Vacation scheme deadlines
The guys at All About Careers have sent a reminder out about vacation scheme applications - many firm deadlines are in a few days, on 31st January.
They report that High Fliers Research say things are on the up for graduates (not specifically Law mind you...) with a 6.4% increase in the number of graduate positions.
Now for the bad news: most firms are reporting an increase in the number of applications of around 19% (compared with this time last year) which means competition for positions is harder than ever.
Also, firms in the legal sector have pointed out that around HALF of all training contracts will go to those who have done work experience with the firm. Clearly, that means getting on a vacation scheme is more important than ever.
Find a full listing of the deadlines over at All About Careers.
The lost footage – rediscovered! – Emily Allbon
Hidden treasure. Credit:Keith Bloomfield
Back in 2010 I persuaded a selection of our lovely students and alumni to do a series of video interviews.
Alas disaster struck when the cameraman went majorly AWOL during editing and the footage seemed lost to Lawbore forever:-( However they have been miraculously uncovered so we'll be featuring a new one each week for the coming few months.
Big apologies to the kind-hearted students/alumni who gave their time for this, only for it to vanish. Thankfully no-one has a terrible haircut they should be embarrassed about now.
Future subjects include a trainee at PriceWaterHouseCoopers Legal, a commissioning editor at a legal publishers, an IP agent, a government legal service lawyer and a solicitor at a global shipping firm.
Law graduates? Legal Assistant post up for grabs….
Kingsley Napley have a legal assistant role in their regulatory team - deadline for application Fri 27th Jan.
Send a CV and covering letter to recruitment@kingsleynapley.co.uk
The City Legal Market – past, present & future – a talk by Robert Sutton, Senior Adviser, Macfarlanes – Marie Tay
Author Marie
The City Legal Market - where leading solicitors gather - is a place that calls for versatile capabilities and wit along with the ability to adapt to new challenges constantly. And it’s a place where the faint-hearted or egoistic need not apply. Set against a background of Eurozone instability and the arrival of a number of US law firms on the scene, today’s City Legal Market is a far more competitive one.
Is there still a place for the GDL/LLB graduate whose goal is that increasingly hard-to-obtain training contract?
The answer is still a resounding yes. For it is said that competition brings out the best in us. And most certainly, while the entry of the US firms fosters competition between City firms, this also means that there is now a wider range of opportunities available.
Good news then for those seeking employment at City firms. For all that’s left to do is to prove yourself. Except that you need to do this in a more prominent manner than before. As City lawyers now play larger roles in the driving or organising of transactions, you need to be equipped with additional skill sets along with the all-important legal knowledge such as administrative and communication skills, a ‘what if’ intellect and the ability to lead.
Gender Imbalance – Elizabeth Cruickshank and Penny Cooper
Credit:Elephant Gun Studios
In 1919 Parliament passed the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, which permitted women to enter the professions and to serve on juries. In 1957, almost 40 years later the Law Society recorded that 356 women now held practising certificates; by contrast this qualification was held by 18, 244 men. Over the last decade the total number of women holding practising certificates has nearly doubled and now women account for 45.8% of solicitors holding practising certificates.
Massive progress has been made and it is now easier than ever for women to enter and progress in the legal professions. However, a glance at the proportion of women made up to partner in the major legal firms does not reflect this. Certainly not 45.8% of them are women. The general proportion is much nearer to 20% and in some City firms it is much less.
If you are a woman how can you maximise your chances of getting a training contract and then making progress through the ranks?
Like it or not, women are seen as being meticulous in their attention to detail, conscientious in their attitude to work and caring towards others.
Play to your strengths
Attend to the details in your CV and application letter. Make sure that they demonstrate your precision and excellent presentation skills. Make sure there are no sloppy spelling and grammatical errors – prove to your prospective employers that any advice that you give to clients will be not only be well thought out and accurate but also legible and easy to understand.
Demonstrate your conscientiousness by thoroughly researching the firm you are applying to and tailoring your application to the firm’s requirements. Don’t say that you are interested in Media Law if the firm does not offer that but specialises in Human Rights work and equally don’t trumpet your concerns for the downtrodden if you are applying to a major corporate firm – they may applaud your humanity, but give the contract to someone else. Remember that law firms are businesses and need to make a profit in their chosen areas of legal expertise.
The Criminal Bar: what is the future for eager graduates cramming their way into a tighter knit profession?…. Dola Ajibade
Our author, Dola.
