From Student to Solicitor

Many students start law school after they have already had professional work for a few years. As a result, many students are already married, or are older and are already considering starting a family by the time they start law school. Some students decide that they don’t want to wait (or can’t wait) until law school is over to start trying to have a baby. Some also decide that it would be better trying to care for a young child while juggling the demands of law school, rather than trying to do it while juggling the demands of a new career, which could require 80-hour work weeks that leave little to no time for family.

If you are planning to welcome a new baby while you are in law school, here are a few tips for juggling the responsibilities of both:

Ensure Your Partner Has More Availability

If you are planning to have a child, make sure that your partner has more availability to help share childcare responsibilities. It would be ideal if your partner was  a stay-at-home parent in order to be the primary caretaker and person in charge of your household responsibilities. However, if this is not possible, then it would be best if your partner did not have an equally demanding job. Otherwise, the two of you will be stretched far beyond your limits.

Schedule Everything

Caring for a baby is a big responsibility, and law school can be very demanding on its own. Juggling both of them at the same time is going to be tough, to say the least. Scheduling everything can help you to manage it better. Schedule your classes, your study time, your family time — everything. Not only will you make better use of your time that way, but you’ll also identify any issues where you need help right away.

Get Help

Even with the best-laid plans, you may not be able to handle it all by yourself. Enlist the help of family and friends with the baby, house work, or any other tasks. Ask someone to babysit when you need a day to hunker down and focus on your studies. If you can afford it, hire someone to come clean the house or do the shopping — anything to take a few tasks off your plate.

Plan Internships Close to Home

Internships and externships are important to building your resume and improving your chances of getting a job right after graduation. However, traveling can put a big strain on your family, especially when you welcome a new baby. Limit your search to opportunities that are close to home and won’t require you to spend a night away from home.

Take a Semester Off if Needed

Even if you are doing a great job with your schedule and get a lot of help, you may still find that you are struggling to manage it all. If this is the case, don’t be afraid to take a semester off. Taking time off won’t hurt your career opportunities, but if you stay in school and continue to struggle and get terrible grades, that could hurt your opportunities.

Welcoming a new baby while you’re in law school isn’t going to be easy, but if the time is right for you and your family, you can make it work. Follow these tips for managing the responsibilities of both and you’ll manage to graduate all while nurturing your young family.

Chloe Trogden is a writer and manager for <ahref=”http://www.helpdesksoftware.org/”>Helpdesksoftware.org. In her spare time, she enjoys camping, swimming and playing her guitar.

I know that I have already done one blog post today, but I just had to do a quick post about a law student that I have just discovered on twitter.  Her name is Lyndsey Jefferson and her username is @lawisnowblonde.

Lyndsey is taking destiny into her own hands and starting a week long road trip to meet with law firms and lawyers to promote herself and seek a training contract.  Her aim is to see as many lawyers as she can between Wick and Wigtown.  She will be blogging/tweeting her progress and you can follow her on her website here: http://lawisnowblonde.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/i-would-drive-500-miles/

I will be following her progress closely and am sure that she will find success.  She is showing real initiative and taking control.  I am so impressed with her plan and can’t wait to see how it goes.

If you are a solicitor or partner between Wick and Wigtown, I would definitely get in touch with Lyndsey and set up a meeting before one of your competitors snaps her up!

For all my law student readers, here is an example of how to stand out from the crowd and impress employers!

I’m really pleased to share a guest blog post from Jan Hyde.  You can find out more about Jan and the work that she does at www.cljournal.com.

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My thanks to Sarah, for giving me this opportunity to share with you some tips on how to write a professional CV. Although my article will be based on writing a CV for opportunities within the area of law, please note that this structure can be used for all types of CV.

Your CV, and it’s accompanying Covering Letter (which I’ll talk more about in a later post) should create a powerful first impression. Your CV is your ‘selling tool’ or ‘marketing document’ and these 2 pieces of paper (yes do try to keep to 2 pages for a CV, unless you have years of relevant work experience) have to work really hard to sufficiently impress an employer such that they will want to invite you in for an interview. Therefore, your CV needs to be persuasive and provide information.

You may find the idea of ‘selling yourself’ uncomfortable, but when you consider the competition for jobs, it is important that your CV stands out from the rest and persuades the employer that you have the skills required for the job. Remember also, that employers may look for relevant academic or work experience, but they are also looking for somebody with the right skills and personality for the job, so your interests, activities and transferable skills are equally as important.

Presentation

It is vital to ensure that the content of your CV is complemented with an appropriate and professional style of presentation. For the area of law I would advise a conservative presentation style with the CV word processed, printed black ink on good quality white paper using an ink-jet or laser printer. Make sure that you use space effectively and pay due care and attention to grammar and spelling – use spell-check and get someone to check it for you.

