Jo Donnellan

Career changer - former head teacher, Graduate Diploma in Law graduate and now studying the SQE1 with the College

I'm Jo. After 25 years in education, including ten as a head teacher, I'm retraining to become a solicitor. I finished the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) with The College of Legal Practice in February, and I'm now preparing for the SQE with them.

What made you choose a career change?

I've always needed variety. For a decade as a head teacher, I went into schools that were struggling, helped get them back on their feet, then moved on to the next challenge. I loved it. But then it started to feel like the same thing over and over, and I couldn't picture doing it for another 15 or 20 years. You spend more hours of your week at work than you do with friends and family, so it matters to me to be doing something I care about.

It came down to two options: law or accountancy. What swung it was the job satisfaction. Picture working with someone who has been the victim of a crime, or someone accused of something they didn't do, and helping them get justice. I couldn't see a well-balanced spreadsheet ever giving me the same feeling. The thought of working in court, and helping vulnerable people, made the decision for me.

My degree is in engineering, so I came to law with no legal background at all.

Why do you choose the College of Legal Practice?

I did my homework before I chose, and I'd recommend anyone considering this does the same. A few things stood out; local providers were quoting me eight or nine months for their conversion course, at £12,000 to £14,000. The College's GDL is five months full-time and £3,950. Please don't assume a lower price means lower quality. Coming from education, I thought the course was extremely well designed, and I rated it highly.

I also loved that it's all online. There were no wasted journeys travelling to and from a campus, and the support was there whenever I needed it. Kathryn, who leads the course, is brilliant. I didn't feel I missed out on anything by studying this way, which is why I've gone on to do my SQE with the College too.

What is studying full-time really like?

I was lucky enough not to be working while I studied the GDL full-time, so I could give it my full attention. Looking back, I think I could have managed a day or two of work a week during the GDL and still kept up. The SQE is a different story. Doing SQE1 full-time is far more intense, and there's no way I'd take on work alongside it. I follow the prescribed timetable, which means working through a couple of topics every day.

The GDL turned out to be the foundation that makes the SQE possible for me. With no law background, I don't think I could be doing the SQE full-time now without it. Some of the SQE topics are new to me, like property, wills and criminal practice, but the ones I'd already covered on the GDL feel familiar. I've learned them once, so now it's a reminder rather than brand new knowledge.

Through my research I also found that a lot of employers still expect to see the GDL, even though it isn't strictly required to start the SQE. They know it, and they trust it.

What support did you receive from the College?

The materials are thorough, and the College actively encouraged us not to go buying extra textbooks. A different course might be structured differently, so you'd risk studying things you don't need and wasting your time. Everything you need is there. The rest comes down to willpower and hard work.

Studying the foundation subjects also helped me work out where I want to go. I started out thinking I'd head into family law, having spent most of my career working with families and children. Then we studied criminal law and I was hooked. It's still early, but criminal is the area drawing me in now.

What’s next for you?

My focus right now is finishing the exams. Once I have SQE1 and SQE2, I'll need two years of qualifying work experience. The rules have opened up, so it no longer has to be a traditional trainee solicitor role. It can be time as a paralegal or in the legal side of a firm. A lot of my headship experience counts too, things like contracts, dispute resolution and the HR and employment work I did alongside an employment solicitor. It needs signing off by a solicitor, so I won't get the full two years from headship alone, but it's a strong head start.

I first thought about the barrister route, like some of my cohort, but the Bar course is a year long and around £20,000. As a career changer, I don't want to spend the next five years studying. The solicitor route is quicker, and once I qualify I have the option of a Higher Rights of Audience conversion to appear in the higher courts. There's more than one way to get where you want to in law.

What advice would you give a career changer?

I'm 49, and plenty of people thought I was taking a big risk. The truth is, once you start talking about it, you realise how many people have done the same thing. Changing career completely at this age is far more common than people think, and I wouldn't let anyone be put off by it. I worried about whether I could learn again after so long out of formal study. You can. And if you need a loan to do it, you can pay it back. Don't let your age or your money be the thing that stops you.

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