a wonderfully circular way, you won't know this until you've done it for a while.
I've jotted below a few more detailed thoughts for those interested:
Prestige depends on your target audience. I think it's safe to say that both barristers and solicitors enjoy an unusually high level of prestige among law students. This is not, alas, reflected among our fellow-citizens - or at least not to the same extent. Certain places accord lawyers relatively more or less prestige - high in Hong Kong and most of the States (vaguely disliked, but still high prestige in that latter); low in the PRC, Russia and most emerging markets.
(All of these are relative to London.)
If you have a law degree and are looking at a City job, then in descending order of prestige I'd hazard:
1. Junior analyst at a bulge-bracket bank;
2. Pupillage at a very good commercial chambers (One Essex, for example, or Brick Court);
3. Magic Circle TC;
4. Entry-level consultancy
5. Other top-10 TC;
6. Other pupillage;
7. Other TC.
Pay follows roughly the same distribution - as you are probably aware, financial services jobs have the potential to pay inordinately greater bonuses than law firms, although this should be seen in the context of much lower job security. I'm less familiar with the pay for junior barristers, but I believe it to be extremely low outside a very few pupillages at extremely good commercial chambers. To be a barrister, it helps to have an optimistic approach to debt, or wealthy and generous parents. Solicitors are paid more on average at junior levels, which can make it a safer option.
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