The big talking point from last night’s TV was definitely The Murder Trial on Channel 4. This groundbreaking show provided unprecedented access to the workings of a real-life court case. Many commentators noted that one of the most significant things about the show was that it would shatter people’s preconceptions about what a lawyer does and the style in which he or she does it.

Now, while the consensus among the TV reviewers seems to be that the upshot of all this will be that people will now see the job of a lawyer as being much more boring than their favourite shows had led them to believe. We, however, would beg to differ, especially with regards to young people.

The way we see it, most people already knew full well that TV lawyers don’t parade around the court as though they were treading the boards for the Royal Shakespeare Company. What the show will have made them more aware of, however, is just what incredibly important work lawyers do, and just how challenging this work is.

Challenging and important are usually two adjectives that inspire people to want to follow a particular career. And so we think that last night there were probably more young people heading off to bed entertaining the notion of one day being a lawyer than there had been the day before.

But how exactly do you become a lawyer? Well, there are two main paths you can take. You’ll notice as you read them that neither involve studying law at A Level. This is because the truth is that not doing so will not affect your chances of becoming a lawyer at all. So don’t worry if your school or college doesn’t offer this subject at A-Level; both of the training options will still be fully open to you.

Option One: Complete an undergraduate degree in Law after finishing A Levels

This is the most well-known of the paths to qualifying as a lawyer. Over the course of three years (or two in the case of certain universities) you’ll gain a thorough grounding in not just various areas of law, but also the philosophical and ethical underpinnings of it–why we need legal systems, what we really mean when we use terms such as justice, and so forth. Places on law degrees are usually in short supply, and so showing the admissions people you’ve got the brains and the motivation to cut it is essential. Typically this’ll take the form of some work experience and observation of legal practice, and good grades, including in an essay-based subject.

After you graduate, you’ll then head off to complete a one-year Legal Practice Course. These are expensive, though if you’ve secured a training contract with a law firm they’ll probably pay the costs of it for you.

Option Two: Complete an undergraduate course in another subject and then progress to postgraduate studies in Law

In the UK it’s not necessary to complete an undergraduate degree in Law to be able to walk along this career path. Instead, you can get a degree in any subject you want, and then complete either an accelerate LLB or a one-year diploma. Both of these options involve more intensive studying than doing an undergraduate LLB–you’re basically cramming in the same material in a shorter space of time–but as graduates the people who take these courses are more experienced and mature than those fresh out of school, and are therefore better equipped to cope with this challenge. Many people choose this route because while their long-term goal is to become a lawyer, they also want to enjoy the challenge of studying another subject in which they have strong intellectual interests.

Once you’ve completed this postgraduate training you simply follow the same steps as the undergraduate law students, namely completing an LPC.

A Level Law is purely optional