The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
About working as a solicitor, could you tell me a little more about your reasons for leaving the profession?
I'm considering it again - If I applied for training contracts now, I could do my masters in september, my LPC next year, then pick up the training contract. Suddenly the timing of everything is right.
But the whole morality thing - not just defending the guilty man, but advocating a cause you don't believe in, bringing about an outcome you find morally wrong.. that's still holding me back.
Sometimes I feel I wouldn't care, sometimes I think I just couldn't do it.
Was that the (one of the) problem(s) for you?
Would you say some areas of law are easier to deal with this than others?
What else is wrong with the career?
Thanks, Duck
I'm considering it again - If I applied for training contracts now, I could do my masters in september, my LPC next year, then pick up the training contract. Suddenly the timing of everything is right.
But the whole morality thing - not just defending the guilty man, but advocating a cause you don't believe in, bringing about an outcome you find morally wrong.. that's still holding me back.
Sometimes I feel I wouldn't care, sometimes I think I just couldn't do it.
Was that the (one of the) problem(s) for you?
Would you say some areas of law are easier to deal with this than others?
What else is wrong with the career?
Thanks, Duck
Thanks.
I was looking for a career that I'd enjoy, and could care about my work.
Having to keep a distance mentally and emotionally doesn't sound conducive to either.
I think I'd still like the problem-solving side of it, but I'm not sure that's enough.
I suppose a career as a solicitor isn't going to be everything I'm looking for, but I'm losing hope of finding anything that will be.
Can I settle for it as a 'good enough' job? I don't know. There is one job I have an eye on, but the competition will be fierce.
If that doesn't come off, I guess I have nothing better in mind than a career as a solicitor. The only problem is I could only apply for the good job when I'd be a month into my LPC, committed to paying the £7,000 tuition. So really it's one or the other.
I guess I'll have a shot at what I actually want to do, and see where that takes me. If I didn't even try I figure I'd always regret it.
Thanks Light.
I was looking for a career that I'd enjoy, and could care about my work.
Having to keep a distance mentally and emotionally doesn't sound conducive to either.
I think I'd still like the problem-solving side of it, but I'm not sure that's enough.
I suppose a career as a solicitor isn't going to be everything I'm looking for, but I'm losing hope of finding anything that will be.
Can I settle for it as a 'good enough' job? I don't know. There is one job I have an eye on, but the competition will be fierce.
If that doesn't come off, I guess I have nothing better in mind than a career as a solicitor. The only problem is I could only apply for the good job when I'd be a month into my LPC, committed to paying the £7,000 tuition. So really it's one or the other.
I guess I'll have a shot at what I actually want to do, and see where that takes me. If I didn't even try I figure I'd always regret it.
Thanks Light.
Right; the wonderful world of law. I'll tell you what my circumstances were and you can decide how it applies to you, or otherwise.
I can't comment about the commercial side of the legal profession. I was a family law solicitor, and I went into that branch of law because I believed it would be of the most direct help to people (touchingly naive, I know). However, I was handicapped by the fact that the firm I worked for (a high street solicitor) were dodgy as hell; if you do decide to go into the profession, a good rule of thumb is that a big firm will have you photocopying for 2 years, whilst a smaller firm will pretty much hurl you in at the deep end. I experienced the latter, and in all honesty I simply couldn't cope.
The main reason I couldn't cope was the morally repugnant day-to-day work I did. It is possible to use ones position to help people. However, for 99% of the time you'll find that you're simply a cog in a machine that is concerned with making money and nothing else. So if you go into high street work you'll mainly end up getting chavs out on ill-deserved bail, or helping divorces become a little more acrimonious, or suing on behalf of a moron who couldn't be trusted with an opened bottle of bleach.
As you can probably tell, I took every single case a little too personally. The big trick to being a solicitor is the ability to disassociate yourself from what you're doing; keeping an emotional distance between yourself and the work. I found that impossible, because my work impacted directly and visibly on other people's lives and because of the constraints of what i was instructed to do, usually it didn't impact for what I would consider the better.
Another problem was the people themselves; many socialists talk about "the people" in patronising but admiring tones, as if they're one mass hive-mind made up of salt of the earth. The majority of the people I met were petty minded, selfish, stupid, and spiteful. The danger is that you end up thinking of your clients as something less than human, a danger which is increased by the fact that you have to maintain a degree of mental distance between you and the client.
