This hub is about how to become a solicitor in the UK, or more specifically a solicitor in England and Wales, what legal training you need; finding a law conversion course or a place on the legal practice course (LPC) and ultimately finding a training contract at a firm of solicitors.

The English legal system and the route of legal training required to become a solicitor in the UK is very different from that in other parts of the world such as the US.

Once you become a solicitor you are one half of the two-part English legal system. Solicitors operate as the client-facing side of the profession, dealing with people and their problems on a day to day basis, and building and maintaining relationships with the people they seek to help. The lawyers you see on tv in the wigs and gowns are more often than not barristers, who are instructed by solicitors for specific pieces of specialist advice or higher court work. However some solicitors have now obtained 'higher rights of audience' which means they can appear in and represent clients in all courts.

If you become a solicitor, you will find that it is a wonderfully diverse profession. Some solicitors specialise in criminal law, others in property, still others in medical negligence or insurance, or corporate finance, or banking. The world is your oyster once you have completed your legal training. Or of course, you could remain more of a generalist in a smaller high street practice, and be an integral part of a local community.

For those who want to become a solicitor it is a challenging path, and there is a great deal of legal training required - but is rewarding in the long run.

However it can be expensive if you are funding your own studies and legal training, so you need to understand the structure of the qualification process before you start. You can expect the process of legal training from leaving school to qualification and becoming a solicitor to take at least 6 years.

In order to have a realistic prospect of becoming a solicitor and getting a job at the end of all your training you need good A levels. Whilst many law courses exist that will take students with relatively modest qualifications, this is not always a sensible reflection of your prospects of ultimately obtaining a job. Particularly if you are funding yourself through your studies you need to think carefully whether your academic results will be sufficient to give you a chance to compete with others for a limited number of jobs.

It doesn't hugely matter what subjects you take at A level, although the more solidly academic your subjects are the better. Avoid too many subjects which might be viewed by the notoriously conservative legal profession as less academic and more 'lightweight', sich as Media Studies, Drama, Art or Business Studies.

I did Maths, Further Maths, Biology, Chemistry and General Studies.

To meet the academic qualifications, you need either a 'qualifying Law Degree', or a degree in any subject plus the CPE one-year course.

A "qualifying law degree" has to include the seven core legal subjects - Administrative & Public Law, Crime, Tort, Contract, Land Law, European Law, and Trusts. There may be other compulsory subjects in a particular university's curriculam, such as the English Legal System, or Jurisprudence.

Solicitors Regulation Authority list of institutions offering qualifying law degrees.

There is no set requirement for the level of degree you need to obtain in order to progress on to the next stage of academic training, but bear in mind that many graduates find it difficult to find a job at the end of their studies unless they have obtained a 2i level degree from a well established university, so great is the level of competition for training contracts.

If you are hoping for a training contract at a larger firm you need to think about applying for a training contract just over two years before you intend to start that contract. Check out the recruitment schedules of your target firms in good time. For example start thinking about it, and exploring summer placement schemes from the end of your first year of studies, to ensure you do not miss any application deadlines and have lots of time to get good work experience.

You do not need to do a 'qualifying law degree' in order to become a solicitor. In fact you can do any degree you want, and would be well advised to take the opportunity to do something you enjoy and will excel in, rather than obtain a mediocre law degree. I did Psychology, Physiology and Philosophy. Some firms particularly like non law graduates because they bring different skills, and have a broader perspective. In particular some legal specialisms, such a patent work, or medical negligence lend themselves to those who have something of a science background.

If you do a non law degree you need to do a 'law conversion course', which is an intensive one year law degree. It has to cover all the compulsory subjects that law students cover in three years, but do it in a third of the time, so expect to be swamped with information and facts to learn. If you find exam pressure and memorising difficult then this may not be the route for you.

Solicitors Regulation Authority - CPE information

Ideally you should be applying for training contract places for the larger firms two years before you want to start it. This means applying before you start your conversion year. This has the advantage that you may be able to get larger firms to fund you through your conversion and your Legal Practice Course. Find out the recruitment schedules for your target firms and prepare and act early. If you miss application deadlines you may miss out on funding for your fees.

