Can you change career & become a lawyer in your 30s, 40s or 50s? #LOCKDOWN Legal Mentoring - Day 10

good afternoon everybody and welcome to I think day 10 of these videos lockdown mentoring videos which I think people are getting a lot that I'm really grateful for that so the topic today I've been asked this question by a couple of people is around applying to become a barrister or a solicitor to join a profession when you're a mature applicant in other words when you've already had a another career and you're looking perhaps for a change of career in your 30s your 40s or even into your 50s and you're looking to join a profession at a much later stage than perhaps is the convention and my take on that I was you know one of those kind of people who went more or less straight through university straight to bar school and then straight on to pupilage within within a couple of weeks in fact of finishing it at the ends of course school of law so I'm kind of the more traditional kind of aged age range and hence at the age of 50 I've been in practice now for 26 years but over the years when I've been interviewing for people Egeus an indeed you know working with pupils in chambers and when I've been interviewing for scholarships and the like I've always been massively impressed by mature applicants because I often those who are a little older and who may have children may have caring responsibilities often have significant financial responsibilities mortgages perhaps you know having to pay for for all sorts of things it is so much harder to find the time the money and the energy to get through the academic stages the degree essentially all the old professional qualifications but more importantly when I've interviewed such candidates what I found is that they on the whole have a much more rounded experience base than their younger competitors and for me personally and I know it differs across chambers but we do live in an area of course where age discrimination is prohibited but I think it's increasingly the case that interviewers can see through CBS and can get to the meat of what someone's about even if you or they are an older applicant for example many of the skill sets that people have had either as managers or even as teachers or all sorts of occupations what they do is they tend to give a degree of credibility a degree of communication skill the empathy and understanding of a people which are absolutely vital to a legal career to be able to interact with people from all backgrounds all walks of life spill to kind of understand where they're coming from so there are huge advantages it seems to me because one of the things that a young lawyer coming in in their twenties early twenties in particularly coming in and sitting in front of a client one of the hardest things for them to overcome is the client's prejudice that because they're so young they probably don't know what they're doing or there must be very inexperienced it often will be true of course so so mature candidates joining the profession I've known doctors who have gone over from medical practice to become barristers engineers all manner of people who've done it bring with them a sort of inbuilt credibility that allows them to go into those first client meetings and immediately established a degree of credibility because the client won't be thinking this is someone who's just come out of Law School the client is thinking here's a 40 year old or a 50 year old man or woman in front of me who looks the part already so pre built kind of ready-made kind of mature person with life skills experience knowledge communication skills all the other things that you kind of build up as a patent or of your on top of your academic and qualifications over the years so my message to those of you who are nervous about the financial commitment and nervous about the fact you're sort of overall earnings are going to be lower because you've got a lower a smaller amount of time where you're going to be able to practice by definition if you go into the profession in your forties or fifties you already have sort of 20 years or so that you'll be able to practice but my message to is this planet carefully make sure you get your financial situation in order because there's nothing worse than stressing about that but if and I've searched about other topics including I think one of the videos in the last couple of days but if you are absolutely passionate about becoming a lawyer and practicing as a lawyer you have the money you have the academic skills and the basic skills to do it and you have significant life experience that's going to help you to understand clients and and help you to become a better lawyer go for it because the profession is changing and we are opening up and there is nothing stopping you becoming a barrister in your forties or fifties if that's your passion but as with so many of these videos if it's not your passion if you're not hundred and ten percent committed to it you have to be even more committed to it if you're a mature applicant then just think twice before you commit the money and the time to it buddy it is it's the only thing for you go for it and nothing will stop you thanks for watching

Channel: Chris Daw QC

Views: 7,452

Rating: 4.9638009 out of 5

Keywords: Chris Daw, Chris Daw QC, law, mentor, mentoring, career, careers, guidance, advice, students, trainees, pupils, chambers, junior, lawyers, paralegals, LLB, bar students

Id: uUxTzR2maN8

Length: 5min 34sec (334 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 21 2020