Has anyone studied law recently?

paradisiac · 4 May 2012 at 07:16

hi, as a lot of you will know i am going through a bad patch and want to get out of it.
i have decided to give law a go, and the course im looking at doing it ILEX Level 3 Unit 1 Introduction to Law and Practice, then once i have done that the full Level 3 Qualification (not sure which area yet though which is why i want to give the Introduction Unti a go first).
has anyone recently done the course (distance learning) if so, how much materials do they give you and how much do you have to go and find for yourself? how much work is involved (they say 15months for the entire course, but i want to do it a lot quicker if possible)

jamief · 4 May 2012 at 07:17

What do you plan on becoming after this? A paralegal?

paradisiac · 4 May 2012 at 07:24

jamief said:
What do you plan on becoming after this? A paralegal?

yeh, i want to do either contract law, family law or employment law i think. im not 100% sure but these areas seem to be really interesting. and there are a fair few jobs i imagine. not keen on the courtroom stuff, so dont want to be a lawyer/barrister or anything.

semi-pro waster · 4 May 2012 at 07:42

paradisiac said:
yeh, i want to do either contract law, family law or employer law i think. im not 100% sure but these areas seem to be really interesting. and there are a fair few jobs i imagine. not keen on the courtroom stuff, so dont want to be a lawyer/barrister or anything.

Rather you than me for those areas, I always found them horrendously dull although I never did study much employment law.

I don't know of anyone here who has specifically studied ILEX but Nitefly and Moses both studied/are studying law. There's quite a few more but those are the first two names to mind.

paradisiac · 4 May 2012 at 07:45

semi-pro waster said:
Rather you than me for those areas, I always found them horrendously dull although I never did study much employment law.

I don't know of anyone here who has specifically studied ILEX but Nitefly and Moses both studied/are studying law. There's quite a few more but those are the first two names to mind.

what did you find dull about them? what did you study?

PistolPete · 4 May 2012 at 08:28

paradisiac said:
yeh, i want to do either contract law, family law or employment law i think. im not 100% sure but these areas seem to be really interesting. and there are a fair few jobs i imagine.

IANAL, but my wife is a barrister and have a fair few barrister friends and one thing that is very apparent is that what you start out wanting to practice in an area is that by the time you are qualified you wont want to work in that area!

My wife was convinced (from the age of 14 apparently) that she wanted to become a criminal barrister and is now really happy in family law and dislikes crime (plus it only pays for the criminal

)

paradisiac · 4 May 2012 at 09:13

PistolPete said:
IANAL, but my wife is a barrister and have a fair few barrister friends and one thing that is very apparent is that what you start out wanting to practice in an area is that by the time you are qualified you wont want to work in that area!

My wife was convinced (from the age of 14 apparently) that she wanted to become a criminal barrister and is now really happy in family law and dislikes crime (plus it only pays for the criminal )

yeh, im still undecided on law or accountancy, but law is winning it at the moment, so thought i might try and do introductory courses in both and see which one i prefer.
my aunty is a qualified barister and now teaches law, so have had a lot of advice from her. but its always hard to get advice from family/friends on things like this, as although they want the best from you, i feel their opinion is a tad biased lol. so as none of you actually know me, i thought i would get honest and constructive advice, which i have

the criminal side of it, although on paper seems really nice, i feel i would suck at. maybe after doing the level 3 course i will change my mind and decide that i would like the courtroom stuff, but at this point in time, my confidence is low and self belief not as it should be.

Ahleckz · 4 May 2012 at 09:26

Legal theory is great. Studying applied law is awful. I regret studying it.

Skull · 4 May 2012 at 09:35

paradisiac said:
yeh, im still undecided on law or accountancy, but law is winning it at the moment, so thought i might try and do introductory courses in both and see which one i prefer.
my aunty is a qualified barister and now teaches law, so have had a lot of advice from her. but its always hard to get advice from family/friends on things like this, as although they want the best from you, i feel their opinion is a tad biased lol. so as none of you actually know me, i thought i would get honest and constructive advice, which i have
the criminal side of it, although on paper seems really nice, i feel i would suck at. maybe after doing the level 3 course i will change my mind and decide that i would like the courtroom stuff, but at this point in time, my confidence is low and self belief not as it should be.

