Working out the route
There is no single path into law, and the timelines are genuinely confusing the first time you meet them. This page lays out the routes, the year's deadlines, and what the society runs to help with each.
Three broad directions, none of them final.
Solicitor
Training contract at a firm, entered via the SQE and most often reached through a vacation scheme.
Solicitors Network →Barrister
Pupillage at chambers, preceded by the Bar course. Competitive, and preparation matters more than enthusiasm.
Bar and Chambers →Everything else
In-house, policy, regulation, academia, consultancy — or leaving law. A law degree is not a one-way door.
Alternative Careers →Most of our members arrive without knowing which of these they want, and a good number change direction after trying a division that had nothing to do with their original plan. That is a feature of the year, not a delay in it.
When things actually happen.
Short, non-competitive introductions run by firms specifically for first-years. The easiest thing on this list to get, and the most overlooked.
The main window. Deadlines vary widely by firm and a growing number review on a rolling basis, so applying early genuinely matters.
Written exercises, group tasks and partner interviews. Our Solicitors Network runs practice versions each term.
The centralised application system for pupillage opens in January with a deadline in early February. Non-Gateway chambers apply on their own timetables.
Training contract offers typically follow the summer schemes; some firms recruit directly without one.
Vacation schemes and mini-pupillages take place over the summer, usually two to three weeks each.
Firms increasingly review applications as they arrive rather than at the deadline, so the practical advice is almost always to apply earlier than feels necessary. Our application clinics run through the Autumn Term for exactly this reason.
The Law School has its own careers consultant.
Elizabeth Holden is the LSE Law School's Careers Consultant. She works with Law School students — and any LSE student interested in a legal career — on identifying the right route and approaching applications.
Across the year she runs panels with practitioners from across the profession, skills sessions on applications and assessment centres, and talks demystifying commercial practice. During term she also holds regular drop-in sessions in the Law School for short queries, and a weekly conversation on a live commercial topic.
She, not us, is the right first stop for individual careers questions. Appointments are booked through MyCareer.
Our partners are the resource.
The firms, chambers and organisations that support the society run open evenings, insight schemes, workshops and application clinics with us through the year. They are the most direct route to understanding what a job actually involves — and to being seen by the people who recruit.
