Law and volunteering – Ben Butler, Community Volunteering Projects Officer

Do you want to discover how to gain valuable work experience and develop your existing skills? Do you have some time to spare? Do you want to meet like-minded individuals? If you’ve answered yes to all of these questions, it sounds like you are interested in volunteering.

Law Undergraduates are encouraged to find Pro Bono work to gain relevant experience and increase their knowledge through practical application from their first year. However, in practice this often proves to be difficult, as, understandably, organisations who provide Pro Bono opportunities will tend to pick candidates with the most experience. Instead of feeling frustrated and disappointed by this, you could do a lot worse than to start to build up some relevant experience through volunteering. It is important to remember that what employers are looking for is evidence of transferable skills, and these can be gained through all sorts of different activities, which can be ‘transferred’ to different work situations.