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.
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.
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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.
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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.
The surprise of the High Street Firm – Gulnaz Raja
As I was drawing closer to the end of my Training Contract I was pleased to be approached by Emily to write a piece on my legal journey from embarking on a Law degree at City in September 2004 to qualifying as a Solicitor in November 2010.
After obtaining average A-Level results I was elated to receive a call from Lynn Childs to confirm my place on the Law LLB programme was secure. As I went through the degree I was keen to explore what kind of law firm I wanted to work for. Initially I was drawn to working for a commercial law firm which seemed glamorous but I quickly realised this was not the path I wanted to follow. After undertaking some voluntary placements at local high street firms at the end of my second year I quickly realised I wanted to act for people and not commercial entities!
On completing the degree in 2007 I began the Legal Practice Course at the College of Law. I had decided that the Solicitor route would be best for me as I didn’t want to undertake Court work day in day out.
After the LPC I worked as a paralegal for the in-house legal department of Whitbread plc. At this point I was slightly disillusioned as drawing up legal contracts and franchise agreements was not the most exciting work in the world! I was therefore happy to leave and work as a paralegal for a local high street firm, Indus Solicitors.
Testing times ahead: Resolutions for 2011 (PT 1) – Sue Lenkowski
Happy New Year!
I hope you all enjoyed the break and have arrived back ready to face the testing times ahead.
If you followed my advice in November you will have made your focused and timely applications and be waiting eagerly for the emails and letters inviting you to take part in the range of tests and activities which firms have put in place to select their future stars.
The range of these is increasing year on year so much so that I am doing a blog on the topic in both January and February .
My focus this month and next is to help you predict what these might be and prepare yourself.
Online ability tests
These are commonly used these days as the first sift, generally you will face all or one of the following:
Verbal reasoning
Numerical reasoning
Critical thinking
And this year’s new entrant ......................Tests of Deductive/Inductive reasoning
So what's the bad news...?
These tests have been rigorously developed to ensure they measure an actual ability rather than something which can be improved by repeatedly taking the test as such you cannot substantially improve your score with practice. However I do have some tips which will help you show your true ability when doing these...
5 days at Allen and Overy: 13/09/2010 – 17/09/2010 – Matthew Toms
My journey to Allen and Overy began as I was doing the dishes one summer evening in July 2010. I received a surprising call while listening to my music; it was the graduate recruitment team at Allen and Overy asking me whether I would be “interested” in a one week placement in September. While keeping my nerve and composure at the overwhelming request I answered – I would feel absolutely honoured at the prospect.
Nothing happened after this call for many weeks and I began to feel unsure about whether I would even get a confirmation of an interview. This thought persisted until I received a call – It was confirmed. I quickly called my friend who, by this point, had received a confirmation a week earlier. We agreed to practise interview questions on each other, research the firm and offer advice as this would surely give us an advantage during the interview process.
We hustled and bustled through endless amounts of information that was scattered across the internet; some useless and some very unique. I seem to recall reading about a phobia that one of Allen and Overy's founders had and actually contemplated its use. Yet, regardless of the authenticity, we wanted as much information about the firm in our arsenal so we could demonstrate our desire to be given the opportunity at working in such a prestigious organisation.
Then before I knew it, the day had finally come – D-Day. The most important interview of my life was upon me and I wasn’t going to take it lightly! I began the morning once again scanning through a pile of paper trying to locate any missing pieces I could fill into my head; alas there was nil. I did all the things people tell you to do: have a good night’s sleep, a good healthy breakfast and before leaving the house a quick game of FIFA to relax.
FT Innovative Lawyers report
The FT's annual Innovative Lawyers report is out today with emphasis on the changing role of lawyers. Ideal reading for you lot to get a feel for what the real challenges facing the law firm of the future are. Find out how they are adjusting to the financial challenges and changing their business. There's an interesting piece on in-house legal departments...unfortunately you have to be a subscriber to get the content or go out and grab a copy from the newsagents!
Background preparation – Elizabeth Cruikshank and Penny Cooper
Getting an edge
You’ve done your due diligence and submitted your training applications. Now you can breathe a sigh of relief and get on with the business of the LPC while you are waiting for the invitations to interview to roll in. But don’t waste this opportunity to give your interview that extra edge.
You want law firms to be interested in you, but they also want to feel that you are truly interested in them. The impression that most law firms want to give is that they are solid enterprises, concerned with the problems of their clients but with few real difficulties of their own. Look beneath the surface, however, and you will find that legal decisions and government policy may be giving them real cause for concern. During interview you will sometimes be asked questions that apparently have nothing to do with your CV or your motivations for becoming a lawyer.
BLD Legal Launch Pad – it does exactly what it says on the tin! – Suneel Basson-Bhatoa
December 2009
After my two minute fit of screaming and cheering in the middle of the University campus, my friends, to their confusion, asked me why I was celebrating so emphatically? I explained that I had just received an e-mail on my Blackberry from the Black Lawyers’ Directory (BLD) detailing my acceptance on to the Legal Launch Pad programme.
The Legal Launch Pad is a programme that is primarily designed to widen access to the Legal profession for black and minority ethnic (BME) students and incorporates an induction day, training sessions, a graduating ceremony, access to a mentoring relationship and work experience with the programme’s sponsoring organisations. However, above all of the formal elements of the programme, students also benefit from invaluable networking opportunities that go beyond the standard two minutes of time that one might expect at a law fair, crowded by hundreds of equally eager and impatient law students waiting in line.
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