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Your experience will be of great benefit to a firm and of great benefit to commercial clients should you decide to go into commercial and corporate law. And there is room for ethical lawyers in the commercial world if you are so motivated.

I used to teach on the LPC when, apart from teaching quite a lot of law, we were asked to teach 'business nous'. How exactly do you teach that? And were the lecturers, many straight from College to Private Practice and back to College, able to impart this even if it could be taught in a classroom. Most of us stuck to teaching the law.

I am now an in-house lawyer and I can tell you that if you can understand the business objectives of the client, show some appreciation of how business actually works, and appreciate the need for your clients take actions that are both commercial and legal (that is, have some business nous), then clients will prefer you to others with little or no experience in business or industry. Having said that, you will still have to be a good legal technician. But your experience in industry will add the extras.

I agree that some partners may prefer people in their own images. And some might not appreciate the amount of hard work and dedication it takes to complete a degree part-time. But others will take a different view.

As for the CPS, if you stick to this career choice, I tend to agree that they will not be in the 'snooty' category.