Choosing your Career
Legal Careers
“Law at Newcastle taught me how to analyse details, think logically, concentrate for long periods of time and to be adaptable - skills that are all necessary to my daily job.”Andrew Law LLB Honours
Many of our students go on to complete further training and professional experience to qualify as solicitors and barristers. Once qualified, a solicitor or barrister may choose either to enter into private practice or employment with such entities as the civil service, large companies or local authorities.
Solicitors
To complete your qualification process as a solicitor after a law degree, you need to undertake vocational training through the Legal Practice Course (LPC), a one-year full-time or two-year part-time course and thereafter gain two years of professional experience as a "trainee solicitor".
Barrister
To use your law degree to become a barrister, you must first join one of the four Inns of Court and complete the one-year Bar Vocational Course (BVC) and then undergo practical training under the supervision of a qualified barrister.
Alternative Careers
A law degree is not only a narrow route to the legal professions. A law degree opens up a wide vista of possible careers. Nearly half of our graduates are employed outside the legal professions. For those who choose alternative careers to the legal professions, a law degree is a particularly valuable qualification which is highly respected by a wide range of employers.
A significant number of our law graduates are recruited by accountancy firms. Others go into management, insurance, banking, teaching, public relations, the civil service and the armed forces.
Recent, more unusual paths chosen by our graduates have included the theatre, a representative of a farmers' union and a commercial pilot.