Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
Good morning everyone, I am a young lawyer. Not in Big 4 but decent place doing litigation for a decent boss. Graduated with 2nd Upper. The hours are challenging so far but I accept this is par for the course and will only get worse. That is fine. I know this come with the territory.
I'm very passionate about litigation and I know this is idealistic but I am certain that litigation is it for me and what I want to do in the long term. While money is important, it is less a concern for me than experience and the purpose behind the work. Would it make sense to apply to go legal service to be a DPP? Does anyone know if it will give me a lot of litigation experience? I know there are quite a few SCs in the Legal Service and I wonder if we would get exposure to some of them if we joined the Legal Service. Goes without saying that I would love to eventually be SC but I also know that this may be a pipe dream. But one can hope.
Would it make sense joining legal service or would staying in private practice be the way to go to develop as a litigator? If so, should I try to move to a big firm to get exposure to SCs so that I can develop as a litigator further? Would be thankful for some frank thoughts.
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I'm gonna be honest, seems like you just want to be a portfolio wh*re and whitewash a shitty job with AGC or Big4. That is completely fine (in fact that is recommended if you want to "eventually be SC"). However, AGC will not really help you in that regard (tbh, it's near impossible to be SC even with big4 or int firms).
Just wh*re out to the big4 (if you can), and try to last long enough to make partner or to jump to an int firm. Aim for the money, and the prestige (and bigger cases) will follow. It is almost a universal truth in liti that the 'better' teams charge more and can afford to pay more.
You won't get exposure to the "SCs in legal service" just by applying as a DPP, especially if you're not on the JLC track. You'll be several rungs removed from anything remotely close to an SC for the first 5-10 years of your AGC life. The AGC is elitist, the ones who get the good litigation experience are the ones with the higher grades (i.e. JLC track). Additionally, it's crim law, you'll end up doing alot of low "value" work prosecuting small-time criminals for voyeurism or theft or assault.
Try applying for AGC (Civ) if you really want to build your portfolio, but it's still not as good as private practice (again unless you're a scholars/FCH and you're doing a stint in civil service - as requested).
People say AGC is good because you get to run the file by yourself almost immediately (baptism by fire) but if you're already in litigation with a relatively good boss who gives you opportunities, just stay with them. If you suck at liti, you'll still suck (and not get enough big-time experiences) after AGC, and you'll have a problem coming out again as a crim lawyer (unless you're fine with crim or the possibility of a PQE cut). If you're already running files in your non-big4 firm, the main advantage of AGC evaporates.