I came across this fascinating article by James Dean in The Law Society Gazette this afternoon – the attractions of enforced abstinence from law over the Christmas shut down were wearing thin…
Students lured by City-style work
Prospective lawyers are most interested in pursuing careers in City-style law, figures from legal careers website All About Law seen exclusively by the Gazette have suggested.
An analysis of the advice pages viewed by the 10,000 students registered on the site indicates a preference for corporate and commercial work.
Some 1,335 site users accessed pages on the site relating to careers in commercial law, and 1,250 viewed pages on corporate law jobs, compared with just 349 for personal injury law.
Human rights law (1,093 users), criminal law (1,078), and private client charity law (1,054) were the next most popular fields….
Does this comment on The Gazette site sum it up?
don’t be so naive
Submitted by Mike on Thu, 30/12/2010 – 14:46.
the typical student dreams of the riches of commercial law, magic circle firm, 6 figure salaries, selling ones soul etc its nothing to do with the cost of the LPA. its materialism every time.
I can understand the wish, need and economic necessity of some students to secure work in a City law firm – those who are not in the fortunate position of being sponsored have to pay off a significant and substantial debt.
This led me to speculate about the career advice being given by the leading law schools – academic and vocational. The College of Law and BPP Law School are well positioned in the City law firm world; both law schools providing exclusive offerings to leading City and commercial law firms. Their gearing is probably more City-Commercial oriented than others. I plan to look at at career advice in the new year and talk to some some university and law school; careers people in podcasts. Unfortunately, not everyone can become a City lawyer… there are simply not enough openings. In any event, surely there is a much wider range of law practice out there? Of course there is… but do students get much information about the opportunities? I am a bit out of touch with the advice law schools give to students – but I am keen to find out.
There is no doubt that the legal landscape is changing in 2011 and I have already mapped out a series of podcasts with practitioners on what will be a fascinating year of change.
I would be very interested in hearing from law students about their plans for a career in law. You may email me here and if you would be interested in doing a podcast with me – anonymously if you wish – I would be delighted in talking to you about doing a podcast with you.
oh charon, you dear sweet old thing! please don’t tell me you were surprised.
as my year decamped from cambridge in the mid 1980s, people who could have made a real difference to this world in myriad arenas and fulfilled themselves in the process were dispersed between the fields of management consultancy, city law, merchant banking, stockbroking, accountancy and corporate finance. the thing i couldn’t quite fathom at that stage was that i, the classic struggling impecunious actor (albeit drinking and taking cabs home courtesy of their employers) sleeping on their floors used to leap out of bed on a monday morning on the rare occasions i had work. i would meet them in the devereux on a friday evening and want to explain every detail of what i had done at ‘work’ that week (usually playing with newspaper and glue or snogging someone; or both simultaneously). they generally wanted to get out of their heads and forget the horror of it all for two days.
the life and imagination will still be sucked from those (allegedly) most intelligent of graduates as they chase the money. largely because the grown-ups who should have worked out the trick by now tell them it’s where it’s at – neat trick.
well, kids – don’t do it! go and do something that’s fun and/or actually makes a difference to the world or indeed to your own life. the highest achievers in education have no excuse for doing these dead-end jobs.
*tumbleweed*
SW – I wasn’t 🙂
Happy New Year… we shall dine and drink soon!
thought you weren’t. at least our cynicism remains undimmed by the passing of the years.
a very happy new year to you too. why not have a drink to celebrate?
certainly look forward to another evening with you when you have time.
[…] genuinely interested in the work. Charon QC drew my attention to this issue the other day with an interesting blogpost about an article he’d seen in the Law Society Gazette. The article talks about how the majority of law students are seduced by the corporate/commercial […]