Commercial awareness
• demonstrate a good understanding of current economic conditions and in-depth legal knowledge. Learning more To this end, it’s important to focus on the word ‘awareness’, and not mistake it for the word ‘knowledge’. Remember that you’re going to be a trainee and aren’t expected to know everything about the law firm or its clients’ businesses from day one. Commercial awareness for a future lawyer is split into two categories: factors that relate to law firms as businesses themselves and factors that affect the clients for which they work. In the first category, prospective trainees should have at least a basic understanding of the purpose and impact of the Legal Services Act 2007 and a general understanding of what a partnership is and how law firms are traditionally structured. A sense of how legal work and clients are sourced and charged is also helpful. For those keen to work at international law firms, learning about the firm’s network of offices and why it’s shaped in this way is essential. This is easier if you have a reasonable grasp of the global economic landscape. What have been the consequences of covid-19 for economies, businesses and regulators? What’s an emerging market? How’s legal technology affecting law firms and the work of lawyers? How are issues such as sustainability and diversity impacting legal employers and what their clients are asking for?
Commercial awareness is one of the key skills that law firms look for in future trainees. It means understanding the environment in which the firm and its clients operate, and then using your legal expertise to help both achieve their goals. To succeed in the law, you must demonstrate that you can think in this way. To persuade a recruiter of your commercial awareness, you must develop a genuine interest in the world around you, especially the business world. Without this, you’re unlikely to enjoy 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 speak the language of clients who are themselves business owners. You must show recruiters that you can be trusted to represent the firm to a client and that you have the potential to develop new client relationships, and perhaps even new legal products and services further down the line. What’s commercial awareness? Commercial awareness means understanding your clients’ businesses and using your legal knowledge to help them to achieve their objectives. Commercially aware candidates also appreciate that the law firms they’re applying to are commercial enterprises. Whichever area of law you decide to go into, you must demonstrate that you can help to drive your firm’s business forward. You must reflect that you understand the importance of client relationships and the need for businesses to be cost effective. Make a habit of reading the business and politics sections of high-quality news sources to improve your grasp of the issues. With this in mind, you must show that you can: • manage your time effectively; • demonstrate initiative; • work well within a team; • develop strong client relationships; and
Here are some good places to start learning:
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