Professionals offered chance to retrain as lawyers

PUBLIC sector workers in the West Midlands threatened by redundancy or professional services employees faced with a stalling of their career are being offered the opportunity to retrain as lawyers.

The College of Law, in Great Hampton Street, Birmingham is holding ‘Switch to Law’ open evenings on Wednesday, January 26 and Tuesday, February 1. These are aimed at non-law graduates keen to move from their current career into the legal profession.

The events, which run from 6-8pm, will demonstrate that not having a law degree is no barrier to achieving a career as a lawyer and that it is never too late to change.

Attendees will be introduced to The College of Law’s Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL), a conversion course giving non-law graduates an entry route into the profession. They can also speak to the college’s careers advisors.

Current college students and alumni will talk about their experiences of moving from established careers into law and attendees will also have the opportunity to network with leading members of the Midlands legal community including representatives from some of the region’s top law firms.

Professor Bernardette Griffin, Director of The College of Law in Birmingham, said: “Law is a popular choice for people wanting to change careers and we get lots of enquiries from potential students.”

A survey of all college students at the start of the current academic year found nearly 20% were career changers. The three most common former career areas were: marketing, PR and sales; banking, finance and insurance and health and medicine.

“The college offers students the flexibility to choose from a range of full-time, part-time and online courses designed to fit around their current job and lifestyle, enabling them to earn as they learn to be a lawyer,” added Prof Griffin.

“We have made a huge investment in e-learning technology, which allows students to study away from the centre at their own pace.”

Last year the college launched an online version of the GDL, which uses e-learning techniques to give students increased one-to-one supervision from their tutors and enables them to fit study around work and family commitments and reduce travel and accommodation costs.

One former GDL student at the Birmingham centre is Ronald Langstaff, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at The Hillingdon Hospital. Mr Langstaff, aged 54, is now training to be a barrister at the college’s London Bloomsbury centre.

He began to look for an alternative career after the medical profession began to stagnate.

He said: “It started off as an academic diversion and intellectual challenge for my own enjoyment, however, I got more and more into it. I enjoyed the GDL and learning case law and am thoroughly enjoying the Bar training course, particularly advocacy.”

Simon Grimshaw, of Lionel Street in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, enrolled on the college’s GDL in 2007 after working for three years in insurance claims management for a car hire firm.

He went on to complete the Legal Practice Course (LPC), the next stage of training for prospective solicitors, and landed a training contract with law firm Eversheds. He started at their Birmingham office in September 2010 and is due to qualify in 2012.

He said: “The college’s careers service was pivotal in helping me to get a training contract with a law firm. The tutors have all been in practice themselves and have real world experience. They are not academics who are just interested in getting their research done.”

Anyone wishing to book a place at a ‘Switch to Law’ open evening should visit  www.switchtolaw.com   for more details.