BE THE BEST
T he legal profession has always been competitive – the prestige and generous remuneration associated with a career in law have never failed to attract swathes of eager recruits. But in recent times, getting a foot in the door has become even more of a battle. When the recession struck back in 2008, it sparked off both a decline in the number of training contracts offered and a rise in the number of people flocking to law, partly because it was regarded as a safer career than investment banking. This all means that employers have an abundance of excellent candidates to choose from and if you’re going to make it, you need to be the best. However, this is no easy task: it will take much more than scraping a 2.1 in your degree and shadowing a solicitor in a local firm for a week. Put yourself in the shoes of a legal recruiter and imagine what type of candidate would catch your attention. Aside from excellent academics – which are a minimum requirement these days – you would want to see hard evidence that the person you are thinking about employing is committed to law and has good reasons for selecting your firm. Factor in that the average practice spends in the region of £250,000 on every trainee and you can appreciate that firms only want to invest in people with a genuine desire to work specifically for them. Recruiters also want candidates who can see things from the
perspective of a client – after all, it’s no good having the legal know-how if the solution you’re offering fails to take into account what the client actually wants. And whatever type of client that is – global corporation, small business, high-net-worth individual or hardened criminal – you’ll also need to communicate that legal advice effectively; first-rate communication skills are therefore a must. Then there’s the fact that lawyers are only human, so the prospect of sharing an office with a two-dimensional law nerd with no outside interests isn’t going to be particularly appealing. A candidate who is keen on travel, volunteers with an interesting organisation or plays the drums in a psychedelic funk band is going to stand out from the crowd and seem a much more attractive option. Clearly, there’s plenty of work to be done if you want to mark yourself out as among the best. To help you get there, we’ve crammed the following pages with information on how to do just that. You will find a selection of articles, including on: researching firms; networking and the importance of work experience; how to impress at the application and interview stages, and during a vacation scheme; and the need to be realistic throughout the entire process. With our expertise and your hard graft, the best is yet to come!
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Best in Law 2017
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