Law degree (LLB) – 3 years
Law school – 1 year
Trainee solicitor – 2 years
= 6 years
Non-law degree – 3 years (or more!)
Law school – 2 years
Trainee – 2 years
= 7 years
So, assuming you already have a degree (outside law), 4 years. A word of caution: it will be expensive and job market not great right now (although who knows in the future).
This is all accurate. Three further practical points:
– the one-year conversion course is probably your best bet rather than a fully fledged law degree at this point;
– many law schools offer a (very intense) 7 month LPC (the second stage of training) rather than a full year, which speeds things up further; and
– it will take a lot longer than this if you are doing the course part time, and it’s a million times harder to pass/get a good mark. Hence really try to fund it through savings or, alternatively, try to land a training contract before you start where they pay your course fees and give you a grant too.
Without going into specifics, it might be true that there are too many lawyers and not enough jobs but if you’re good there’s always demand. You have to be sure it’s what you really want to do (do you enjoy arguing the toss, but also do you have massive attention to detail?). The ones that just drift into it don’t last.