oh my god this made me laugh so much u don't even know 😂 😂*£120,000
It shouldn’t solely be about the money. I know it’s why most people choose this career but you have to really love the work too. The hours are awful and your entire life becomes your job. If you hate the work itself then that will make it more unbearable. £100,000 + is a phenomenal salary, but after tax and living expenses of living as close to the office as possible and having little time to actually spend your money, is it worth it if you don’t actually like the work?
With all that being said, I don’t think you’d be doing much tort/land law at Dechert?
Yeah - I know at Dechert i would definitely not be practicing land law! But God I hated every aspect of that course so much I was never more relieved to get the 2:1 and wave bye to it, so it would take some serious mental fortitude to go through with the practical side of it on the LPC😂 and omg, really?! Thanks for the insider scoop!! I'm definitely attracted to stuff like the pension schemes and I got in for HR so I'll get free CIPD quals and study leave as well as basically a guaranteed place in the CS in 3 years. But I guess when you do a law degree, all anyone talks about is what firm they're applying to, whether US firms or MC firms are better, etc...it can really get you into a mindset of 'law or nothing' that's hard to let go of. I applied to the FS totally on a whim so I didn't expect to be thinking about this at all 😂😂Adding on to this:
My flatmate had an incredible fast stream internship with the Civil Service - they were supportive like none other company I've seen. My girlfriend also wants to join the Fast Stream - they apparently have incredibly flexible working practices, and once you're in you're able to transfer between departments pretty seamlessly! Needless to say, their pension schemes are top class as well if you get in through the Fast Stream.
Defo give it a good think over, and all the best @Kablahc for making it to the 1.5% (?) of applicants who make it into the FS
* that being said, if one had to join a US law firm for work/life balance, Dechert has the best work-life balances in the city (see chambers and legalcheek) ... apparently because it has a lacking of a social scene lol
**but who joins a US firm for worklife balance? 🤣
Really?! Thanks for letting me know! I don't have the resources to self-fund so I think I'd have to do a firm's approved programme at BPP or something so not sure how that works in terms of electives but I guess if someone offered me a TC i could always askJust wanted to add my two pence in this, I'm doing the LPC right now and the course really does step away from academic law and focuses more on the application of it in certain scenarios. You also may have an opportunity in choosing electives at the end of the year so you can really tailor the course into what you actually enjoy. I definitely wouldn't worry about the LPC and wouldn't consider it as a deal breaker!
Yeah, definitely agree. I guess the difficulty is that I don't have a particular passion for law one way or another, although I really like the lifestyle and the work being a solicitor would give me applying for other positions has definitely made me reconsider whether it's the job I want. ESPECIALLY being able to start straight away after graduation rather than accumulating 2 years of fat debt (because let's be real a £10-12k LPC grant is only barely gonna cover my student accommodation if I took the LPC in London)! Definitely makes me question whether or not I would be willing to accept a TC at a firm that pays a first year training salary of £30k considering all of the debt I'll be tallying up from a Masters/gap and LPC year. Plus having to do this all over again if the firm didn't retain me on qualification... gives me shivers!!!!Yep, I have an offer at an American finance company that I have waiting if law doesn't work out
But it's not about the money, it's about whether the job is for you.