There’s no hard and fast rules governing the length of a CV; however, it should be seen as an exercise in presenting information concisely and this is most commonly achieved within the boundaries of two sides of A4. Just remember that employers may have to read hundreds of CVs, so make their life easier by presenting your information on no more than 2 pages.

When allocating space to different sections, give some thought to the likely importance of each element in the eyes of the employer. Information which you consider to have the best chance of persuading him/her to offer you an interview ought to be most prominent in order to create the desired impact. For example, you may wish to highlight your suitability by ensuring any relevant work experience features on the first page.

Content and structure

There are many effective ways to structure a CV, so you will need to give some thought to the information you want to include. Your CV is a very personal document and should not follow a set format. The most successful CVs are those which manage to convey something of the writer’s personality as well as having relevant information in a suitable order. In this article I’m going to concentrate on a traditional chronological CV, however, if you don’t have any relevant work experience you might like to consider a ‘Skills-based’ CV.  This kind of CV often features a list or demonstration of your key achievements matched to the skills sought by the company.

The Traditional Chronological CV

Biographical information

Name, address (home and term-time if appropriate), telephone number, email address. You may also decide to include your nationality and sex, if you feel this information is relevant but it is not compulsory.

Career aims or Personal Profile

This is a short summary of the main features you want the employer to focus on and describes the type of work you are looking for. The purpose of this is to provide a broad overview, clarify your career plan and/or to highlight key qualities/experience or Unique selling Proposition. This is a difficult section to perfect and requires careful planning. Avoid using language which is so general as to be meaningless or applicable to most applicants; be specific and offer evidence to support any assertions being made.

Example:

‘An ambitious and committed graduate of law with a sound understanding of the legal profession and a good level of commercial awareness developed through several quality legal work experience placements. A quick learner who can communicate clearly and effectively with both legal professionals and members of the public…………etc., Presently looking for a challenging opportunity within a dynamic family law firm which will offer the opportunity to develop…etc.

Education and qualifications

This includes names and dates of attendance at institutions from the age of 11 with details of qualifications and results. As employers are likely to be most interested in your recent education, list your activities in reverse chronological order. It is good practice to provide some details of your degree or diploma course, particularly if it has some relevance to the work you are seeking. This could include brief reference to subject areas, a selection of modules covered, the title of your dissertation or project and your expected or actual result.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Sept 20XX to dateLegal Practice Course De Montfort University

Core subjects include Conveyancing, Commercial and

Corporate Law, Litigation and Employment Law

Sept 20XX to June 20XX Law LLB (Hons) Class 2:1 gained De Montfort University

Relevant subjects included Law of Contract;

Conveyancing; Commercial Law; Equity and Trusts;

Company Law

Sept 19XX to June 20XX Cheadle Hulme Comprehensive, Manchester

A-levels: History B, Business Studies B, English B

10 GCSEs including Maths and English at grade B

Employment/work experience

This section includes the details of all work experience including sandwich placements, voluntary work, vacation work and Saturday or evening jobs, and as with the education/qualification section is listed in reverse chronological order. There are various ways of structuring this information but I would advise that you have two separate headings; one for ‘Relevant Employment/Work Experience and another for ‘Other Employment/Work Experience’. This will assist the employer in identifying directly related experience more successfully. Take each of your jobs in turn, giving a brief description of your key tasks and skills you developed and if possible how you added value to the business. This could be e.g. how you saved time, implemented a new working procedure etc.

If, on the other hand, you haven’t got any ‘Relevant’ work experience you may prefer to list all your jobs briefly and follow this with a section headed ‘Relevant Skills’ which highlights common themes across the different jobs you have had and can include skills and experience developed at university e.g. mooting.

Interests/leisure activities

It is important to differentiate yourself from other candidates and show a little of your personality on your CV. This information can give employers an insight into what you’re like as a person e.g. if you participate in sports this may indicate that you are fit and healthy, if you are a member of an amateur dramatic society this may indicate an outgoing confident personality.

Achievements

This is an opportunity to inform the employer of any key achievements in any area of your life. Examples range from certificates of attendance, exceeding sales targets through to running a mini-marathon.

Additional information

This could include positions of responsibility or skills such as driving, languages and computing or keyboard skills.

Referees

Usually two referees are needed for your CV. If you are at university or have just graduated ideally you would have one from an academic and the other from an employer. You may choose to avoid giving details of your referees at this stage and include a statement suggesting that ‘references are available on request’. This is a legitimate course of action, creates extra space and provides greater flexibility if intending to use different referees for different applications.

