Over the weekend, The Times published a classic 'Is it too late for me to retrain as a barrister?' letter. Agony aunt Marie O'Riordan reeled off the standard encouraging response, telling the letter's author that "maturity should give you the coping skills" to make the switch from their (unspecified) current career. Having seen various mature students ditch their careers to become lawyers, I couldn't disagree with O'Riordan more...
My view is that, yes, 40 is too late to retrain as a barrister. OK, so going back to school might be fun, but it'll cost you a fortune. Then, when you emerge from it weighed down with debt as you approach 45, you'll be faced with the challenge of getting a pupillage (something only about 1 in 5 Bar graduates manage to do). In the meantime, you'll work as an entry-level paralegal – if you're lucky. It's bad enough being the lowest of the low at a law firm in your mid-20s, let alone your mid-40s.
Being a pupil barrister will not be much better. Your pupil master will probably be younger than you. So will many of your chambers' colleagues, almost all of whom will be more senior than you. Workplace power dynamics dictate that some of these people will treat you badly. And unlike in your old job, where the status you acquired after years of graft protected you from jumped up little twerps, you'll find there's nothing you can do but sit back and take the shit as it comes your way.
Oh, and if you specialise in publicly-funded work, you'll be really poor – for ages, and perhaps forever.
Of course, after ten years or so, you'll have nudged up the hierarchy and the money will hopefully have improved. If you're good, you may even be considering putting in an application to become a QC. But you'll also be working at full pelt (being a barrister is a lot of work) just when you would have been looking forward to retirement if you'd stuck around in your old job. Having still not quite paid off those law school debts, any dreams of an Indian summer pursuing passions you never had time for will be over.
On the other hand, Sir Sydney Kentridge QC is 90 and the other day told the FT how he is still loving practising at the Bar – so there may be hope, after all.
I essentially agree.
Although, it rather depends on the circumstances of the individual - if you have young children and a hefty mortgage, switching to the Bar is probably a bad idea. The Bar is certainly not a good option if you're looking to top-up your pension...
I broadly agree. And I'm 35 retraining to be a solicitor. But my previous career was taken away by government cuts and didn't pay much more than a trainee anyway. It's a very personal decision.
Surely someone who has made the switch would be better qualified to answer this than a young, failed barrister who is basically just speculating?
Well you could train to be a barrister or solicitor at any age. But why would you? You would be competing with men and women who have been immersed in law since their late teens or early twenties. You would literally be twenty years behind them.
I know one such fellow who became a barrister in his late forties. He is a right jumped up twat of a fellow, let me tell you. I think he did it just for the wig.
A rather caustic and somewhat ungentlemanly comment Uncle Solicitor I think it is a really good idea to be experienced in other branches of human endeavour outside the law before becoming immersed in Halsbury , Cordery , Stone , Wilkinson Bingham , and other worthy tomes I wish I had spent more time in a sales management post I loved sales and had a really good laugh too
There's nothing wrong with stopping men from pursuing higher aims, even if later in life. It's the way they often do it and don't realise they are literally twenty years behind their peers.
The truth often hurts.
hehe... Troll
I agree - I'm 37 and currently in a training contract to be a Solicitor, it's hard being older especially the expense and juggling family responsibilities and a mortgage. But not impossible!
I qualified as a solicitor in my mid-thirties, and it was awful training with people far younger than me, but now, four years' on, I couldnt be happier. I regret not doing it sooner, but that's better than regretting not doing it at all. I'd say if you can afford it, go for it; at least start the BVC part time, otherwise you'll regret it forever.
If you have any other kind of decent-paying job, particularly one that is quite secure and in which you are doing well and advancing up the ladder in, it's beyond me why anyone would retrain as a lawyer at an older age - but perhaps I'm not as passionate as some!
I wasnt innocent enough to follow a career in the church I wasnt strong enough for the armed forces so I ended up in the law I loved working alongside my wife in sales management - law was not off the wall enough for me
It also depends on the extent to which your previous career is an advantage in your preferred practice area at the Bar. I remember there being a number of former doctors, engineers and research scientists training at the Bar alongside me and that established careers in those professions were valuable for them in entering into specialist niche practices at the Bar. However, all of those in that position who went on to be successful had pretty much sewn up a pupillage before starting the BVC (as it then was) and in Chambers where they would be expected to be taken on post-pupillage. One consulting engineer ended up without a tenancy but found the qualification helped when returning to acting as an engineering expert.
If your prior career is not quite so stellar or relevant I suspect converting to the Bar or becoming a solicitor at 40 would be generally unrewarding and unremittingly tough. The best way to avoid this would be to qualify with the CPS, HMRC or more generally in the Government Legal Service. My old boss at HMRC solicitor's office retrained as a solicitor in his 40s as an alternative to being made redundant as a senior Customs officer. An insult to chocolate teapots but he ended up promoted to being in charge of all government civil litigation at the Treasury Solicitor after a late start.
