lawyer

This section has been written for undergraduate and postgraduate students in Kent Law School. It attempts to give a brief answer to the question: What can I do with my degree?

Although your main interest may be in how to make the best use of your degree subject, there are many issues which are common to all undergraduates and postgraduates planning their careers. Some of these are covered in our pages Choosing a Career which will also help you to assess your strengths, weaknesses, interests, abilities and skills in order to relate career options to you .

Studying law develops many skills which will be equally valuable outside the legal profession, in particular the following:

• Communication, both written and verbal
• Analysing and problem solving
• Using information from different sources
• Time management
• Researching
• Presentation
• Negotiation
• Attention to detail
• Logical reasoning

For help with assessing these and other skills, see our Employability Skills pages www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skillsmenu.htm

Solicitors have direct contact with their clients, giving advice on the law in person, in writing and over the phone. They are usually the client's first point of contact within the legal system, and will resolve many issues themselves, by offering advice and taking action such as writing letters, drafting legal documents and representing clients in Court.

Solicitors work in firms in private practice, in public sector bodies such as local authorities and the Government Legal Service, and in the in-house legal departments of companies.

Private practice is by far the largest sector, employing 80% of solicitors. Firms range in size from City firms with hundreds of partners, covering a wide range of commercial work, to small niche firms specialising in a particular area of law such as immigration or sports law, to the traditional High Street firms offering a range of legal services to small businesses and individual clients.

TRAINING

Solicitors need to complete the Legal Practice Course and a two-year training contract before qualifying. The training contract is paid employment with a solicitor's firm or other employer recognised by the Law Society as a training provider. It is normally undertaken after the LPC but, in some circumstances, work experience before the LPC may be accepted as part of the training contract.

Most training contracts are in private practice but in-house legal departments do occasionally take on trainees as do public sector bodies such as local authorities and the Government Legal Service.

Many firms recruit trainees two years before the starting date (ie during the summer vacation before your final year), but just as many will only recruit trainees once they have completed the LPC and are immediately available for work. It is NOT necessary to have fixed up a training contract before starting the LPC.