Advice on pursuing legal careers in the recession May 14, 2009
Posted by Helen Curry in : Law, Uncategorized , 1 comment so far****Be aware this content is over two years old****
It is undeniable that legal recruitment has been hit by the recession. Competition is higher than ever, but if you have a genuine interest in a legal career and the work experience to back that up, you should not be put off. Graduates are generally making more applications this year, and changing their career plans, but they won’t necessarily have the best quality application for a law firm. The situation is tougher but not impossible.
Here is some advice we have picked up to improve your chances at a training contract:
Advice
Firms are avoiding students who were intending to be investment bankers, but switched to law when they thought it looked a better bet since the recession. If you have a couple of banking internships on your CV, be prepared for questions about this. Make sure you have evidence of your interest in law, and a good reason (not purely financial!) for your change of heart.
Got a 2:2 or low UCAS points? Think carefully about your decision. It has always been difficult to secure a training contract with low grades, and now competition is so high you may have to spend a couple of years getting work experience, working as a paralegal, and persevering with applications. Many in your position have to self-fund their studies, and are still less likely to be employed after graduation. Are you strong enough to cope with the debt and the risk?
Consider regional offices or smaller firms. Many students dismiss these without even researching the firms, which means there can be less competition. The alternatives do have their merits. If you are really committed to law, make your training contract applications more diverse.
Law vs non-law graduate? This article from TimesOnline discusses whether firms prefer law or non-law graduates, and whether the recession has changed this. The outcome was that different firms have different preferences, and the recession hasn’t stopped firms from recruiting non-law graduates. When making applications, try to make sure you are targeting ones that favour your academic background.
Self-funding your studies. Be aware that more LPC students are leaving university without the offer of a training contract. The situation is worse for BVC graduates. You will accumulate a lot of debt without the guarantee of work. Especially bear in mind that law firms are currently deferring people they have accepted on training contracts. When you are to finish LPC, the law firms will be taking in these people, and probably recruiting fewer new applicants.
As ever…
- Get work experience to make sure this is the right choice for you.
- Get your application checked at your careers service.
- Do a practice interview at your careers service.
- Think twice before self-funding further study.
- Research a range of firms and specialisms to target your application successfully.
Choosing a legal career: job interviews – say as little as possible?? March 19, 2009
Posted by Helen Curry in : Law , 2comments****Be aware this content is over two years old****
Continuing the legal theme this week, I thought I’d discuss an interview tip given by Clifford Ennico in the book, “The Legal Job Interview”, which contains valuable advice on every stage of the interview process from initial body language to negotiating salary, and the perspective on legal culture makes it 
particularly useful over general interview books. However his top tip, his “key rule”, stood out to me as somewhat controversial and needing a little more examination.
SAY AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE
He calls this the 20/80 rule. In any successful interview he reckons he will do 20 percent of the talking, and the interviewer does 80 percent. Why?
- the less you say, the less likely you are to say anything risky, anything that contradicts their beliefs. You should be like a politician, even if you all agree on everything but one point, that one negative is what will stick in their minds. They are probably interviewing a lot of candidates for each position, so they might only remember a couple of key things about each candidate.
- lawyers like to play things safe. They want to pick the safe candidate who is keen to do things their way. If you assert your own opinion too strongly you might signal to them that you are not a team player, that you are more interested in doing things your way.
- they want someone calm and collected who will reassure clients with clear, concise answers. You need to be the lawyer they are looking for.
Of course, the key to success with this approach is asking the right questions.
Rather than demonstrating the qualities they are looking for in your answers, instead you demonstrate them in your questions:
- show intelligence and insight in your questions. If one of their specialisms is in an area that is economically doing particularly well or badly, ask how that affects the future of that area – which specialisms are growth areas?
- demonstrate your qualities as a good listener who values the opinions of others.
- demonstrate the skill of active listening, skilfully asking further questions to get beneath the surface and extract more information.
- show them your enthusiasm and ambition – ask what they think is key to being successful in that position (you will also learn if the culture values working hard and long hours, or is more about politics – getting on well with the right people)
- flatter the interviewer by showing interest in what they do and being keen to learn from them and soak up their views.
It is an interesting approach – it sounds a little too evasive at first, until you realise the importance of the questions you are asking. While I wouldn’t worry trying to achieve the magical 20/80 ratio, the main point to take away is how important it is to ask good questions. Some of the qualities listed above are difficult to demonstrate in any other way, it is a key way of showing your interest in the firm, and they will at least expect one question from you at the end to round off the interview. It is worthwhile preparing a few, so even if they answer some prior to the interview you still have something to ask.
No matter how detailed the recruitment brochure and website has been, no matter how clearly the presentations have explained everything about the firm, it is essential ask them questions!
Choosing a legal career – 6 ways to get work experience March 17, 2009
Posted by Helen Curry in : Law , 2comments
****Be aware this content is over two years old****
If you are considering a career in law, it is essential that you get work experience. You will need this both for applications to firms and chambers, and for your own benefit to make sure you are making the right choice (before you shell out for all that extra training…).
Today’s tips relate to work experience you can get prior to applying for vacation schemes and mini-pupillages.
6 top tips for getting work experience
- Use contacts in friends and family to get a week of work-shadowing.
- If you don’t have contacts (and many of us don’t), try to get paid or un-paid work as an administrator or receptionist in a police station, court, high-street solicitors’ firm, barristers’ chambers, or legal body such as the Legal Services Commission. Even if you are photocopying and getting coffee, you will have the opportunity to observe how people work, how they spend their time, how they handle clients, what legal resources they use and ask pertinent questions. Try visiting in person with your CV.
- Visit the courts – useful for both aspiring barristers and solicitors. Follow a case and you can talk about it in interview.
- Join your university Law Society for access to talks and debates.
- Check with your careers service to find out when legal firms are coming to talk on campus and have networking events. You might not feel confident at first, but if you keep on networking it does get easier! These conversational skills will help you sound professional and knowledgable when approaching firms in future.
- Voluntary work is available in legal, civil rights and social justice areas. Search for it using Directgov – select voluntary work, and search in your area for Legal Aid & Justice (you are more likely to find long term opportunities than one-off events). Opportunities include prison befriender, witness support and Citizen’s Advice Bureau work. See also Vinspired.com for opportunities tailored to 18-25 year olds, and try your university volunteering service or society.
Remember competition is very strong for legal careers:
And some say the recession is heightening this as well-qualified students who would have gone into finance, choose law instead as a ‘safer’ route to high salaries.
What are you going to do to ensure you stand out?
For more information see:
LawCareers.net and Launchpad to Law 2009 (pdf)
Law careers for non-law undergraduates January 19, 2009
Posted by TCG Info in : Law , add a comment*****Be aware this content is over two years old*****
We have a new guide in called Launchpad to Law 2009: A career in law with your degree, by LawCareers.net in association with The Law Society.
It is written for students in non-law subject areas who are considering a career in law. The guide begins with an introduction to what lawyers do, timelines for applications and descriptions of courses. However the bulk of the guide is devoted to profiles of lawyers who graduated from a range of subjects, from archaeology to zoology. This will give you an idea of where you fit in, which skills from your course are useful in law and worth promoting in your application, as well as hopefully convincing you that non-law graduates are perfectly welcome in law.
I would also definitely recommend having a good look around the http://www.lawcareers.net/ website as it is full of useful information including:
- Vacation scheme deadlines for solicitors
- Diary of training contract deadlines for solicitors
- Pupillage search for barristers
- Immediate vacancies
Updated 17 April 2013
