Some lawyers practice as barristers rather than solicitors, which involves focusing more on contentious matters and advocating in court. The route to qualifying as a barrister is different to that for qualifying as a solicitor (both academically and in terms of the training programme, referred to as a "pupillage"), so this is a decision you should ideally make before kicking off your legal career. However, some solicitors do become  barristers later in their careers (and vice versa).

In an interview with a commercial law firm, you may be asked to explain why you would rather practice commercial law rather than other types of law, so it’s worth giving this some thought. For example, if you need to explain why you would rather be a solicitor than a barrister, you could consider factors such as solicitors tend to work more in teams, barristers don’t generally work on transactional matters, solicitors might have the opportunity to carry out a variety of work for a client throughout its business journey, whereas barristers only tend to be brought in when something goes wrong, and so on.  

Check out this interview and this interview with barristers to learn more about what this career can involve.

John-Paul MacNamara has been a criminal lawyer for 20 years, working both as a solicitor and a barrister. He has developed an extensive advocacy practice in the Crown Court and Court of Appeal (Criminal Division), and a specific specialism in cases involving allegations of murder and attempted murder, as well as cases involving vulnerable witnesses. In addition, John-Paul is a senior lecturer on the Bar Vocational Studies course at City Law School.

For our full interview with John-Paul, check out https://www.commerciallaw.academy/courses/alternative-careers