Targeting your CV

A persuasive CV targeted at a particular job should be more successful than one which simply lists your biographical details. Therefore, you should organise and present the information within your CV tailoring the document to meet the requirements of a particular job or occupation as follows:

As a marketing tool it needs to be persuasive and dynamic in order to convince a potential employer of your suitability for the post. When preparing your CV you need to assess the qualities, skills and aptitudes required by the employer and use relevant examples to demonstrate that you have the necessary attributes. You should review the document each time you send it to an employer, adapting and refining the content as necessary. Even minor adjustments can sometimes make a crucial difference.

Your first task is to analyse the job description or advert and pinpoint the key requirements in terms of skills, abilities and personal qualities.

Secondly, review your experience (from work experience, educational background or spare time activities) and identify evidence you could use to highlight your suitability. For example, if the job requires excellent communication skills, think of instances where you have communicated effectively orally or in writing. This may include delivering presentations to large groups, writing assignments or dealing with the public in a part-time job.

Having accumulated a bank of evidence you will need to prioritise your experiences, selecting the examples which best reflect your unique selling proposition. When presenting the information, you should use active verbs and phrases to promote your experiences as positively as possible.

Summer 20XX Legal Clerk Keelers Solicitors, Manchester

Gained experience of a practice specialising in criminal and commercial law:

• Drafting affidavit and observing client interviews

• Proof reading and amending documents for Civil Appeals Office

• Researching corporation structure, legal rights, obligations and privileges

• Minute taking at staff meetings and assisting with reception duties

If you are writing speculatively to employers it can be more difficult to target your CV, but the same principles apply even if you have to make an educated guess at the skills required.

Nearly finished?

Before you send your CV off make sure that you spell-check it and re-read it several times. Ideally, get someone else to review it and give you a frank appraisal or you could sleep on it and re-read it afresh the following day. Print your CV out to make sure that it still retains the same formatting as it did when you reviewed it on your Monitor and lastly if you are sending it by email ensure that you submit your CV in the correct format, (e.g. Word) which may have been specified in the ad.

I hope that you have found the information in this article useful to you. Please feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions and finally I’d like to wish you the best of luck with your career in law.

“Don’t let anyone, or any rejection, keep you from what you want” – Ashley Tisdale

So, you’ve been sending out your CV like crazy and maybe you’ve even had a few interviews. But all that keeps hitting the mat is rejection letters. I’m not going to lie to you – it hurts. If you’ve been keeping a record of all of your applications, like I recommended in this post, it may be starting to fill up and this can get depressing. I had 50-60 rejection letters before I got a training contract and I thought about giving up more than once!

Here are my top ten tips on how to deal with rejection until you get that congratulatory phone call!

1. Don’t take it personally

I know that this is easier said than done, but you really must try not to take it to heart. The partner/practice manager who has made the decision to reject your application was not rejecting you as a person. They were making a business decision based on their firm’s specific criteria which may or may not have anything to do with how you came across on paper or in the interview. The fact that you didn’t match their criteria doesn’t mean that you are not an outstanding candidate with excellent skills and talents.

Unfortunately, only one person can get each job so all it means is that there was another candidate who was better suited to this particular role. It’s ok – there’s another position out there with your name on it!

2. Don’t bring up the past

It is a sad fact of life that every time we face rejection, our brains naturally recall all of our past failures as a way of trying to cope. This brings back all of the negative feelings that went with those events and it starts a downward spiral. Stay in the present and don’t let past events fill up your mind. Every day is a new day and every application is a fresh opportunity to get a training contract. This in turn will help your positivity and enthusiasm for the job shine through in your application, voice and body language.

3. Focus on your strengths.

It’s easy to blame yourself and focus on your weaknesses when faced with a job rejection. Concentrate on what you are really good at and where your passions lie.  Remember that no-one is perfect and don’t beat yourself up. 

You have excellent skills and talents that will be perfectly suited to another company and training contract – it’s all about finding your perfect fit.  If you are struggling to be positive  – ask your friends and colleague what they would list as your strengths.  We are so often focused on the negatives that we can’t see what is so amazing about ourselves!

4. Review your Applications

As I recommended in my last post, you should keep a record of all the applications and letters that you send out in your search for a training contract.  This will help you to learn from the experience if you do get rejected.  What would you have done differently? By spending time reviewing applications, we focus on learning and growth which helps us to move forward. You also need to reflect on your approach – whether that be the contact phone call, email, cover letter or your CV – to see if there’s something you could improve upon.

