Law

• Studying: 38%
• Employed in graduate job: 20%
• Employed in non-graduate job: 22%
• Unemployed: 8%

• Average graduate salary: £20,719
• Average non-graduate salary: £14,786

Most law degrees cover the foundation subjects that are prerequisites for entry to the legal professions, enabling you to develop discipline-specific skills. In addition to gaining a thorough knowledge of the law, you also develop a range of other skills valued by many employers. Consider the skills developed on your course as well as through your other activities, such as paid work, volunteering, family responsibilities, sport, membership of societies, leadership roles, etc. Think about how these can be used as evidence of your skills and personal attributes. Then you can start to market and sell who you really are, identify what you may be lacking and consider how to improve your profile.

View the best universities for law degrees.

Prospects

In 2010, six months after graduation, around 35% of law graduates were in paid employment in the UK or overseas, while a further 50% were undertaking further study or training, or combining work with further study.

Of those who had gone directly into work, 13% had moved into the legal profession. However, around 17% were working in other clerical and secretarial occupations, some of which will be in a legal setting or ancillary legal professions, with scope for progression.

Where are the jobs?

If you qualify as a solicitor, there are openings in many different types of legal practices. High street solicitors’ practices offer the widest range of caseloads, from criminal and family to probate and business law. Local and national government also provide opportunities, and many large organisations employ in-house legal teams.

The majority of barristers are self-employed and typically become tenants in a set of chambers. Organisations that employ barristers include the Government Legal Service (GLS) , the Armed Forces legal services and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) . Barristers are also employed on a non-practising basis within industry and commerce, as well as in solicitors' firms.

Jobs directly related to your degree

Once you have qualified with your law degree, you could work as a:

• Solicitor
• Barrister
• Barrister’s clerk
• Legal executive (England and Wales)
• Licensed conveyancer

Jobs where your degree would be useful

Having a background in law will also be useful for a range of jobs, such as:

• Advice worker
• Trading standards officer
• Chartered accountant
• Patent attorney
• Police officer
• Human resources officer
• Civil Service fast streamer, Civil Service administrator

Although some of the jobs listed here might not be first jobs for many graduates, they are among the many realistic possibilities with your degree, provided you can demonstrate you have the attributes employers are looking for. Bear in mind that it's not just your degree discipline that determines your options. Remember that many graduate vacancies don't specify particular degree disciplines, so don't restrict your thinking to the jobs listed here.

Included with the permission of AGCAS and Graduate Prospects. For the latest version of this publication, see www.prospects.ac.uk. For permission to reproduce, contact copyright@agcas.org.uk. We would welcome your comments on this section of The Complete University Guide. Please email us at admin@thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk.