The 5 year plan to £50k

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Moses said:
I'm quite surprised some places require an LPC to paralegal :o. I've never worked as one, but my brother found it incredibly easy after having only done the GDL, and I get the impression he'd've been fine without that (in terms of doing the job, not getting it). I understand it's not uncommon to do the LPC part time whilst working as a paralegal, but I'm not sure if it's a great move... again it goes back to when I asked if there are figures regarding the proportion of LPC students who self fund, and figures for the proportion of self funders who actually become solicitors... that's what we need to know if self funding is sensible or not.

Competitive to get a good one seems like a reasonable state of affairs... it obviously shouldn't be easy, if we want there to be good standard, imo. I'm not sure how good you mean by good, though.
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Requiring an LPC is probably an indication of just how many people want to work there.

I think a 'good TC' (merely from a CV perspective) is what most people might broadly equate to the 'top 50' commercial law firms (typically ranked by turnover) but that's not to say those sitting outside of that are 'bad firms', far from it. I don't think anyone is particularly precious about it. Top 50 firms work with and against each other on matters all the time... I've dealt with the majority of them and plenty of good lawyers amongst most of them (really though I suppose you just get a flavour from the handful of lawyers you deal with).

You'll just have to apply and see how you get on :p
 
Moses said:
We're still nowhere nearer knowing if it's worth the gamble self funding the LPC or not :p.
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Haha - if you haven't guessed I'm fishing to find out what you actually do :)

From a quick google here's some info on success rates but it doesn't really cover the same express point:

Time for some number crunching. The Law Society tell us that just over 20,000 enrolled on an undergraduate law course in 2012, so let’s assume that there are roughly the same number every year. Additionally, GDL and LPC application numbers roughly reveal the number of postgraduate students. Though GDL and LPC applications are crashing more than the stock market in 1929, there were still 3,690 GDL applications for the 2014-15 academic year and 6,895 for the LPC. That means there’s up to 30,000 students on the hunt for 5,514 every year. Add in those who ‘roll over’ from the previous year, and you can see why the JLD find the numbers discouraging; when using the revised numbers, the 89% success rate turns into 18% - meaning that only one in six aspiring solicitors actually secure a training contract.
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https://www.allaboutlaw.co.uk/law-news/just-how-likely-is-it-that-i-ll-get-a-training-contract

With that, you have to factor in that some people that do the LPC are pretty useless and get nowhere, and that the figures quoted don't reveal how 'good' the TCs are, with the 'good' ones being more competitive.

Some other outdated info:

https://l2b.thelawyer.com/issues/l2b-online/65-students-chasing-each-training-contract-vacancy/

This also gives some numbers on the dip at the time of the recession.

https://www.allaboutlaw.co.uk/stage...are-my-chances-of-getting-a-training-contract
 
Are we talking casual chinos or chinos with a crease? I'm guessing casual because 3 pages is pretty hardcore.

fake edit: or were they an unorthodox colour? Or - oh God - an unusual colour and casual?
 
Nitefly said:
They were pastel orange and rather casual. Sleeves were rolled too.
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ORANGE! What kind of half-baked loons do you recruit? However, I will fist fight anyone who has issues with an appropriately rolled sleeve on the proviso that it's by design rather than necessity (your shirt doesn't fit properly because you bought it from the toilet store).

Sometimes it's a cufflinks day and sometimes it is not.
 
[FnG]magnolia said:
ORANGE! What kind of half-baked loons do you recruit? However, I will fist fight anyone who has issues with an appropriately rolled sleeve on the proviso that it's by design rather than necessity (your shirt doesn't fit properly because you bought it from the toilet store).

Sometimes it's a cufflinks day and sometimes it is not.
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I know, right! Rolled sleeves on the first day in the team though... we expect ultra Boy Scout polished shoes and jacket. Rolled sleeves is like "Well, we might as well all go home cause maverick over there has it covered" :p

@Moses I think the people that self-fund aren't good enough 'on paper' to get a TC right out of the gate, at which point you're then relying on experience to win over employers. There are jobs when the business demands it and if you have someone raring to go right now that's done LPC (which you might not have to pay for), it can be a foreseeable plus point on that application.

The same point applies to your brother - why would he pay for the GDL without a TC *shrug* - motivation for the career I guess.
 
Moses said:
Oh, I'm not in any way interested! More to answer Nitefly's question, I mainly studied international law, but within that a module on international tax law with the big four, and now work in tax.
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Missed this in my last post- interesting career? I'm always thwarted (and by that I mean I have to defer to the tax guys) by tax structuring.... tax is something that frequently catches lawyers out, I think. Have had opposing lawyers go 'arghhhh poop this doesn't work for tax reasons - sorrryyyyy'. Even VAT can be complicated (to the layman) when you're trying to figure out if something is legitimate chargeable supply... and the value of that supply in a complex deal.

I've actually thought of specialising in tax myself.
 
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