If you went in for an interview but didn’t get the job, it’s always a good idea to politely ask for feedback to help you for next time. Many interviewers are happy to provide this and you can always ask them to keep you in mind should a more suitable role come up. It can be very reassuring to know why you didn’t get the job – rather than letting your imagination run wild.  After an interview for a NQ position, I asked for feedback following a rejection and found out that they were torn between me and a solicitor with 2 years’ PQE.  That solicitor was prepared to work for a NQ salary despite their experience so I could understand why they selected him.  But it was nice to know that I was their second choice (rather than speculating about how many others I was competing with!).

Learn from every experience, but after that – let it go and move on to the next application.  As Michael from EK Business Law (@ekbusinesslaw) says, “the key is to keep moving, even if you have to change direction”.  Wise words from a wise man!

5. Accept reality

You really must accept that rejections are a part of the job search. Prepare yourself emotionally to handle the disappointment that comes with rejection. I suggest that you regularly give yourself helpful, positive messages, like ‘I am going to find a job that I love’, ‘I am making positive changes in my life’, and ‘I have the opportunity to create my future the way I want it to be’. Where our thoughts go, our actions tend to follow.

6. Accept responsibility – don’t blame others.

Without focusing too much on the negatives or blaming yourself, accept responsibility for your part in the rejection. Take ownership for your contribution.

7. Remember you are not alone

Everywhere you look there are peers, friends and mentors willing and ready to support you through the good days and bad.  Seek out those people – the support and shared knowledge will be so helpful on the bad days.  Contacts, job opportunities and friendships can result when you connect with others on a similar journey.  If you’re not sure where to find support, feel free to send me a message via my blog, my twitter feed (@RyanLegalEagles), my facebook page or via email to sarah@fromstudenttosolicitor.com and I will personally cheer you on and introduce you to others who can help you!

8. Work Your Network

Ask your friends or colleagues if they know of any job opportunities or networking events that you should attend.  It’s worth also asking if they could recommend a few other people you should contact who might have leads. 

9. Consult an Expert 

If you’ve had a lot of rejections and have no idea why it keeps happening, it may be time to be proactive and discover what factors may be keeping you in the rejection pile.  It wouldn’t hurt to run your CV by a career coach, mentor or colleague for their comments.  Spend some time practising your interview skills with someone who will give you honest feedback.

From my dealings with them on twitter, I would highly recommend Michael from EK Business Law (@ekbusinesslaw) and Jan Hyde from CL Journal (@JanHyde).  And, of course, you can always contact me and I would be happy to help.

10. Take Time Out! 

If you have been looking for a training contract for some time, it may help you to take some time out to refresh and re-energise.  Take yourself away somewhere for the weekend, visit some friends, go to the gym or even leaving the house for a short work can do wonders for clearing your mind.  When you return you will be renewed and ready to tackle the next application!

Whatever you do – don’t give up, because your dream job is right around the corner just waiting for you to apply for it!

In this blog post, you will find a list of the questions that I have had from twitter users in response to my #askasolicitor campaign.  I have given brief responses below but will cover my answers in more detail in separate blog posts as soon as I can.  If I have finished the detailed blog post for a question, I will post the link back here so that you know where to find it!  I will also include links to my solicitor interviews where other qualified solicitors have answered those questions.  If you have a question that you would like to be answered by a qualified solicitor, please comment below, send me a tweet to @RyanLegalEagles with the hashtag #askasolicitor or post on my facebook page.

“What’s the most valuable thing you have learnt which you can’t find in a textbook? That, or can I have a job please?” from @SamAArnold”

I would say that the most important lesson that I have learnt since university that I wasn’t taught there is that the legal knowledge is really only a third of what you need to succeed.  You also need sales & marketing skills and people skills.

Sales & marketing is vital because if you ever want to progress as a solicitor you will eventually need to start bringing in your own clients.  As a trainee and NQ, you may be able to skate by on the work brought in by the firm for you, but eventually your employers will look to you to start bringing in new clients yourself.  This was certainly a shock to the system for me as a new solicitor, as I had no sales experience and had never been taught it at school or university.

People skills are also crucial to gain new clients and retain existing ones.  If you do not form a good relationship with your clients and referrers, they will have no reason to trust you or return to you when they or someone they know needs your help.

Luckily, these skills can be learnt from books to an extent.  I have a list of books that cover these subjects on my “recommended reading” list but in particular, I would suggest the PSYCHOLOGY OF SELLING by Brian Tracy, The 25 Sales Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople by Stephen Covey, How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carneige and How to Speak, How to Listen by Mortimer Adler.  Practically speaking, these skills will need to be honed with real experience and this will come with time.  To get a head start, I suggest attending networking events, functions and perhaps take up a part-time job in retail/sales to work on your marketing skills.

As for the second part of your question, I’m afraid I have no recruitment power at the moment but if I did, I’d be happy to consider you!