My mistake was thinking that I could change people's lives for the better in my career. Occasionally I did, and if that's why you want to go into the profession then cling onto those moments, because they're few and far between. For the most part, you're dealing in human misery as a high street solicitor.
As for the money; for the first 2 years you'll be on between £10,500 to £12,000. Most likely it'll be the former wage. After that...well, the money isn't brilliant. I'm a database analyst now, and I'm on as much as I would be as a family solicitor.
Anyway, hope that's of some help. Let me know if you have any other questions.
I can't comment about the commercial side of the legal profession. I was a family law solicitor, and I went into that branch of law because I believed it would be of the most direct help to people (touchingly naive, I know). However, I was handicapped by the fact that the firm I worked for (a high street solicitor) were dodgy as hell; if you do decide to go into the profession, a good rule of thumb is that a big firm will have you photocopying for 2 years, whilst a smaller firm will pretty much hurl you in at the deep end. I experienced the latter, and in all honesty I simply couldn't cope.
The main reason I couldn't cope was the morally repugnant day-to-day work I did. It is possible to use ones position to help people. However, for 99% of the time you'll find that you're simply a cog in a machine that is concerned with making money and nothing else. So if you go into high street work you'll mainly end up getting chavs out on ill-deserved bail, or helping divorces become a little more acrimonious, or suing on behalf of a moron who couldn't be trusted with an opened bottle of bleach.
As you can probably tell, I took every single case a little too personally. The big trick to being a solicitor is the ability to disassociate yourself from what you're doing; keeping an emotional distance between yourself and the work. I found that impossible, because my work impacted directly and visibly on other people's lives and because of the constraints of what i was instructed to do, usually it didn't impact for what I would consider the better.
Another problem was the people themselves; many socialists talk about "the people" in patronising but admiring tones, as if they're one mass hive-mind made up of salt of the earth. The majority of the people I met were petty minded, selfish, stupid, and spiteful. The danger is that you end up thinking of your clients as something less than human, a danger which is increased by the fact that you have to maintain a degree of mental distance between you and the client.
My mistake was thinking that I could change people's lives for the better in my career. Occasionally I did, and if that's why you want to go into the profession then cling onto those moments, because they're few and far between. For the most part, you're dealing in human misery as a high street solicitor.
As for the money; for the first 2 years you'll be on between £10,500 to £12,000. Most likely it'll be the former wage. After that...well, the money isn't brilliant. I'm a database analyst now, and I'm on as much as I would be as a family solicitor.
Anyway, hope that's of some help. Let me know if you have any other questions.
I am partly vying for the money... :^)
Lawyers can do good stuff too though - preventing injustices, winning cases which are also moral causes. And if you find yourself sitting in a foreign police cell wrongly charged with drug traffiking you'd probably be quite glad to see a decent lawyer.
The only problem is that you don't have much say over whether you're on the morally 'right' side or not...
Lawyers can do good stuff too though - preventing injustices, winning cases which are also moral causes. And if you find yourself sitting in a foreign police cell wrongly charged with drug traffiking you'd probably be quite glad to see a decent lawyer.
The only problem is that you don't have much say over whether you're on the morally 'right' side or not...
You cant be a solicitor.
That'll be one less good person in the world!
Nice to see someone weighting up the moral side of the profession, rather than just vying for the money.
That'll be one less good person in the world!
Nice to see someone weighting up the moral side of the profession, rather than just vying for the money.
About working as a solicitor, could you tell me a little more about your reasons for leaving the profession?
I'm considering it again - If I applied for training contracts now, I could do my masters in september, my LPC next year, then pick up the training contract. Suddenly the timing of everything is right.
But the whole morality thing - not just defending the guilty man, but advocating a cause you don't believe in, bringing about an outcome you find morally wrong.. that's still holding me back.
Sometimes I feel I wouldn't care, sometimes I think I just couldn't do it.
Was that the (one of the) problem(s) for you?
Would you say some areas of law are easier to deal with this than others?
What else is wrong with the career?
Thanks, Duck
I'm considering it again - If I applied for training contracts now, I could do my masters in september, my LPC next year, then pick up the training contract. Suddenly the timing of everything is right.
But the whole morality thing - not just defending the guilty man, but advocating a cause you don't believe in, bringing about an outcome you find morally wrong.. that's still holding me back.
Sometimes I feel I wouldn't care, sometimes I think I just couldn't do it.
Was that the (one of the) problem(s) for you?
Would you say some areas of law are easier to deal with this than others?
What else is wrong with the career?
Thanks, Duck