Is studying law worth the effort?

July 29, 2009

studying-law

Blade receives an email from an old friend. It says: “I’ve been thinking about a change of career for ages and now seems as good a time as any.  I’ve got a place at The College of Law to do a GDL with a view to then going on to a BVC.  Am I insane?  If you have a spare five minutes I’ve got a few questions and would really appreciate a candid view on whether this is the right thing to do.”

How best to answer? Should Blade alert his friend to this story from The Lawyer, highlighting the fact that even the Law Society is telling people to think twice before embarking on a career in the law? After all, the statistics make for grim reading: 7,000 people completed the Legal Practice Course (LPC) in 2008, but there are only 6,000 training contracts available this year.

Or should Blade counsel optimism and suggest that with the requisite degree of application, jobs in the law are still to be had?

Blade’s own experience might be useful. Over 15 years ago, in the lead up to the dread Law Society Finals (LSF), Blade fired off sundry missives seeking work with firms large, small and indeterminate. He was promptly rewarded with articles (as they were then known) with a leading libel firm. Blade’s good fortune was much envied by his colleagues on the LSF, but soon enough most of them had secured articles, too. Others were not so lucky, for Blade’s day was not a halcyon one. Back then the law was every bit as competitive as it is now and not every budding Rumpole would walk straight into a job. Indeed, two of the brightest stars on Blade’s course were the last to secure training contracts, and neither were with the creme de la creme.

All these years later the two stars demonstrated their ability and are now partners commanding substantial equity in household name law firms. Blade, meanwhile, left the law some time ago in favour of his first love, writing. The stars undoubtedly earn significantly more than Blade; all three of us would, Blade suspects, say that we’re happy with our respective fates.

The point is that there’s a long way to go in life, with or without the law. Studying it may not lead to an immediate legal career, or it might lead to a training contract with a City firm from the off. A few years later partnership may beckon or something else entirely.

It strikes Blade that in seeking to highlight the risks of undertaking study of the law, the Law Society has fallen prey to the kind of thinking that would seek to eliminate all risk from any venture that we ever take. Society is all too full of this absurd attitude. Blade’s advice to his old friend will be to go for it, with enthusiasm, diligence and commitment – and, of course, a weather eye on the risks.

Pictured courtesy of John McDonald: a putative lawyer realises that studying law isn’t always a bundle of laughs.

 

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Supreme Court on Twitter

February 6, 2012

Something remarkable happened today. Yes, the Supreme Court launched its Twitter feed. It even has a Twitter policy, one of caveats, disclaimers and little by way of illumination but regardless: who would have thought that the successor body to the House of Lords would stoop to engage with the world of tweets, hashtags and retweets?

We look forward to the day when court business will be conducted via Twitter. Meantime, check out this link for an excellent blog on the Supreme Court.

Not so right said Fred

February 2, 2012
fred hat

So Farewell, then, Sir Fred Goodwin.

Now you are just Fred.

Not Right Said Fred, but plain Fred.

The Forfeiture Committee did for you.

No one had heard of it before,

But Dave said it had to act, and it did.

Trouble is that no one knows what to think.

Is it ‘Alas, poor Fred‘,

Or ‘Hurray! Sir Fred is dead!’?

We don’t know.

Do you?

By A. Mob, aged 1,378 and a half.

London Goes AWOL

January 31, 2012
CNN

STOP PRESS:

Fed up with being stuck on the Thames in south-east England, London yesterday decided to move. In a dramatic gesture which augurs ill for the Olympics, the city upped sticks and relocated to East Anglia.

Lawyers were not consulted about the move, and the city’s precise motivation remains unclear. However, financiers fear that London’s decision is a sign that it wishes to downsize. Moreover, a source from London said: “We no longer want to be Britain’s seat of power. If the Scots can deregulate, why can’t we? East Anglia is a nice place where nothing happens. It’s time for a quiet life. Please respect our right to privacy.”

Elsewhere, Birmingham did not do anything, but Manchester was seen to be packing its bags. “There’s an opportunity for us,” said Manchester. “We can become London.”

East Anglia said: “We don’t mind. It’ll be refreshing to be associated with something other than fens and flatness.”

A cartologist at CNN, which broke the extraordinary news, was later fired.