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.
Vacation scheme deadlines
The guys at All About Careers have once again collected together a list of all available vacation scheme opportunities for you - both in London and further afield.
They flag up which firms are offering them, how many are available, deadlines for application and of course, links to the relevant firm webpages.
Don't miss out!
Don’t be a Space Invader – Elizabeth Cruickshank and Penny Cooper
Beware the space invader. Thanks to Xabi Gomez for the image.
The unwritten office manual
On your first day in most legal offices you will be handed a heavy folder called the Office Manual, which contains information on such things as health and safety, holidays and complaints procedures.
What you will not find in any Office Manual is information on the unwritten rules, otherwise known as “office etiquette”, on how you should behave towards your work colleagues. The word “etiquette” has connotations of a set of rigid social rules – think “Downton Abbey” for fastidious rules relating to cutlery placements or standing aside for someone regarded as a social superior.
Office, or business, etiquette on the other hand is essentially a set of rules based on the assumption that we want to make other people feel comfortable by showing them respect whatever their position in the office hierarchy, in the hope that they will accord us the same respect. If we follow these rules we have a better chance of rubbing along together in close proximity without causing offence. In modern parlance we are simply “respecting each other’s boundaries”. On the other hand, breaching them could make you very unpopular or even spell the end of your career at your firm. The difficulty with these rules is their unspoken nature.
Interview with Tammy Engelsman (A & O recruiter) – Mara Chadnick
Interviewer Mara
I have always believed in karma. I think that acquiring first-hand advice from a law student recruiter and not sharing it with my fellow City University LLB classmates would probably constitute as bad karma. Tammy Engelsman, law student recruiter for the renowned global law firm Allen & Overy, shared some invaluable advice and words of wisdom for us aspiring lawyers.
Law student recruiters are unique in the sense that they recruit students extremely early. Tammy is currently recruiting students to begin work in September 2014! It is definitely important to begin networking, applying for jobs and getting involved as soon as possible. When recruiting law students, Tammy explained that first and foremost, academic excellence is essential. She said that beyond simply having good grades, maintaining consistently good grades is of equal importance. Doing well in first year is just as important as doing well in later years.
Heard about SEO?
Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) are well worth checking out - they are a not-for-profit organisation focused on improving access into the most competitive professions for students from under-represented ethnic minority backgrounds, Law being one of them.
Here's some blurb from them:
SEO London is a diversity focused charity that every year provides hundreds of outstanding undergraduates from under represented ethnic minority backgrounds the unique opportunity to not only gain direct access to all of the very best graduate employers, but also comprehensive training and mentoring to ensure that exposure leads to graduate opportunities. This support is designed to address the lack of experience many ethnic minorities have in relation to the industries we cover. As a result of our support more than 80% of the 1,850 students that have taken part in the SEO London scheme since 2000 have secured full time graduate positions with partner firms, a success rate far in excess of the industry average.
In addition SEO also provides both first year undergraduates with the opportunity to get early insight into the industries of their choice and also final year students with graduate opportunities. In 2012, SEO will provide more than 750 internships at many of the UK’s best graduate employers, including ALL of the City’s leading investment banks and professional service firms and many top tier law firms, management consultants, multi-national corporate and advertising agencies (more than 35 firms in total).
In 2011, more than 100 students received training and exposure through the SEO London Corporate Law programme and for Summer 2012, 150 places are available for easter and summer vacation placements with partner law firms.
SEO are visiting the City Law Fair later this month - so go and find out more!
Where can I get funding for my law studies?
Need lots of this:-( Thanks to David Souza for this pic from flickr.
Understanding student finance can be as challenging as finding it. For undergraduate students there is much available from government sources: see the guides on DirectGov and the City University website. Postgraduate Student Finance is much more interesting. Whether you’re looking to complete a Graduate Diploma in Law, or intending to qualify to the Bar, there are various funding sources available.
The obvious initial pool to apply to is that of scholarships, both within your Law School (here's City's information on Awards) and the University’s central Student Centre (again here's the information for City students).
For would-be solicitors, the Law Society has two schemes offering funding support for the LPC including the Law Society Bursary Scheme (for those who can "demonstrate exceptional academic ability and potential as a solicitor") and the Law Society Diversity Access Scheme for those who need to overcome exceptional obstacles to qualify as a solicitor. It is unconfirmed whether these schemes will continue into 2012 but an announcement is likely to be made in January 2012. The Law Society page on funding also gives an overview of other options, including the Graham Rushton Award for visually impaired students and several Trusts set up to help those seeking to qualify.
What about barristers? The Inns of Court offer various scholarships for those looking to study the GDL or BTPC: Grays Inn (GDL, BTPC), Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Lincoln's Inn. There are also awards for visually impaired students/students with disabilities: the Hebe Plunkett Award at Grays Inn offers awards up to £10,000 to fund the GDL, BPTC or pupillage and at Inner Temple Disability Grants are available.
Training Contract Roundup
The guys at All About Law have compiled their annual listing of available training contracts, complete with deadlines.
Signing up on facebook will mean you getting reminders of application deadline dates for individual firms 1 month, 2 weeks, 7 days and 3 days before they expire. What are you waiting for?
The saga continues – Testing times ahead: (PT 2) – Sue Lenkowski
Hi,
I hope you all found my January tips useful, kept your resolutions and are ready for some more.
This month we will look in detail at group exercises, written exercises and problem solving exercises /tests of judgement /case studies
Group Exercises
The bad news is there are no easy ways to help you here because it’s all about behaving in a way which is appropriate and helpful to the objectives /needs of the group.
flickr.com
Top Tips
• In a quiet group draw others in
• In a noisy group use names to get a word in edgeways
• Engage body language with all
• Watch feet...observers watch these!
• Don’t try and play a role if it’s not you. Be yourself and adopt the role you are most comfortable with.
• Stare at the observers (we hate it!)!
• Try and ensure the contributions you make are a mix of original thoughts and those which build on those made by other group members.
Don’t fret and don’t worry – Penny Cooper and Elizabeth Cruikshank
‘Do you have a training contract?’
This can be a real conversation killer if the answer is ‘Not yet’. You may feel you are surrounded by people at law school who already have their legal careers mapped out right down to their training contract for this year or 2012. If you are dead set on becoming a solicitor but are beginning to lose hope that you will secure a training contract, our advice is don’t fret and don’t worry. Opportunities for training contracts always exist – but you will have to be smart when it comes to finding them.
Size and location
If you are at the stage where you are about to select your LPC provider, then spending some time on considering the size and location of the various training organisations and how your choice might impact upon your search for a training contract will pay dividends.
First size. Size often has an impact on the amount of time that tutors can spend with individual students. Ideally you should choose a course where tutors want get to know individual students by name and will be interested in their individual career prospects. Find out if you will be assigned a personal tutor who will provide you with personalised training contract advice on a one to one basis.
flickr.com
And then location.
Geographical location will obviously have an impact on the cost of the LPC and your living expenses; if you can stay at home, and your parents are willing to have you return to the family fold, then that could produce a considerable saving. But money is not the only consideration, because the location of your LPC could have consequences for your training contract search. If you have a particular city in mind for your training contract, then undertaking an LPC at the other end of the country could have considerable logistics and cost implications.
If you want a contract in the North East, then signing up for an LPC in the West will make it very difficult for you to attend open evenings and interviews at your target firms. Probably you will have long car journeys or have to change trains several times and will most likely have to miss some of your lectures to boot. When it comes to searching for a training contract, make sure your LPC location is an asset and not a liability.
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