“What is your one regret in your career?” by @Gabbyhay

I have spent a lot of time thinking about this question in an attempt to provide you with an answer less corny than “I don’t have any”.  But the reality is, I really don’t!  Yes, I have made mistakes in my time and yes, I have faced many challenges (like finding a training contract, looking for a job as a NQ solicitor in a recession and my job relocating over an hour away) but if none of those things had happened, I wouldn’t be the solicitor, or person, that I am today!

If I was really pushed for an answer, I guess that I wished I had learnt the importance of selling & marketing (see the above question) at an earlier stage because I would have learnt more about them when I was doing my LPC/training contract.  This would have made it a lot easier when I qualified and was suddenly expected to bring in new clients myself.

“Knowing all that you know now, would you still want to be a lawyer and why?” from @RemiToyobo

I suspect that my response to this question is not going to be the response that many of you want to read but I do believe in answering questions honestly.  If I were to make the decision again, I would probably not choose to be a solicitor because I don’t think I appreciated how long it takes to be rewarded for all of your hard work and I’m not sure I would have been willing to wait that long if I had known that at the time!  One thing you should be aware of is that you may not be paid the salary that you feel you deserve at trainee level, or even as a NQ solicitor.  I will go into this in more detail in a later blog post.

Having said that, now that I am a qualified solicitor with 2 years PQE, I am pleased and proud of my career choice.  Through the last ten years, I have learnt so much and gained such a wealth of experience that even if I did decide to change careers in the future, I would have such a wide range of options open to me.  I love being a family law solicitor and find it incredibly rewarding to help people through such a difficult time in their lives – in the end, that was worth all of those hours of studying and free work experience!

“How did you get a job/traineeship in this economy?” from @AhmedJnr

I managed to secure my training contract halfway through my Legal Practice Course.  I made between 60-80 applications and went for 2-3 interviews, so it was a difficult, frustrating process.  The firm that employed me as a trainee was one that I had written to after finding them via a google search and liked the look of their website.  I sent a copy of my CV with a covering letter, which I had personalised to make it stand out.  To do this, I put a photo of a local landmark in the letter’s header with my contact details.  This helped my application because (a) it was eye-catching to make it stand out and (b) it shows that I am a local applicant, which high street firms tend to like as you are more likely to want to stay in the area so won’t leave them upon qualification after they have invested so much time and money in training you.

I qualified just as the recession was starting in 2010 and this meant that I wasn’t retained by my training firm.  I had to find a job as a NQ solicitor, which can be as difficult as finding a training contract.  I took a similar approach as I did when I looked for my training contract: (a) preparing well before starting to apply (see here); (b) networking and asking all of my legal contacts for their help; (c) widening my search to neighbouring counties); (d) searching recruitment websites and (e) building an online social media presence on LinkedIn, twitter and WordPress so that I could demonstrate my soft skills (e.g. networking, marketing) to potential interviewers.  It definitely helped to be able to demonstrate to my interviewers that I had 750 followers on twitter and a loyal group of readers of my blog.

I will go into this topic in more detail in a later blog.

“What’s the main thing you look for from applications?” from @natalielorna1

I must point out, first of all, that I have not been involved in the recruitment of trainee solicitors, as I have only been qualified for 2 years myself.  But, I was consulted by our firm’s Managing Director in the recruitment of legal assistants and work experience students, so have some knowledge on the subject.  In my opinion, the most important qualities to highlight to potential employers include: -

• Academic record (as stated in this post, grades are not everything, but getting excellent grades does give you the edge over other applicants so do your best!);
• Both teamwork and an ability to work well alone: Being a trainee solicitor requires both skills so employers will want to see that you can do both.
• Interpersonal skills & communication
• Business knowledge
• Commitment to a legal career
• Attention to detail (i.e. make sure the application contains no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors!)
• Extra-curricular activities
• Work experience

I will go into details on how to demonstrate each of these in a later blog post, but hopefully this will give you an idea of the sort of things an employer would look for.  I am also currently looking to interview managing partners of firms that hire trainees so keep watching the blog for those posts!

“Are you still happy in the area of law you qualified into?  Would you change given the chance?” from @LegalGeekChic

When I was a trainee solicitor, I loved litigation and was hoping to qualify into this area upon qualification.  However, in the end, I wasn’t retained by the firm that trained me and I had to find a job as a NQ solicitor in a recession, which is almost as difficult as finding a training contract!  So, I had to compromise in order to qualify and ended up accepting a job as a family law solicitor.

In the end, I got very lucky – family law enabled me to practice litigation and yet still utilise my compassion and kindness to help people on a personal level with their relationships.  It turned out that I was more suited to an area of law where I could make a difference to real people, whereas litigation tended to involve working for big corporations in helping them to save money or avoid being sued!  Now that I have worked in the area for a while, I wouldn’t change my choice even if I were given the chance to!

