How to secure your legal career
Looking to get a job in law? Read the guide for our top tips, including making a career plan and gaining professional experience.
Worried about how you’re going to secure your dream job in law? We’ve put together this easy guide to mapping your pathway into an exciting law career. Read on to find out what you need to know about key legal roles. You’ll also find some top advice on ensuring you put your best foot forward when planning your career.
We’ll cover:
Choosing a path in law
How to secure your dream job
In a rush? Read these quickfire tips:
Make a career plan
Expand your network
Gain professional experience
Learn new skills
How to choose a path in law
Before you can start planning your law career, you’ll need to think about which legal role would suit you best.
We’ve profiled three legal careers to help you make your decision:
Become a solicitor
The solicitor profession offers a wide range of varied and rewarding careers. Looking to work for your favourite brands, or maybe an international law firm? Solicitors are in demand as legal specialists who work with clients for a range of reasons, from helping with business deals to criminal justice.
A solicitor’s work can be split between contentious and non-contentious. Contentious legal work is anything that involves a dispute between parties. This work mainly requires solicitors to use their skills in litigation, mediation, or arbitration.
What does this mean?
Litigation is the process of legal action that an individual or a business takes against one or multiple other parties. It uses the legal system to reach a resolution to the dispute. Examples of disputes requiring litigation include intellectual property disputes, personal injury cases, or employment disputes.
Mediation is a voluntary form of dispute resolution which involves a third-party mediator helping the parties to work towards a settlement. Parties use mediation to gain a better understanding of their issues, allowing them to explore ways of resolving the dispute. Mediation is often used to resolve disputes involving divorce, child custody, and conflict between landlords and tenants.
Arbitration involves taking a dispute to a neutral third party, appointed as an arbitrator, to resolve the dispute. Arbitration is an alternative to court and ensures disputes are resolved in a balanced manner. The arbitrator will make a decision, called an award, which is legally binding. Arbitration has been used in such as trademark infringement and trade union disputes.
Solicitors also carry out non-contentious legal work. This is anything that does not involve a dispute between parties. This work is based on facilitating transactions and providing legal advice.
What does this mean?
Transactional legal work is where lawyers provide advice to businesses, organisations, or individuals on the legal issues surrounding their dealings. Transactional work can include anything from drafting contracts to advising on mergers and acquisitions. It could also involve advising the government or organisations to ensure they follow relevant regulations.
Because of the central role solicitors play across business and society, the profession is very rewarding in terms of both job satisfaction and salaries. Newly qualified solicitors at the prestigious Magic Circle law firms, for example, can expect to earn up to £125,000 per year as of 2024. At the American firm Milbank, the highest salary for newly qualified solicitors is currently £183,000. Outside of law firms, working as an in-house solicitor at a company is also lucrative, with average salaries ranging from £50,000 - £90,000.
To become a solicitor, you’ll need to complete the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). This qualification is split into two exams, the SQE1 and SQE2, which test the skills and knowledge you’ll need to practice as a solicitor. The SQE pass rates show that it is a difficult training route, which tests candidates at the level of a day one qualified solicitor.
Become a barrister
Barristers are, in general, self-employed legal professionals who perform a range of tasks. These include giving advice, preparing legal arguments, and presenting cases as advocates. In particular, barristers are highly valued for their specialist skills in advocacy.
What is advocacy?
Advocacy is the skill of presenting a case to convince a court or tribunal to reach a judgement in a client’s favour. Advocacy comes in both oral and written forms and is a specialist skill that requires a trained barrister to perform. If a contentious case needs to go to trial, for example, a solicitor will instruct a barrister to represent the case on behalf of their client.
Everything you need to become a skilled advocate.
Like solicitors, barristers are also involved in both non-contentious and contentious work. However, this is less significant for barristers as much of their work is contentious. As a self-employed legal specialist, a barrister’s career prospects depend on their ability to build a reputation. However, while a barrister’s work tends to be independent, they do have networking and social opportunities in chambers and the Inns of Court.
Barristers are highly valued and highly rewarded for their work. Earnings for trainee barristers, called pupils, can be as high as £100,000. As most barristers are self-employed, their expected earnings vary between £25,000 to £100,000. This is affected most by the area of law barristers practice, with commercial lawyers able to earn as much as £240,000 after five years of experience. Barristers with great reputations and many years of experience can even earn more than £500,000.
To become a barrister, you’ll need to take the Barrister Training Course (BTC). This vocational course ensures you become a skilled advocate with small class sizes that allow you to practise your legal skills and receive feedback.
Become a paralegal
Paralegals assist lawyers in performing legal services. They are qualified to perform a range of tasks including research, preparing legal documents, and providing legal advice. Paralegals can also be hired to assist clients representing themselves in legal matters. Like lawyers, paralegals specialise in an area of law such as criminal, commercial, or employment.
Paralegals are a vital part of a legal team in a variety of different settings, including:
Law firms
Chambers
Private and public sector
Government
Charities
While in training, paralegals will earn between £14,000 - £22,000. This varies between employers and locations. Experienced paralegals can expect to earn over £40,000, and paralegals at larger law firms can earn up to £50,000 - £70,000.
There are a range of routes to becoming a paralegal. One of the most common routes is to complete a law degree. You could also train to be a paralegal through an apprenticeship. Apprenticeships are fast becoming one of the most popular ways to access a law career. They allow learners to earn a wage while gaining the skills and knowledge for the job.
Become a paralegal with an apprenticeship.
How to secure your dream job in law
Build your network
If you’ve ever asked for careers advice, you may have been told to get out there and ‘network’. But what does this mean? Networking is a skill. It is the ability to make meaningful connections with people that are sustained over time.
Networking doesn’t necessarily mean looking to connect with a future employer. It is just as important to network with people that can give you valuable information and share their experiences. Don’t forget that it is as important to connect with your peers as it is with established professionals.
In a highly competitive profession like law, establishing a network will help you to stay informed about any opportunities that come up. If you’re looking to network, then sign up for events such as law fairs, law firm webinars and open days. You should also regularly reach out to and connect with people on LinkedIn.
Did you know?
Many vacancies aren’t advertised. Companies often rely on referrals, or candidates that are already familiar to them to cut back on expensive recruitment costs.
Apply for work experience
There are many opportunities to complete work experience placements and gain legal experience. Both law firms and barristers’ chambers have placement opportunities, called vacation schemes and mini-pupillages.
Work experience has three main benefits:
Shadowing experienced professionals
Practising your skills in a legal environment
Networking with lawyers and legal employers
Wondering how to get legal experience?
Law firms and chambers will often post work experience opportunities on their websites. Follow legal employers on social media to get notified of upcoming vacancies as well as application dates.
If you’re preparing an application for work experience, then you can rely on your network for top tips and advice. This includes your university careers team, who can look over your application and recommend changes. Make sure to also reach out to your contacts, such as your LinkedIn connections, to leverage their experience.
Learn new skills
The field of law is always changing. Make sure you keep learning new skills and pay attention to any key changes in the profession. Changes in technology will also have a big impact to the law profession and will need specialist skills to utilise effectively.
Looking to learn?
You can develop your skills with services such as LinkedIn learning, as well as through work experience opportunities. If you’re a BPP alumni, you can continue to access skills and knowledge development after you graduate through the BPP Virtual Campus.
Read about how AI is changing the legal profession.
Find out more
For more tips on securing your legal career read our comprehensive application guides. Here you’ll learn everything you need to know, including:
Crafting your application
Succeeding in your interview
As well as advice from successful students.
What are you waiting for?
Get the skills and knowledge you need with a postgraduate law course.
