If I want to be a lawyer, what specialisms are open to me?
If your goal is to become a practicing lawyer, an important question to ask yourself is, “What sort of lawyer do I want to be?”. While you do not need to know the answer to this question when you start studying law, you should have an idea of what areas would interest you by the time you finish your law degree / GDL / SQE 1. If you are planning on practicing law in England, then one key consideration is whether you would prefer to be a solicitor or a barrister. In general terms, if court room advocacy, “black letter” legal research and drafting Court pleadings appeals to you, then the bar could be the better fit for you. Conversely, if you enjoy working in a team, building client relationships over many years and being a “go-to” advisor combining both commercial awareness and technical legal knowledge, then you may prefer to work in a firm of solicitors. Nowadays, however, the distinction between barristers and solicitors has been blurred. For example, some barristers may seek employm