The one downside of family law is that it can at times be a little depressing.  I got married two months after starting to practice family law and dealing with the darker side of relationships and bitter disputes over children and money can be a bit disenchanting.  However, I find that by focusing on the positive and being grateful for my wonderful husband it actually improves my marriage!

“What are the key motivations & qualities required in order to succeed and enjoy a career in law especially?” from @Lisa__Wang

• Passion, enthusiasm & persistence – A law career is a long, hard slog and it does take a while before your hard work is rewarded financially, so in order to be successful, you really need to love the law and be willing to work hard for little reward or recognition for a few years.  Know that it is worth it in the end!
• Time management – Being a lawyer is a stressful job and you will get a lot of different tasks thrown at you during the day.  It is crucial that you can juggle these tasks, learn to prioritise them and manage your day if you are to enjoy your job.
• Be friendly, sociable and approachable – This will help you to succeed in networking and build relationships with clients.
• Honesty and integrity – Clients expect lawyers to work to a high moral standard, total professional integrity and ethical code, because they will only instruct solicitors they trust.

These are the top qualities that I think are important to be a successful solicitor and enjoy your career.  On top of that, it is important that you can demonstrate the skills listed in my answer to @natalielorna1′s question above to employers.  I will go into these in more detail and talk about why they are important in a future blog post.

“What should I expect in the first few days of a training contract?” from @danny_naylor

This can vary depending on the type of firm, but I trained in a typical high street firm so can give you an idea of what my first few days were like.  The first morning of my training contract was spent with HR running through all of the firm’s policies and my employment & training contracts.  After lunch, I was taken round the firm and introduced to the rest of the staff.  In the afternoon, I was given IT training on the email & phone system, client management system and dictation software.  By 4pm on my first day, I had been given my first piece of research by the litigation partner.  On my second day, I was taken to an appointment with a client, was given some employment contracts to review, proof-read and suggest improvements on and received more training on time recording.  I was also shown the debt collection files, which the trainee solicitor at the firm was always responsible for.  After the first couple of days, I was given new work everyday.

I would say that I hit the ground running with my training and was very lucky to have a lot of responsibility from an early stage, which helped me to learn an incredible amount very quickly.  Some firms have a few days of training and start their trainees off with mainly research and drafting.

I will be interviewing other trainee solicitors and qualified solicitors in the near future and will post their answers to this question here once their interviews have been published.

“Do employers look at the GDL qualification any differently from  regular law degree?” from @4090ben

Yes, but not necessarily in a negative way!  I know some solicitors who see the GDL as a very good thing because it produces a trainee solicitor who has a much wider knowledge base and experience of other things.  For example, a trainee solicitor who did a degree in business would excel in commercial law, or if they did a psychology degree, they may excel in family law.  A marketing degree would help with promoting the firm and it’s services.  From my experience of high street firms, employers do not tend to mind which route the student took to being ready for a training contract, as long as they can demonstrate the right skills (see my answers to @natalielorna1 and @Lisa__Wang’s questions above), show enthusiasm for their business and their personality fits with the ethos of the firm.

I will cover the GDL in more detail in a later post.

“Will only a pass at LPC hinder getting a training contract?” from @4_samm

First of all, there is no such thing as “only a pass” when it comes to the Legal Practice Course.  It is a tough course with a high workload and tight deadlines.  Many students fail the Legal Practice Course and only a small minority get a commendation or distinction.  If you have passed the LPC, you should be incredibly proud and give yourself a huge pat on the back!

In terms of whether this will hinder your chances of getting a training contract, obviously the law students with a distinction or commendation will have a slight edge on you when recruiters are reviewing the applications.  This does not mean that you will not be able to get a training contract though!  I would focus on increasing the work experience and other interests on your CV to help you stand out and this will improve your chances.  For more advice, see my blog post on grades here.

You can find Sheena at Osborne Morris Morgan’s response to some of these questions here.

Don’t forget, if you have a question that you would like to #askasolicitor, either comment below, send me a tweet to @RyanLegalEagles with the hashtag #askasolicitor or write a post on my facebook page.  Als, feel free to contact me in the same ways if you are a qualified solicitor and would like to add your answer to any of these questions – we would love your input!

If you have been reading my blog from the beginning, you should by now have some idea of the type of training contract you want to have from this previous post.  This will give you a good basis to get started and you should definitely give some thought to the questions in that post before moving on to these next steps:

Where Are You Applying?

