How do I become a lawyer in the UK?

How do you get in to law and become a lawyer (UK only please)???

• I'm 14, in year 10, and looking to get into law and become a lawyer, I understand that its supposed to be very hard, mostly A's and B's and all that, but is there anything ...show more

• Answer:

  if you're getting mostly As you're on the right track! University places are very competitive, and are mainly 3 As or 2As and a B - but check in the prospectus of the universities you're interested in. If you definitely want to do law you will need a law degree, preferably from a good university, as all firms (especially the big ones) definitely look at which university you went to. after university of 3 years you have to do a 1 year post-grad course called the LPC at somewhere like the college of law. this is more practical and supposedly prepares you for practise. If you choose to do a different degree it's really easy to convert over to law. a lot of firms like their trainees to have had a different background, so it's no disadvantage. in this case you do a post-graduate 1 year course called the GDL, again at somewhere like the college of law is best. Most of the big firms recruit 2 years in advance, so if you're interested in working at one of the big commercial firms people usually start looking for jobs in their 2nd year of university. This is why you need as much work experience now as you can get! This will help with the university applications as well as getting increasingly better work experience, and onto vacation schemes with the large firms once you're at university. My biggest piece of advice is to think carefully about why you want to be a lawyer, what sort of lawyer (solicitor or barrister), what area of law you're interested in, etc. then get some work experience as soon as possible. start by going into small local firms and asking - take a cv with you. Good luck!