I'd say try studying it for a while and see what you think, don't make any judgements too soon. Your last point is a little worrying though. You by no means need to be an ultra-confident outgoing type to succeed in a legal career, but you need a lot of self-belief, regardless of the area of law you go into. You need it to battle through the crushing recruitment process for a training contract or pupillage (which can take years), and then to actually practise. If you don't believe in yourself, or cannot make everyone else think you do, why would clients believe in you?

paradisiac · 4 May 2012 at 09:58

Skull said:
If you don't believe in yourself, or cannot make everyone else think you do, why would clients believe in you?

i did up until the last few months, and then a few things went wrong in the last few months so its knocked it a bit. which is why i have decided doing a dead end job isnt going to help. so i want to go back to studying and do something new.

semi-pro waster · 4 May 2012 at 13:24

paradisiac said:
what did you find dull about them? what did you study?

Last question first - I studied Scottish law at university and generally enjoyed the course. Law is a fascinating and varied subject when dealing with theory but the actual practice of it is much less so because you tend to specialise and many of the areas are pretty well settled. There are some exceptions - IP Law for instance is and will continue to evolve for quite a while and no doubt some others but for a number of areas you simply need to know X number of authorities and you'll cover 95% of all you will encounter in practice.

Family law tends to be somewhat unpleasant as, by definition, you're involved because the families are having problems - I've got no doubt that there are rewarding moments but apart from that the majority of your cases are probably likely to be uninteresting divorce cases, spousal abuse or alimony/child support type work. On an individual level the cases may be interesting for the circumstances but from a legal point of view it's going to tend to be a matter of the same authorities and the same cases being in point for similar types of cases.

Contract law has much the same issues in that it'll be similar authorities relied upon with it being fairly rare to find novel points of law. It's also terminally uninteresting reading dozens of contracts for what is there/missing and subordinate clauses in such huge sentences that they cease to be meaningful. However contract law governs an awful lot of what we do and potentially covers a huge range of possible topics so you'll probably find you have to specialise further. Business/commercial law is a branch of this which shares the tedium but the stakes are much higher and so are the rewards which makes it more desirable to some.

Employment law never excited me much from what I did study of it - no doubt it's important but essentially there's again a fairly limited range of statutes and cases you need to be aware of.

That is just for me though and part of the reason why I never wanted to pursue going into practice, some people find it absolutely fascinating and love the practice of law. I don't want to dissuade you entirely but more to make you think about it and maybe suggest you try getting a job with a law firm to get experience before you sink a lot of time and money into it.

paradisiac · 4 May 2012 at 13:28

semi-pro waster said:
Last question first - I studied Scottish law at university and generally enjoyed the course. Law is a fascinating and varied subject when dealing with theory but the actual practice of it is much less so because you tend to specialise.

Family law tends to be somewhat unpleasant as, by definition, you're involved because the families are having problems - I've got no doubt that there are rewarding moments but apart from that the majority of your cases are probably likely to be uninteresting divorce cases, spousal abuse or alimony/child support type work. On an individual level the cases may be interesting for the circumstances but from a legal point of view it's going to tend to be a matter of the same authorities and the same cases being in point for similar types of cases.

Contract law has much the same issues in that it'll be similar authorities relied upon with it being fairly rare to find novel points of law. It's also terminally uninteresting reading dozens of contracts for what is there/missing and subordinate clauses in such huge sentences that they cease to be meaningful. However contract law governs an awful lot of what we do and potentially covers a huge range of possible topics so you'll probably find you have to specialise further. Business/commercial law is a branch of this which shares the tedium but the stakes are much higher and so are the rewards which makes it more desirable to some.

Employment law never excited me much from what I did study of it - no doubt it's important but essentially there's again a fairly limited range of statutes and cases you need to be aware of.

That is just for me though and part of the reason why I never wanted to pursue going into practice, some people find it absolutely fascinating and love the practice of law. I don't want to dissuade you entirely but more to make you think about it and maybe suggest you try getting a job with a law firm to get experience before you sink a lot of time and money into it.

thanks for your input. this has been in the back of my head too. will i spend the next couple of years or so studying and still being no further forward.
the thing is, i do the same tedious stuff day in day out with my job now, with no gains whatsoever.
this is why i thought doing the introductory course in both law and accountancy might be the best start, get a feeling for both.