It is time to make a list of all of the law firms that you would like to apply to based on your answers to the questions in my previous post (above).  To do this, I would start with the following: -

1.  Yellow Pages & Google: Start by looking up local solicitors in your area and the surrounding counties.  Make a long list and look through their websites to see which ones suit your requirements and you would like to work for.

2.  Local papers: See which firms are advertising there from your area.

3.  Law Society:  The Law Society’s website has a solicitor’s directory here.  You can search by geographical area or type of law practised.

4.  Law Careers Net: This website is fantastic as it has a search form of firms offering training contracts and you can search by geographical area, number of partners, number of staff, start date, type of practice or work undertaken.

By now, you should have a pretty good list of law firms that you would like to apply to. So, where do you keep this list?

Create A Spreadsheet

Pull up an excel spreadsheet and start to fill it with all of the details that you have compiled above.  I would suggest the following columns:

First, fill in the first six columns with as many firms as you can find before you start.  This allows you to keep track of your applications and have all of the details that you need to hand when you make your applications.  As you apply and get replies, you can fill in the other columns. I would fill in the final column whatever happens – i.e. if it is a negative response, write and thank them for considering you and asking them for feedback if they have the time; if it is a positive response, schedule a date for the interview; and if you get no response, then give them a call after 2-4 weeks of the deadline passing to ask whether they have yet considered your application.

Create An Arch-Level Folder

Start a folder with a separate plastic wallet for every firm on your list.  In each wallet, you can keep a copy of your research, application and any responses/correspondence between you and the firm.  The benefits of this are as follows: -

• All of the information that you need is to hand when you need it;
• You can review your applications if you get a negative response to see how you could improve it for future applications; and
• If you get an interview, all of the documents are ready for you to look through to prepare you for your interview.  This is important, as most interview questions are partially based on your application and CV.

I would get some dividers and separate the wallets into sections: Not Yet Applied, Application Sent, Rejection & Interview.  That way, you can see at a glance what stage every application is at.

These steps may seem a bit over-the-top to those of you who are not as OCD as me – but I promise you that you will be so grateful that you did them a few months into your search for a training contract.  It helps you to constantly review how you are getting on and allows you to make improvements if things are not going so well.  If you are like me and end up having to make between 50-80 applications, you need to have an organisational system set up at the beginning to help keep track and to avoid making mistakes.

Now you are ready to draft your CV and covering letters/applications.  These will be covered in my blog next week!

Question: I’m taking a year out before I start my LPC to gain legal work experience to better my chances for a training contract. Is this a smart move?

This is a question that I received from Paven Sharma (@SharmaPaven) a law student, via twitter this week.

Although it can be very tempting to want to get straight on with the LPC after your law degree so that you can qualify as soon as possible, there are some distinct advantages to taking a gap year first:

1. As Paven rightly points out in his question, taking a gap year can allow you to get a year’s worth of quality work experience for your CV, which will definitely help with your search for a training contract. I took a gap year between the LLB and the LPC and both my training contract employer and employer that hired me as an NQ commented that they were massively impressed with the amount of work experience I had gained whilst studying.

2. With the rising costs of the LPC and the removal of the minimum salary for trainee solicitors, taking a gap year before starting the LPC will enable you to save some money enabling you to ease the pressure of student debts. I was able to save half of my LPC tuition fees upfront by working for a year before the LPC which meant that I didn’t have to take out a professional loan like most of my classmates.

3. Working in a law firm for a year will help you to work out if being a solicitor is really for you before you actually have to invest heavily in the LPC. When I finished my law degree, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a solicitor. After a year of working with solicitors, my mind was made up and my passion was sparked!

4. Working in a law firm will help you to build up a database of legal contacts that you can contact in the future for advise and help in finding a training contract.

5. The experience that you gain will help you to understand the practical work in the LPC and will make the adjustment to life as a trainee solicitor easier when you start your training contract.

6. If you impress the firm during your gap year, they will be more likely to consider you for a training contract once your LPC is over.

Are you taking or did you take a gap year before starting the LPC? What were your reasons for that decision? (Please comment below)

I know that we are all still a little upset by last week’s news that the SRA are scrapping the regulations that set a minimum salary for trainee solicitors, but I don’t want any of you to lose heart.  Dwelling on the negative and feeling bleak about the future won’t do any good and certainly won’t help you reach qualification!

So, with that in mind, here are my top five reasons why you should feel positive about the future:

1.  Over 70% of law firms currently pay more than the minimum salary to trainee solicitors, so there is a very strong chance that you will be paid more than the bare minimum when you do get a training contract.

2.  The new measures may actually inject passion back into the profession, as many students who were only in it for the money will be put off trying to qualify and we will be left with those students who have real passion and commitment to be a solicitor.  And those who are passionate about their job end up being paid more eventually anyway, since they tend to self-study after qualification and improve their value to the firm.