Given the financial climate at the moment it’s little wonder that all the chambers evenings directed at GDL students come purely from commercial sets. Legal aid reforms, designed to cut public expenses, have hit the criminal sector hard so when 6 King’s Bench Walk (6KBW) decided to hold a chambers evening I had to attend. A brave invitation I thought by 6kbw, which came with a clear warning from David Herling (Director of the GDL), that only those interested in this field should attend.
Truth is none of us were sure if it was the route to pursue, and what were the reasons for 6kBW inviting us? They were not short of applicants i’m sure. However there is no denying the quality of the GDL cohort at City, a course known for its additional edge of academic rigour in an already intensive (and what many would describe as) painful nine months. The result? Some of the best barristers in England and Wales.
On the evening direct questions about the criminal bar were fired (it may have been the wine)...
How much will I earn? Will I ever be able to leave my parents house? Why is so much emphasis placed on academic ability when we are helping people mostly from working class backgrounds? How does someone with a first class honours and from a middle class background relate to criminals from a different background to their own?
Their answers to these very general questions? They stated that, yes the bar does place great emphasis on intellectual ability because historically that is how it has always been. They acknowledged the problem of being able to relate to clients and represent them to the best of your ability when you are not from the same background, especially in criminal law. Yet they stated they did not rule out people with a high 2:2 who demonstrate other qualities, similarly those with a first class honours with no experience do not just walk straight through the doors. Reassuring advice, I thought, useful to a post-graduate, I was won over already.
Legal Careers Event for Disabled students
OPEN 2012 is taking place on 3rd February 2012, and its aims are described by the organisers:
"...designed to provide people with disabilities and long-term health conditions an insight into the true nature of the opportunities for graduates interested in pursuing a career in law"
Sessions planned include a guide to the recruitment process and clarification over the requesting of adjustments. You'll also get a chance to meet the firms, network and listen to panel discussions with senior representatives from the law firms participating. Firms include: Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Clifford Chance, Eversheds, Freshfields, Hogan Lovells and Linklaters.
So how do you sign up? Places are limited so you'll need to email over your CV and covering letter.
Find out full details of the event and how to apply at the OPEN 2012 website.
What I took from my vacation scheme – Jon Feng
No, not this type of vacation silly...
I applied for several vacation schemes when I was sitting the GDL, and I was fortunate enough to secure a two-week placement at large American firm during the summer. My experience may be limited compared to others, but I nevertheless hope that my 2 cents will be of help when you decide to apply for a vacation scheme and ultimately a training contract.
Approaching your work:
My placement allowed me to choose and sit in two areas of practice, and I picked litigation and capital markets. I had read about what the firm had done in those areas, and I was interested in learning more about the work going on in the London Office.
One reason why a vacation scheme is so valuable is because you have the opportunity to ask questions – and you are encouraged and expected to do so during your time there.
My work consisted of drafting, editing and legal research most of the time. Of course, this will not give you a full picture of the work you will be doing, but that is not the main point of a placement! You are not there to polish your legal skills. You are not even there to show that you are competent (this is expected of you when you are given a vacation scheme). You are there to show that you have a professional and proactive attitude towards your work. See your work not so much as a set of chores to keep you busy, but rather as a chance to for the supervisor to evaluate whether you can handle even more difficult work that he/she may have for you. And when I say that your supervisor is evaluating whether you can handle more difficult work, I mean that he/she is not only looking at the finished product, but also in how you approach your work – are you asking good questions, taking the initiative, building upon feedback etc.
What I wish I had known when I started Law school – Amin Rahman-Esene
Author Amin
With the tuition fees set to go up, rising youth unemployment and the increasing scarcity of jobs, there isn’t much to envy about the law student’s plight, especially as the law has always been a very competitive and difficult profession to enter. Nevertheless, take courage young law scholar, for one, you will not be an English literature graduate (bless their soon to be impoverished socks); and secondly, I am about to offer you some words of advice which could have, had I been given them earlier, made that elusive first class a real possibility.
Get things right the first time
Firstly, the first year matters. Honestly, it does. You will be rewarded if you build the right work ethic from the start. I am not saying become a first-year puritan, but lets just say I would have done well to drink less of certain liquids – or scaled down the numerous nights spent in sweat boxes.
The key to this law business is making sure your foundations are well built; for example, make sure you take the first cases you encounter seriously, attend all the lectures, and even read a few of those “dry” self-help law guidance manuals (I recommend Letters to a Law Student). For you will find all these first principles and lectures haunting you like some demented ghoul. How I wished I had paid attention in Legal Method, I might not have been so shocked to encounter Advanced Legal Method (!) in my subsequent Masters in Law.
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