Rebecca, an Associate Chartered Legal Executive and James, a Trainee Solicitor met with students from Year 11 and Year 12.

Initially they spoke about the wider employment opportunities within the legal profession. For example, in a large law firm you will have a Human Resources Department, an administrative team including an accounts department, legal clarks, marketing and public relations.

They spoke about their current roles and the different education and training routes that they had taken to get into their current position in their careers.  They shared their A level choices and how they then progressed their careers emphasising that you do not have to have a Law Degree to go into the Law profession.

Rebecca chose to study an LLB Law degree at University followed by the CILEX Professional Diploma to become qualified. The CILEX qualification took 2 years to complete and was completed alongside her role within the legal firm.

James on the other hand completed an LLB Law degree and is now conducting the LLM SQE 1&2. SQE is the Solicitors Qualifying Examination. It is the new centralised assessment for those wishing to qualify as a Solicitor.

You do not need a law degree to sit the SQE but you need a degree or equivalent (i.e. CILEX/apprenticeship) to be admitted as a solicitor.

Our visitors then quizzed the students on some more unusual points of law, for example , ‘Is it illegal to handle salmon suspiciously? ’Apparently it is, demonstrating that some of our laws are still based on historical ways of living as well as modern case law.

Through further discussion different types of law were highlighted. An area of law that is not widely known is working in the Court of Protection. The work involves working with families and clients,  deciding and acting in the best interest of the client who may not have capacity to manage their own affairs. This can also involve representing clients in court.

The students were able to ask questions and gain high quality feedback. It was inspiring to meet representatives from the industry that they are interested in working in.