One page, school to practice
The route into corporate lawyer
Assembled backwards from the job: the degrees that lead there, the subjects those degrees require, the exams and when they are sat, and what the whole thing costs in years. Print it.
1. Subjects, chosen at fifteen or sixteen
Aggregated across every degree that leads here. Anything marked required closes the door if you skip it.
Saudi curriculum track
المسار الشرعي— Sharia, or مسار إدارة الأعمال— Business Administration
A-Level
- Historyhelpsfor Law
- English Literaturehelpsfor Law
- Economicshelpsfor Law
- A languagehelpsfor Law
IB Diploma
- History HLhelpsfor Law
- English A HLhelpsfor Law
- Economics HLhelpsfor Law
- Arabic Ahelpsfor Law
Advanced Placement
- AP English Languagehelpsfor Law
- AP United States Historyhelpsfor Law
- AP World Historyhelpsfor Law
- AP Comparative Governmenthelpsfor Law
- AP Latinhelpsfor Law
2. The degree
More than one route usually exists. They are not equivalent.
Transactions, contracts and advisory work, which is where most of the money and most of the jobs are.
Three to four years for the LLB, plus one to three years of professional training and examinations. In the US, law is a graduate degree taken after a first bachelor's.
3. Exams, and when to sit them
Registration deadlines fall weeks or months before the exam. That is what people miss, not the exam.
- LNATSeptember to January
Required by Oxford, UCL, LSE, KCL, Bristol, Durham, Glasgow, Nottingham and SOAS among others. Nothing to revise and a great deal to practise; the official practice materials are free.
- July to SeptemberUCAT testing window, sat at a test centre.
- September to JanuaryLNAT testing window for most law courses.
- OctoberMost Oxford and Cambridge subject tests — TMUA, ESAT, PAT, TSA.
- JuneSTEP, sat alongside A-Levels as a condition of a Cambridge or Warwick offer rather than for shortlisting.
- LSATAfter a first degree, for the US
The US graduate-entry route, and years away from a school decision.
- Qudurat and TahsiliGrade 11 and 12
The Saudi admission composite; some law and Sharia colleges require the humanities Tahsili.
- Several periods across the yearQudurat (General Aptitude Test), open from Grade 11. Computer-based and paper sittings both run.
- Final months of the school yearTahsili (Scholastic Achievement Test), sat near the end of Grade 12 once the syllabus is covered.
- Spring and summer of Grade 12University applications through the unified admission portals and each university's own portal.
4. After the degree
Training, licensing and the years between graduating and practising independently.
United Kingdom · United Kingdom
- schoolA-levels, any subjects2 yr
- undergraduateLaw degree, or any degree plus a conversion course3–4 yrs
- trainingProfessional qualification and two years of paid training2–3 yrs
- licensingAdmission to the roll of solicitors0–1 yrs
- practiceNewly qualified associate0 yr
LicensingAdmission as a solicitor. The training period is paid employment, and commercial firms usually fund the professional course.
United States
- schoolHigh school, any subjects4 yr
- undergraduateBachelor's degree in any subject4 yr
- postgraduateJuris Doctor3 yr
- licensingBar examination and admission0–1 yrs
- practiceAssociate0 yr
LicensingState bar admission. Reciprocity between states is partial, so where you qualify matters.
Saudi Arabia
- schoolSecondary school, either track3 yr
- undergraduateBachelor of Law (Sharia and law, or law)4–5 yrs
- trainingSupervised practice period before licensure3 yr
- licensingMinistry of Justice licence to practise0–1 yrs
- practiceLicensed lawyer0 yr
LicensingMinistry of Justice licensure. International firms operating in the Kingdom also recruit lawyers qualified in other jurisdictions for cross-border transactional work, which is a distinct market from local litigation.
5. What the route costs
Not tuition — time. The years spent training are years not spent earning, and that is the largest cost of a long route by a wide margin.
United Kingdom
School-leaving to independent practice: 5–7 years.
The shortest route needing no degree written up on this site is management consultant at 3 years. Someone taking that route has been earning for 4 years by the time this one starts. At their entry pay of £27,000–35,000, that is roughly £108,000–140,000 of earnings deferred.
United States
School-leaving to independent practice: 7–8 years.
The shortest route needing no degree written up on this site is aircraft maintenance engineer at 4 years. Someone taking that route has been earning for 4 years by the time this one starts. At their entry pay of $48,780–62,630, that is roughly $195,120–250,520 of earnings deferred.
Saudi Arabia
School-leaving to independent practice: 7–8 years.
The shortest route needing no degree written up on this site is air traffic controller at 4 years. Someone taking that route has been earning for 4 years by the time this one starts. At their entry pay of SAR 140,000–220,000, that is roughly SAR 560,000–880,000 of earnings deferred.
How that figure was reached, and what it leaves out
It is arithmetic on the sourced figures elsewhere on this site — training years multiplied by the shortest route’s entry pay — not a measurement of anything. It ignores what trainees earn while training, which in medicine and several other routes is a real salary. It ignores the pay you reach afterwards, which for long routes is usually higher and can overtake the gap entirely. And it excludes tuition, deliberately: Saudi public universities charge nationals no tuition, and fees abroad vary so widely by country and university that any single figure would be misleading. Treat it as a sense of scale for the years, not as a calculation of whether a career is worth it.
Everything on this page is assembled from the career page, the majors that lead to it and the exams those majors require, so it cannot say something they do not. Entry requirements change every year — confirm on the course page for the year you apply.