I'm 43 and halfway through a Training Contract with a niche specialist firm. I don't regret this for a second, it is difficult and intellectually demanding but I'm enjoying it more than anything I've done before.
Previously I worked for a Property Development and Investment company and earned quite a lot of money - YES, if money is your god and you spent years building up a large salary then it won't be very jolly going back to trainee wages but this isn't all about money... I have much more self-worth doing this job and I'm regarded differently by others, the job carries with it quite a lot of respect and kudos and mentally it challenges you.
I know of several other mature students, 2 in their 50s, one a former assistant chief constable and one a former 20 year director at a top pharma company (the former doing pupillage and the latter a Training Contract-family), both love it.
Alex is only viewing the 'career change' from his limited perspective. Many older converts do so for more complex reasons.
My experience could not be more different from that described above. My Training Principal is 10 years younger than me and he's excellent, I've never had a better boss and mentor.
I can offer advice from a family law perspective (which is quite similar to the crime position) I am a solicitor who qualified at 38 via having done the BVC.
I gave up looking for pupillage after a couple of years. I was bright enough to know I was flogging a dead horse but boy am so glad I am not now a barrister. It was of course easier with the fact that at the time I did the BVC I was able to cross qualify via QLTT as the struggle for a TC is just as bad and I may still be looking!
I love the job as a solicitor doing family work and all my own advocacy it is the perfect job.
So why don’t I want to be a barrister?
1. Its my client I have spent a lot of time with so I know the case inside out without having to stay up the night before reading the brief often sent without enclosures by mediocre solicitors at 6pm the night before. (This happens every day, not every so often as they lead you to believe in bar school)
2. I am salaried, Not brilliantly paid but at least I know what’s coming in unlike barrister friends, and at least if I work as hard as they do I get 3 x over my salary, I get a share of the profits back. Barristers can end up with a weekload of cr*p 9.30am cases at Croydon County Court which can pay £69 if your called on too quickly. Barristers are not paid for prep on this and when you take off chambers rent and travel EEK
3, The buck stops with me in preparing evidence. Barrister are lumbered with someone else’s prepared statements etc. Or what information they may or may not be briefed with. Can suck when an overworked DJ starts screaming at you that you shouldn't be here and you don’t know why you are either! (This can also be true of other solicitors briefing internally – in short frankly you never want to be instructed to do someone elses work if you can help it!!!)
4, Barristers learn nothing about legal aid funding. Often their drafting can cause massive problems eg statements to be filed when funding is not available, listing a final hearing when an interim would do and funding becomes a nightmare, transferring to the FPC, paying for things LSC won’t pay for and don’t get me started on police disclosure.
So ok you still want the glory of the bar? What REALLY are the chances of getting there
On my BVC course there were doctors, IT consultants, teachers, police, all sorts of professionals. Although some professionals do get pupillage due to their experience most don't for the simple reason there are so so so so so many other people with "professional" backgrounds and only a handful of pupillages in med neg, IT, education, police law. Only 1 person from my part time cohort that I am aware of got pupillage and he had a first. Virtually no one on the course even got an interview. Most were in denial about there abilities, as is true on the course, but not all.
Ok so you do get there, do you really feel cut out for a year long job interview at your age? I am personally aware of the following situations through colleagues:
You sometimes can’t go for a wee for hours and you will rarely have a lunchbreak
Wear a blue shirt instead of a white one and there will be comments
You may have to spend hours copying bundles with a photocopier which can break down at the worst time when you are also supposed to be completing a position statement and you will then be paranoid for the next 9 months you won’t get tenancy because of it.
Sometimes you will be with some dictatorial old QC who will steal your fags, (although you really should pretend you don’t smoke) your lighter, make you buy coffee and as they themselves have no concept of the value of cash will not carry any themselves and not pay you back.
In my experience everyone feels the reality will be different for them so go for it but be aware I spent over £50k in actual savings getting there, not counting any income losses etc. I have friend from the BVC in so much debt, rubbish non law jobs, or worse the same job they were always in.
Alex, didn't you fail to get pupillage? You are the last person I would seek advice from on this subject.
Ouch - you big brave internet warrior ;-P
Aldridge, when you've grown some hair on your balls, and lost the desire to try to shock people with your public school sixth form extra-curricular magazine writing style, then you'll realise that you are something of a fool. For a start, 40 year olds today are probably not going to retire until about 75, so a career change for most is not too late at that age. You write using the sterotypes of old age ("looking forward to retirement") that only a young adult can. It's understandable, you haven't experienced it so you can only guess at what being older than yourself is like. People who dislike their jobs look forward to retirement. That's why people change their careers: so they can pursue a career they actually like. Just think: when you're 40, you can look back to November 2012 and say to yourself "My goodness, I was a right dickhead back then."
Why so rude?
Dude, with "then you'll realise you're something of a fool" you sound a like an 18th century dandy, but by "right dickhead" you're straight out badass. What's the deal and how do you work up that much ire by 6.37am? It can't be good for you.