While the articling selection process is entirely internal, that doesn`t mean you can`t join the Navy to practice law. I and many others have, but you`ll have to prove yourself as a naval officer in another discipline (probably logistics) before you can be trained for it. The Army and Royal Air Force welcome direct applications from qualified lawyers, but in these services you will only be employed as a lawyer. So if you`re a smart graduate of BVC or BPTC and you`re interested in any or all of the fields of activity I`ve mentioned, you may find a career in the armed forces a tempting alternative to exposing the self-employed. especially if you choose to join the Royal Navy. Law of the sea I am a lawyer employed by the Royal Navy, but not only as a lawyer. Unique in the armed forces, the Royal Navy selects and forms its legal framework internally. Competition for legal learning is quite fierce. Most, like me, come from the naval logistics department, because experience in personnel, discipline and other cases creates skills and an appetite for legal work. Again, naval lawyers in the armed forces remain full members of their source specialization. In addition to their legal obligations, most of them continue to work as maritime logistics officers: I find myself on HMS Cumberland as head of the logistics department.
I have always been interested in law; My mother worked as a practice manager for a chamber in the Northeast, and I was fortunate to get a glimpse into the work of lawyers and courts. After twelve years as a war officer in the Royal Navy, I was offered the opportunity to make a legal selection and become a lawyer. I researched the various providers of GDL (now PGDL) and legal education courses and chose ULaw because of its hands-on courses and the flexibility of its course delivery options. In the short time since I graduated as a lawyer with the service, I have found the wealth of legal work to which I have been subjected fascinating to me. I was working as a naval lawyer at the time the organization merged with its Army and Air Force sisters under the new Director of Military Prosecutions, Bruce Holder QC. I witnessed the disappearance of the old Single Service Discipline Laws and their replacement by the groundbreaking Armed Forces Act of 2006, which places the services under unified jurisdiction for the first time. I have come to know and interpret the multilateral and bilateral jurisdictional agreements that apply to British Armed Forces operations overseas. Most recently, I have been able to legally review United Nations Security Council resolutions relevant to Cumberland`s operations off Libya. But in all scenarios, operating at sea requires a thorough understanding of applicable maritime law: we must also understand and apply the Geneva Conventions and other laws of armed conflict. There has rarely been a more interesting period to be involved in one of the legal frameworks of the armed forces.
The Royal Navy is different from the legal services of the other two services. If a student wishes to practise as a lawyer in the armed forces, the Army Legal Service and the Royal Air Force Legal Service have the option of employing qualified lawyers and lawyers (from any area of law). If a student intends to become a barrister in the Royal Navy, they should know that, regardless of their qualifications, they must first be an officer, which means spending at least three to five years in a vital role in the Navy before going through legal screening. To this end, students are best off joining the Royal Navy LLB or PGDL, as they understand that there will be a delay before any legal training and employment. As a naval officer, I wanted to combine my knowledge of war and harsh environments with a solid legal foundation to advise senior managers on aspects of the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law. Although I managed to give advice on these issues, during my school years I realized that I had a true love for criminal law.