As part of the series of careers talks from The Guardian, this week's focuses in on Law.

Big guest is Matthew Rhodes, founder and director of RollOnFriday.com, a community website for young lawyers, who is asked whether budding lawyers have an accurate idea of what the profession is like, why the industry is so popular and where those who don't manage to secure a training contract can go.

The Guardian's legal affairs researcher, Maya Wolfe-Robinson, shares some thoughts on the Ally McBeal affect.

Listen to half an hour of insight and advice on Guardian Careers.

ELSA London member, Nishma Jethwa, is also a member of Femin-Ijtihad , a student pro bono initiative administered at Warwick University.

Nishma is looking to recruit voluntary researchers!

See the spec for full details of the initiative and how to apply.

Lee O'Connell, who is currently doing an MSc Audit Management and Consultancy, would like some responses from law firms to his survey. His dissertation is focused on the development of a risk management framework for the legal sector when outsourcing key services.

Lee will be donating to The Alzheimer's Society for each completed survey.

Go on, help him out!

Keep an eye on LawWorks student volunteering vacancies website, as new vacancies are flagged up regularly. Organisations offering Vacancies currently include South West London Law Centres, Amicus, Law Centres Federation, Newham Monitoring Federation and The Civil Mediation Council.

The GLS (Government Legal Service) has been permitted to go ahead with its legal trainee recruitment programme. You can allow until the 30th July via their website.

The GLS are expected to recruit between 15-20 trainee solicitor/pupil barrister posititions across 8 government departments (BIS, DCLG, DEFRA, DFT, DWP, HMRC, MOJ, TSol) - worth checking out the profiles of trainees provided by the GLS to give you some insight into what the roles entail.

How clients find legal firms

According to a poll of 2,266 people, commissioned by online solicitor directory legallybetter.com, the most popular method of finding a solicitor is the personal recommendation of friends, relatives or colleagues. But recent YouGov research suggests that the second most popular method when people are looking for someone to do conveyancing or to advise on a will is the internet. This is yet more evidence of the power of the internet as a tool in the decision-making process. How can you make it work for you?

Finding a training contract

If you have not already found a training contract, the internet can be a powerful ally. You can use it to find possible candidate firms who will appreciate your talents and achievements. But don’t restrict yourself to perusing firms’ online brochures and downloading their application forms. Simple Google searches on the name of a firm can enable you to garner useful information on a firm’s:

- Areas of expertise
- Important clients
- Recent deals
- Recent cases and whether they have been won or lost
- Charitable activities
- Standing in the local community
- Salary increases – and in some cases salary freezes and decreases
- Redundancies
- Promotions

Guardian Careers are doing a live Q & A webchat from 1-4pm tomorrow (19th May) on the subject of Grad schemes for law students.
Panel yet to be announced but definitely worth tuning in...

Mike Semple Piggot (aka Charon QC) interviews Nicholas Green QC on his vision for the future of the Bar. He discusses the impact of the Legal Services Act, issue of direct access to the Bar and offers some reflection on the different routes to the profession now.
Inside Track podcasts are hosted by The College of Law.

That headline was a “teaser”, something to attract your attention, because nothing can really make exams feel easy except hard work. But how to utilise your hard work to best advantage?

Get healthy

The Romans had a saying “Mens sana in corpore sano”, meaning “a healthy mind in a healthy body”. They knew a thing or two, these Romans, for the best way to alleviate stress is to get and stay healthy. Caffeine and alcohol may seem like good short-term stress relievers, but their effects are just that – short-term. The best way to deal with the stress of exam revision is to ensure that you eat sensibly, keep alcohol and caffeine intake down to a minimum and factor exercise into your revision plans.

Planning

One thing that is fatal to any notion of effective revision is not to plan it. If you get up in the morning uncertain about what you are going to work on, what time you are going to start or even whether you are going to do any work at all that day, then you are wasting precious energy in identifying and making decisions that you should have made before you went to bed the previous evening.

At the beginning of the lead up to your exams:

- Identify what it is that you need to cover
- Work out how many days you have available for your revision
- Divide each of those days into one hour work periods
- Then fit the topics into the work periods.

LexisNexis have launched their LawCampus website, a resource to help students with their studies. There is a good deal of interesting content around using Lexis content, (video how-to's) but also a feed of the latest cases, complete with commentary.

It looks like a series of Day in the Life videos are to included, check out this one showing you a day in the life of a a court reporter (You need to click 'start presentation now' in top left of screen).

The Bar Council has launched its annual Law Reform Essay Competition for law students and pupils. There is £4000 available for the winner, £2500 for the runner-up, as well as prizes for the best GDL/CPE entry.

Closing date is 15th October 2010 5.00pm.

To enter, you need to identify and makes the case for a law reform that is desirable, practical and useful. Find out more and submit your entry form here.

Such a question deserves the traditional lawyer’s answer – it all depends.

“Self-promotion” simply means putting yourself forward, and there is a fine line to be drawn between making sure that you are noticed positively and being regarded negatively. On the one hand you want to promote your own “brand” and to be seen as more effective than the other trainees in your firm or chambers. On the other hand you do not want to appear pushy or smug; ‘know it alls’ are avoided by partners as well as by their fellow trainees.

The key to positive recognition, as with so many things in life, is moderation. It’s not necessary to wear a T-shirt advertising your outstanding successes; there are much more subtle ways to let others know about your achievements. Don’t feel that only momentous achievements will impress; an accumulation of little things can get you a reputation for consistency, reliability and sound thinking.

There are two groups of people that you should want to impress --- your colleagues and your clients. With both, subtlety rather than boastfulness will win the day.

JUSTICE are inviting applications for their summer internship programme. There are three vacancies on the programme: a criminal justice internship, a human rights internship and an internship in EU justice and home affairs.

The programme will run between June and September 2010. For more information about the internship and instructions for how to apply please visit their website.

Note this is for law graduates only, but includes those who expect to finish their degree/conversion course before the start of the internship.

Closing date: Friday 7 May 2010

A demo of the site and Q & A session was held at Grays Inn on Tuesday 30th March. On the panel were Christopher Moore of the Pupillage Committee at the Bar Council and James Hooper of GTI Solutions (designers and administrators of the portal). You can see it via the online video.

Adam Wagner, who completed his GDL at City 05-06, is one of the editors on the newly-launched UK Human Rights Law Blog from One Crown Office Row.

The blog offers a lively round-up of human rights-related news and commentary. Postings are extremely comprehensive with links to full judgments, case summaries and other documentation where possible. Their regular case comments are excellent and detailed. Users can sign up for email alerts and RSS.

Had you guys considered blogging would be a part of your role within Chambers I wonder?