Nitefly · 4 May 2012 at 13:28

I'd only study it if you wanted a career along those lines. As Ahleckz implies, there are many things that are more interesting to study.

Keep in mind that with the amount of unsuccesful solicitor / barrister canditdates at present, it is still very competitive to secure a paralegal possition or an admin related role.

paradisiac · 4 May 2012 at 13:31

Moses said:
I'm in the third year of a four year undergrad law degree - the course title being 'law (European and International) - so I do a year abroad/more core international law stuff/etc. I've really enjoyed it, tbh. I went into it late, too, so was a ~mature student~... I only started at 22!

Your OP asks about a course I have no knowledge off - I just did a general level three course (an access to higher education diploma)... then went to uni. I can answer any other questions, though.

Edit :: oh, well I've never done employment or family... nor have I opted to take them next year. I did contract law and didn't mind it so much, although I did find all the core modules (the ones the law society require you to do to get a qualifying law degree) to be fairly boring! Criminal law was okay, though, in terms of core ones... that was interesting, as you hear about it the most when growing up/it's almost the most real, in a way. I much prefer international law/international law/etc.

im 29, so am going in really late lol i will be doing it as a distance learning course, so will be in the evenings after work, so will be a task and a half, but something i really want to do (the learning part anyways, the qualification its in im not 100% sure) as i feel its time to get a career and make a fresh start.

paradisiac · 4 May 2012 at 13:53

Moses said:
There are people that old at uni, don't let that be a barrier (but I can understand if you either can't, or don't want to, go to a bricks and mortar uni, etc).

I'm probably not going to go into a legal job, but I really don't regret studying law, or anything like that. I didn't go into it wanting to be a solictor, really... I was just interested in the areas we get to study.

i cant financially go to uni as i have commitments that require me to stay in fulltime employment. which is why distance learning seems like the best option, plus i have 15months to do the course in, so if i nuckle down and do it in 6-12months then yeigh, which i dont know if i would get at uni.

Raymond Lin · 4 May 2012 at 14:04

"Love and law are the same. Romantic in concept but the actual practice can give you an yeast infection."

DEK.

paradisiac · 4 May 2012 at 14:11

so the general consensus in here is that studying law if worthwhile, but a job in it can be dull, repetative and hard to get?

paradisiac · 4 May 2012 at 14:32

Moses said:
I don't really know how hard law jobs are to get - I know lots of people who are applying to super competitive city firms, etc, but I don't really know about local ones/jobs which don't require a degree + LPC/etc. I can't imagine the work's any worse than other jobs, and certain areas of law can be interesting, depending on if you're interested in it and what you're doing.

i wouldnt want to work for a large firm, thats not for me at all. i have an interest in it, but then i have an interest in pcs, and hate my job working with them.

Ahleckz · 4 May 2012 at 14:35

Nitefly said:
Keep in mind that with the amount of unsuccesful solicitor / barrister canditdates at present, it is still very competitive to secure a paralegal possition or an admin related role.

This is very important. There are sod all jobs out there for the number of LLB graduates. There are jobs, there is still money to be made (though you work obscene hours). However, it's an employers market.

paradisiac said:
so the general consensus in here is that studying law if worthwhile, but a job in it can be dull, repetative and hard to get?

To follow on from the above, what are you wanting to do? I have no idea what course it is you're trying to do, but if it's anything less than a LLB I really can't see how you're going to get a 'law' job.

paradisiac · 4 May 2012 at 14:40

Ahleckz said:
To follow on from the above, what are you wanting to do? I have no idea what course it is you're trying to do, but if it's anything less than a LLB I really can't see how you're going to get a 'law' job.

ILEX Level 3 Certificate in Law and Practice is the qualification, which then leads to the Level 6 Certificate (which they say can be done whilst working in law) but i dont know what the qualification is equivilant to. all i know is my aunty suggested it was the one to look into doing.
im not sure what job i want to do at the end of it really, as im not 100% sure what jobs are available within the areas i am interested in.