Are you studying law or a non-law degree? By corporate lawyer I’m going to assume you mean a solicitor in one of the major London law firms

If you are studying law you should apply for vacations schemes in your penultimate year and then apply for a training contract at the end of that year, i.e. before your final year. If you are not studying law then you effectively do all this in your final year. Many of the firms run special vacation schemes in the Christmas holidays for non law finalists although they will probably take you on in Easter and the Summer as well, check on their websites. If you are a non-law student you’ll have to apply for and complete a GDL (graduate diploma in law, alternatively titled a CPE course) which lasts a year and is an intensive law course to bring you up to speed with the law grads.

After you complete the academic phase of qualification either by a law degree or non-law + GDL you’ll have to take the year long Legal Practice Course, LPC. It teaches you some of the more practical stuff. After that year you’ll start your two year training contract with a law firm. During this period you’ll be rotated round departments so that you get some experience and get a feel for the different practices within the firm. After your two year trainee phase you’ll qualify as a solicitor into a department.

From there on your career path is less certain. If your very good, and I mean very good, you might make partner after 6-10 years. This means that you’ll be one of the senior lawyers that manage and own the law firm. If you don’t make partner you could carry on as an associate solicitor, move to a different firm where you might progress further or take on a role such as senior counsel or senior associate which are roles that are becoming increasingly common as a filler between the assistant/associate solicitors and the partners.

The corporate law firms are likely to be involved in these areas of law:

Corporate Law, including Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity, general advisory.

Litigation: dispute resolution, employment, arbitration, contracts.

Finance: banking law, capital markets, securitisations, debt and equity issues, fund regulations including hedge fund law.

If you get a training contract before you leave university the firm will usually pay your GDL and LPC fees and give you a maintenance grant for those years, typically £5000 – 7000 per year. If you don’t get a training contract then you’ll probably have to finance yourself and apply again during your LPC or GDL year. They may still give you some support if you are successful then.

As for salary, the average for the first year of a training contract is probably around £35 000. Once you’re qualified this increases to £60 000-£70 000 if you’re kept on. This increases each year as you gain experience. If you make partner, and as I said before this is very hard and only a handful at each firm a year get partnership, you may be a salaried partner or become an equity partner. this means you own a part of the firm and so claim a share of the profits. At the magic circle firms like Linklaters and Slaughter and May as well as a few of the other firms this can mean over a million a year. Check out www.thelawyer for profit per equity partner figures, for example Slaughter and May http://www.thelawyer.com/uk100/2006/law/8_slaughterandmay.html has a PEP of £1.12million. This is an average some of the more senior partners will make more than this some will make less. A more middle ranking firm like Eversheds will have a lower PEP, £420 000 for 2006, which though less than half of the magic circle isn’t to be sniffed at.

Big American firms like Skadden Arps, Jones Day, Sidley Austin, Shearman & Sterling and Weil, Gotshal & Manges often pay more at the junior levels, particularly for newly qualified solicitors (i.e those who have just completed a two year training contract). However, you likely to have to very long hours. working weekends and leaving work near midnight may not be that rare when there is a big deal going on. It’s up to you whether you think you’ll cope with that and are happy with your work life balance and pay per hour.

For an overview of firms and their pay check out the inside info on city firms at http://www.rollonfriday.com/. Also read http://www.chambersandpartners.com/ChambersStudent/index.cfm for more information on individual firms and also for more about the whole process. Other useful sites are http://www.thelawyer.com/l2b/ and http://www.lawcareers.net/.

This is not an easy career to get into. It’s stressful, extremely demanding and it is very very competitive and you’ll be up against very capable graduates so prepare yourself well. if you’re not at university yet work hard at school to get the best grades you can. Apply to the best university you can get into as well. That means preferably Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, UCL, Bristol, Durham, KCL and similar universities.

Becoming A Corporate Lawyer

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
how to become a corporate lawyer in the uk?
i hav a great interest in becoming a corporate lawyer after i have finished my studies. but im not quite sure how i should go about doing this?

and also what is the minimum and maximum wage of a corporate lawyer?

Dear,

In reply to this question, How to become a corporate lawyer in the uk?, I can tell you that take a look at this site http://inquirelawyers.com it might help you

As you described; “i hav a great interest in becoming a corporate lawyer after i have finished my studies. but im not quite sure how i should go about doing this? and also what is the minimum and maximum wage of a corporate lawyer?” it may help you.

Best of Luck 🙂

First, go to college and law school. Get an internship in a law firm and have some experience as a lawyer. Then start to look for a job in the uk, and once you get a position, move there and start your job. If you’re good, you’ll climb up the ranks and become a great corporate lawyer. go to salary.com and put in corporate lawyer to see the minimum and maximum salary.

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If you are studying law you should apply for vacations schemes in your penultimate year and then apply for a training contract at the end of that year, i.e. before your final year. If you are not studying law then you effectively do all this in your final year. Many of the firms run special vacation schemes in the Christmas holidays for non law finalists although they will probably take you on in Easter and the Summer as well, check on their websites. If you are a non-law student you’ll have to apply for and complete a GDL (graduate diploma in law, alternatively titled a CPE course) which lasts a year and is an intensive law course to bring you up to speed with the law grads.

http://www.lawbritannia.co.uk/How2.htm

http://corporatelawuk.typepad.com/

http://1corporatelegalwebresources.com/corporate_lawyer_virginia

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0aae85d8-f405-11d9-af32-00000e2511c8.html