RESEARCH YOUR WAY TO A TRAINING CONTRACT
Law firm research is crucial – it is impossible to net a training contract without it. Careers advisers and legal recruiters always emphasise the importance of doing detailed research before making training contract applications. This article explains why research is so important and details the best resources to use. The why Detailed research into firms is vital if you are to convince legal recruiters to offer you a job, for two reasons. First, to earn a training contract, you need to show future employers that you fully understand the areas that their firm operates in and what training with them involves. You also need to demonstrate that you are prepared for and up to the challenge, and have targeted the firm specifically. Research checklist You’ve done some basic research and spotted a firm that you like the look of. So how to find out more? Well, we suggest using this set of questions organisation that you hope one day to join. Many of the answers can be found on the LCN directory pages – just search for the firm name. Here’s the list of questions – some answers may require more sleuthing than others. Having done one firm, you can then roll this out for all of the firms you are targeting. (originally from The University of Law) to drill down into the
This is impossible without detailed investigation. Second, research is vital in differentiating firms and identifying which might be right for you. It’s hard to distinguish between medium-sized commercial firms based in London, for example, until you get to know them individually, discover their USPs and get a feel for their culture. The how Now you know why researching firms to learn what distinguishes them from each other is important, here’s how to do it.
will dramatically reduce the time that your research takes and avoids the risk of losing track of what you discover by enabling you to store all your useful findings in one place. LCN’s training contract search can give you a list of firms which meet the criteria that you are looking for (eg, location, size or practice areas). From there you can click through to a firm’s LCN directory entry (which you can also find by entering the firm name in the search function, if you already know that you want to learn more about a particular firm). This provides an overview of the practice and its vital statics, including office location(s), salary, training contract application deadline and areas of specialisation – a useful snapshot. This should be your first port of call as it allows you to identify quickly and easily whether the firm is somewhere that you could imagine training. The firm and you • What are your career prospects at the organisation? • What are the retention rates? • Where could you go if you decided to move on after qualification? • Have you met any employees of the organisation? • Have you asked anyone else in the legal profession their view of the organisation? If you can say something in response to all these questions, you will be on the right track to application success. To perform well during the application process (and particularly at interview), you need to understand what makes this firm tick. Armed with this information, you can also then work out what
LawCareers.Net Kick off your investigations on that font of law firm knowledge,
LawCareers.Net (LCN). But instead of bookmarking your browser into oblivion why not create a free MyLCN account (more on which overleaf) and store all that data online? The web tool
• Main practice areas. • Deadline for applications.
Recent cases/deals • Identify some recent cases/deals. • What, if anything, do these say about the firm/organisation? • What did the organisation do? • Who were its opponents? Place in the profession • Who are its competitors (eg, in practice areas or location)? • Who are its main clients? • What is its ethos or culture? • Does it have a mission statement or guiding principle? • What is the organisation’s reputation and on what is this based? • Has anything happened to the organisation recently (eg, has it merged or become an alternative business structure)? • Are there likely to be any major changes soon (eg, looking to merge)?
Basic details • Name of firm. • Age of firm. • Number of partners. • Location(s). • Number of offices. • Category (eg, corporate, national or high street).
you don’t know and ask some probing questions of the firm’s representatives.
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