A DOSE OF REALITY
and extracurricular activities to become the all-rounder that firms want to hire. One without the other isn’t enough; having both strings to your bow is what will help you to demonstrate, in a quantifiable way, that you are a complete human being and worth the firm’s investment. It’s important to get on a vac scheme (or more than one) to build up that crucial legal experience, so apply in good time. You could also approach your local high-street firm to see whether there is any room for you to undertake a shadowing day or short placement. You also need to market your non-legal experiences well. Even waiting tables at a restaurant develops transferable skills such as coping in a pressured environment, presentation and client interaction. Other experiences teach teamwork and leadership (playing for a sports team is a good example), while charitable volunteering demonstrates social responsibility and call centre work develops your telephone skills and professional demeanour in testing situations. Meanwhile, being able to play a musical instrument shows that you have other interests and talents outside the law. Online Your online presence may be currently dominated by photos of debauched holiday antics and salacious comments, so it may be wise to build up a more ‘professional’ social media profile than your Facebook account offers. LinkedIn is great for maintaining a line of contact with the legal professionals who you will be meeting and is used almost exclusively for professional contacts, while Twitter can also be useful to follow the legal world’s big influencers. If you are a Facebook user, make sure that your profile’s privacy settings are stringent. It’s ethically dubious as to whether employers can rifle through the photo evidence of your trip to Bestival, but it’s likely that many will try if you let them. Privacy settings aside, we would also advise you not to upload textual
or photographic evidence of anything lewd, compromising or illegal onto social media, as it can be downloaded to haunt you later. Make this a general rule if you don’t already, and if some of your weekends have walked on the wilder side, sanitise your own account and make sure that your friends are aware of your policy when they post. Commerciality The legal profession is part of the business world. If you harbour any ambitions to work for a commercial law firm, then it is essential to develop a good understanding of the issues and events affecting businesses. Read the Financial Times and The Economist , and try to appreciate the appropriate legal issues thrown up by your studies from a commercial perspective. Demonstrating the elusive quality of commercial awareness – so important to many law firm recruiters – does not require that you should be able to write a thesis on the merits of Keynesian economics over Adam Smith’s free market, but to appreciate the business interests and objectives of the client, tailoring your legal advice accordingly. Some firms run commercial awareness workshops which can help to bring you up to speed, but frankly, if you have no interest in commercial matters and don’t follow the business press, we would advise that you are not suitable for a career at a commercial law firm. Diversity Historically, the legal profession was overwhelmingly white, male and privately educated, and more still needs to be done to consign this unattractive legacy completely to the past, particularly at the senior end of the profession. This is not to say that if you don’t meet those outdated, narrow criteria, you should be put off – quite the opposite. What it does mean is that you should have your eyes open to both the opportunities available. The legal profession is much, much more diverse than it used
to be. There are also organisations which work to help students from less-privileged backgrounds access the career opportunities that law has to offer. Aspiring Solicitors, LawCareers. Net’s diversity partner, works for free with students to provide one-to-one advice on CVs, application forms and interview practice, while also working with employers to provide work experience opportunities and improve openness. Find out more by visiting www.aspiringsolicitors.co.uk.
You must spend time
researching the firms that you like; planning how to get work
experience; and filling
out, refining, checking your application forms
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