3.  It is likely that the deregulation of the minimum salary will result in more training contracts being available, which will mean more opportunities to qualify.  There may be a risk that there won’t be as many jobs available upon qualification, but is it not better to be qualified and looking for work than unqualified and looking for a training contract?  Besides, speaking from experience, it is a lot easier to find a job as a Newly Qualified solicitor than a training contract (and I had to do it at the start of the recession!).  In addition, if you can prove yourself as invaluable to the firm during your training contract, it is highly likely that you will be taken on at the end of it.

4.  There are so many cheerleaders today!  When I was looking for a training contract, there wasn’t a lot of support out there for law students.  Today, you have a huge network of personal cheerleaders ready to motivate you, pick you up and dust you off after a bad interview and celebrate with you when you get a training contract!

You only have to look on twitter for a few minutes to see how much support there is out there for law students today.  Beyond this site, there is also the Duncan Gibbins Academy (@DG_Academy), Michael at EK Business Law (@ekbusinesslaw), LawCareers.net (@LawCareersNetUK) and the Trainee Solicitors Surgery (@TraineeSurgery) and many more!  The forum at traineesolicitor.co.uk is also very useful, with lots of qualified solicitors ready to help answer any questions you might have.  Really, with so much support behind you, what choice is there but to succeed?

5.  You are unique.  There is no other law student out there like you – with your exact interests, background and personality.  You have the desire and passion to make it in the legal industry and this will stand out so clearly to potential employers at job interviews.  You can and will reach qualification.  Once you do you will open a whole world of opportunities and the sky will be the limit for your potential salary then.  So my advice is to put the SRA’s decision behind you, plant a smile on your face and get out there ready to face the day!  Your training contract is waiting for you to apply for it!

So, in the spirit of being positive – what are you most thankful for/happy about today?  My happy moment today was watching my husband and baby son both sleeping at 5am while I was writing this blog post – I felt like the luckiest woman alive!  Please post your happy thoughts and positive comments below so that we can spread the good feeling!

Eat That Frog!: Get More of the Important Things Done, Today! is an essential tool for busy solicitors and law students – in fact, I think it should be on the syllabus at all universities!

On the face of it, this appears to be a time management, but in reality it is more of an anti-procrastination book! Ironically, it actually sat on my bookshelf for a month after buying before I found the time to read it!

Once I actually started the book, I flew through the chapters quickly and eagerly and managed to finish the book in an evening, even with a 10 week old baby in the house! Brian Tracy sets out 21 rules to prevent procrastination and get the most out of every day. The chapters are easy to read and give practical, straightforward tips that you can start practising right away.

Before I started it, I thought that I was quite organised and managed my time pretty well, but I was still frustrated that there were things I really wanted to do but never got time for. I have put the theories in the book into place over the past week and have achieved so many of those things I’d been dying to do, like:

• Sorting my entire wardrobe;
• Starting the book I’d been wanting to write and getting 9,000 words on paper;
• Starting to learn Italian; and
• Listing my wedding dress for sale (2 years after the wedding!!)

This week my days have felt more structured and I actually feel like I am making progress towards my goals.

So, if there are things that you want to do that you never seem to get time for, I urge you to buy this book. Go on, do it today!

Eat That Frog!: Get More of the Important Things Done, Today!

So, you had that all important training contract interview and you feel that it has gone really well. You seem to get on really well with the interviewers, had confident, coherent responses for their questions and showed a keen interest in the job and the firm.

What’s next? Well, you could sit back and wait anxiously to hear the outcome. Or, you could write a short thank you note to the interviewer for their time and considering you as a candidate. I would suggest the following:

1. Send an e-mail or handwritten note. E-mail is quicker but handwritten is more personal so the approach you take may depend on the firm. For example, a modern, technologically-advanced firm may appreciate an email more where as a traditional, high street firm may prefer a handwritten note.

2. Address it to your interviewer by name (I mean “Mr Jones” not “Peter” unless they specifically asked you to call them by their first name).

3. Thank them for their time and considering your application.

4. Reiterate your interest in the firm and the job. For example, “I was really interested in hearing about [firm's name] and your work in the medical negligence sector”.

5. Link your skills back to the job. For example,”After hearing more about the role, I really feel that my extensive experience in advocacy and negotiation would assist me to excel in this position”.

6. Keep it short – you want to remind the interviewer about you, not bore them!

This note has several benefits. It reminds them of you while they are considering who to hire, it shows them that you are a polite, confident candidate and it keeps the lines of communication open. It might just give you the edge over another candidate if the interviewer is torn.

As the writer Richard Whateley once said: “Manners are one of the greatest engines of influence ever given to man”.