ARE YOU COMMERCIALLY AWARE?
Commercial awareness is one of the key skills that law firms look for in future trainees and thus, if you are to succeed, you will need to develop this particular area of your brain. If you hope to persuade a recruiter of your commercial awareness, you need to develop a genuine interest in the business world. Without one, you are unlikely to maintain enthusiasm for a career in commercial law or properly understand what your clients want to achieve. Even if you intend to train as a private client lawyer, you need to be able to understand clients who are themselves business owners. A candidate who enthusiastically engages with the daily gyrations of commerce represents a future lawyer with the capacity to develop new client relationships and, perhaps, even new legal products and services. a law firm operates. It also means the ability to understand a client’s business needs so that the legal advice you provide is contextualised appropriately. Whichever area of law you decide to go into, you will need to demonstrate that you are commercially aware in order to convince law firms that you are going to be able to help drive their business forward, beyond just securing your training contract. You will need to demonstrate that you understand the importance of client relationships and the need for businesses to be cost effective. A commitment to your firm’s strategic vision and a good grasp of market factors are required. With this in mind, you need to be able to demonstrate that you can: • manage your time effectively; • use initiative; • work well within a team; • develop good client relationships What is it? ‘Commercial awareness’ can be described as an understanding of the business environment within which
and a working knowledge of clients’ businesses; and
and develop a more connected understanding. In short, you will take on the media habits of a good professional before you become one. Overleaf are some recommendations of good places to start learning. Past experiences Another way of assessing your levels of commercial awareness is to think about what you already know. Consider your employment history and see whether you can identify any previous examples of commercial work experience. For example, have you worked in a service environment? Did you gain insight into how the business you were working within was run? Have you ever undertaken a specific project or devised a solution to a business problem? It is not only your employment history that counts as commercial work experience. Positions of responsibility can also demonstrate that you have the necessary skills. Did you belong to any societies at university and if so, what was your role? For example, if you were the treasurer of a sports club, this can be used to demonstrate your ability to manage finances and budgets. Not-for-profit work can also be used to demonstrate commercial awareness as, depending on your role, you may have been involved in promoting events or persuading companies to sponsor you or provide free products. These activities help to show that you have an understanding of basic business processes. Working within the family business or setting up and managing your own business (even online) can all point to commercial nous, as there is no better way to understand the fundamentals of a business than by running one. New experiences In addition to looking at what you have done already, you may want to increase your levels of awareness by undertaking some useful employment while you study or after you have finished your degree or LPC. The first step is to assess yourself. Consider what area of law you
• grasp current economic
conditions and legal knowledge.
Learning more There are things that you can do to help increase your levels of understanding. It is important to focus on the word ‘awareness’ and not mistake it for the word ‘knowledge’. Remember that you are going to be a trainee and are not expected to know everything about the law firm or its clients’ businesses from day one. Commercial awareness for a future lawyer might be sensibly split into two categories: things that relate to law firms as businesses themselves, and things that affect the clients for whom the firms work. In the first category, a student should have at least a basic understanding of the purpose of the Legal Services Act 2007 and a general understanding of what a partnership is and how law firms are traditionally structured. It will help, too, to have a sense of how legal work and clients are sourced and charged. If a student hopes to work for an international law firm, then it’s essential to have a sense of what a target firm’s international network looks like and why it is shaped as it is. This is easier if you have a reasonable understanding of the shape of the world economy. What are the BRICS? What is an emerging market? Why did we have a financial crisis? What is neoliberalism? Why is austerity the economic watchword of the decade so far? What is the alternative? These topics are covered extensively in the media, often very well. However, a last-minute skim of the Financial Times before your interview will be of limited use unless you are extraordinary lucky. You should get yourself into a routine and then stick to it. This approach enables you to develop genuine interest and a knack for spotting themes and trends. You will eventually be able to see things from a business person’s perspective
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