Having completed your degree or conversion course the next step in your academic training is the Legal Practice Course. This is a one year vocational training course, and if you have applied and obtained a training contract offer before you start this course, you may find that your future firm will pay your fees for you.

If you choose to self fund think hard about the ultimate objective - obtaining a training contract and a job as a solicitor. If you have applied for training contracts already and have not been successful, do you really want to spend your own money, if a law firm is not prepared to invest in you? There are plenty of people who pay their own way, and go on to find a great job, but equally there are far more students on the LPC than there are training contracts out there. Go into the LPC with your eyes open and your bank balance braced.

What will you study on the LPC?

LPC students take three areas of integrated study – core practice areas, skills and additional areas -  plus a choice of three vocational electives. The precise content of your course and your choice of electives will vary according to which options you take and what sort of emphasis you want your LPC to have.  this may be dictated by the type of firm you are going to work for if you already have a training contract organised.

Core practice areas

• Business law and practice
• Civil and criminal litigation
• Property law and practice

Skills

• Advocacy
• Interviewing and advising
• Practical legal research
• Problem-solving and IT
• Writing and drafting

Additional areas

• Professional conduct and regulation 
• Taxation 
• Wills and administration of estates

Vocational electives

You will study three vocational electives relevant to your choice of LPC.  These can be corporate and business based or private client based, they can even be firm-specific.  It all depends on what area of law you think you might want to specialise in later.

The next stage, is the training contract. This lasts for two years and is usually divided into 4 ‘seats’ of 6 months each. Within this two years a trainee needs to get a good mix of different areas of law, and a mixture of contentious and non-contentious (court, and non-court) work. The training contract is a paid position.As of 1 August 2009, the minimum salary for trainee solicitors working in Central London is £18,590 pa. For trainees working elsewhere in England and Wales, it is £16,650 pa.

Counting previous experience

If you have previous recent legal experience obtained in the three years prior to your training contract you can apply for a reduction in the length of your training contract and qualify sooner as a solicitor. The usual reduction is a half time equivalent – i.e. if you did 6 months work experience, you might get a three month reduction.

Obtaining a training contract

Competition for training contracts is fierce. There are far more graduates coming out of law schools than there are positions available. This is even more the case with the larger commercial law firms, both in London and in the larger regional centres such as Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. Many applicants will find it difficult to find a position with these firms unless they have obtained substantial work experience, or can demonstrate excellent academic results and a willingness to go above and beyond the usual student activities - for example, were you on the debating team, did you organise student law activities, were you a member of the European Law Students Association, did you volunteer at the local law centre?

Bear in mind that for the larger firms, most if not all of the training contract places will have been taken a year if not two years previously, when students obtained sponsorship through their studies. If you did not obtain a place at this point you may be better advised applying to smaller firms whose application procedures do not tend to run so far in advance.

Think also about the possibilities of training and qualifying outside of private practice. it is possible to obtain a training contract in other environments too, such as local government or the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

About 3 months before the end of your training contract you will receive an application to apply for admission to the Roll of Solicitors.

To apply for admission to the roll, you must have

• completed your training to a satisfactory standard;

• completed the Professional Skills Course for trainees solicitors; and

• obtained a satisfactory check from the Criminal Records Bureau

Once you have done all of this you will be invited to an admission ceremony at the Law Society where you will be presented with your practising certificate and will be formally admitted to the roll of Solicitors.

Once a trainee has completed their training contract they need to find a permanent position with a law firm. Most trainees will apply to the firm where they have completed their training contract, since that firm knows them very well by this stage. However, there are often more trainees than there are places for newly qualified solicitors, so some trainees will need to apply to other firms and compete to obtain a job.

Legal education doesn't end with qualification. All solicitors have to obtain CPD every year to ensure that they keep up to date with the law. This is often done by going on training courses relevant to a solicitor’s subject area, but it can also include preparing and delivering training courses, reading or writing articles, and even learning a foreign language.