Employability Service
Employability newsletter Bloomsbury
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December 2013 edition
Welcome to the December edition After a very busy Autumn Term, many of you will be breathing a sigh of relief as your well-deserved Christmas break draws nearer. As always, though, it is important to keep focused on important deadlines and, at this time of year, deadlines for summer vacation schemes are looming large. In this month’s edition, you will find hints and tips on vacation scheme etiquette. This month, we also have an article on how to develop the allimportant ‘commercial awareness’, so essential for would-be lawyers, a report on November’s very successful mentoring scheme launch, and how to go about finding a mentor if you are not on the mentoring scheme. There’s a reminder from Pro Bono about the opportunities available with them next term, and last, but by no means least, we hear from a student about his path to gaining a vacation scheme and training contract. Best wishes for a very happy Christmas and successful New Year from all of us here in the Employability Service. Candy Kobrak Editor
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The following StEPs are particularly useful for you to have a look at in December. For further information, go to www.law.ac.uk/futurelawyers or the My Employability tab on Elite.
Mentoring
StEP 6: Preparing for legal interviews
If you didn’t apply for the scheme, or your application was unsuccessful, don’t be shy about using your networking skills to find a mentor yourself. Here are a few suggestions as to how you might do this:
If you have been called for an interview – congratulations! It is a real achievement; the recruiter thinks you are a realistic candidate for a training contract or pupillage. This StEP aims to get you ready for the big day, something you need to take seriously, as ‘failing to prepare is preparing to fail’!
StEP 7: Preparing for assessments Legal recruiters are increasingly using practical assessments and tests as part of their selection procedure. Their popularity is due to a number of factors: • They help to remove personal bias and subjectivity from the selection process, and so are seen as more objective. • Certain assessments seek to gauge underlying ability, rather than current levels of attainment. This is useful when organisations are recruiting two or three years in advance of when they would expect a candidate to begin work. • Assessments can help to build a fuller picture of the candidates, allowing recruiters to differentiate between applicants: this is particularly the case with ‘assessment centres’, where you will undertake a range of assessments over half a day, or even a whole day. • There is research to show that performance in appropriate assessments can be a far better indicator of performance in the workplace when compared with performance at interview. What this means for you is that, in addition to telling a recruiter about your abilities at interview, you will also have to show them.
At the end of November, we held the mentoring scheme launch evening, where many students met their mentors for the first time. Approaching 200 employers and students attended the event.
• Join a professional group, such as the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, attend their conferences and network with fellow delegates • Read articles by, or about, lawyers in the legal press; write to or email the lawyer concerned, expressing an interest in the article and ask if they could offer advice about getting into their area of law • Attend Law Fairs and University of Law employer events and ask if you may email particular lawyers with questions about their areas of law • Intending barristers should make full use of their Inns’ sponsorship schemes; contact your Inn’s student officer to ask for details, if you haven’t already done so. Remember, the golden rule is to build a mentoring relationship slowly and not to ask for too much time, or for a job! Start by asking for email advice or a quick 30-minute chat. If the lawyer seems receptive, you could then ask to contact them once more. Often, lawyers will voluntarily offer to provide you with further help if you seem keen and show awareness of the constraints upon their time. For more information on making contact with employers, take a look at StEP 4 ‘Researching legal recruiters’ and StEP 5 ‘Gaining experience and making contact’ on the Future Lawyers Network.
Vacation scheme etiquette Never forget that a vacation scheme is a two-way process. Firms will assess your potential as a future trainee, and you will consider if the firm and the type of work are right for you. During your vacation scheme, you will spend time in different departments, undertake similar work to that of a trainee, attend presentations and lectures and possibly complete formal and assessed exercises (see StEP 9 on the Future Layers Network: Preparing for assessments).
Look good, feel good It’s important to feel confident, and first impressions count, so dress smartly and look professional. When you get an opportunity to meet a client or attend court, you don’t want to be inappropriately dressed. Some firms may operate dress-down policies, so check what’s expected.
Demonstrate enthusiasm If your attitude is right, you should make a positive impression on the people that matter. Show that you are a good person to work with by being enthusiastic, willing to take on tasks assigned to you and keen to demonstrate your motivation. Try to ask intelligent and insightful questions. Recruiters want to see that you are interested and have engaged with the firm. Most of your colleagues in the office will be happy to talk about what they do in some detail, and this is an excellent opportunity to find out why they chose their practice areas and what they enjoy about working at the firm. Generally, people are happy to talk about themselves and the decisions they made, so don’t be afraid to ask!
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Vacation schemes
Drink and be.........careful
Most vacation schemes have deadlines of 31 January - but not all. Here are some firms with deadlines before 31 January:
Make the most of the social situations that arise during your vacation scheme. It’s important to get involved and show that you are a team player, whilst at the same time remembering that you are being assessed. It may be tempting to really let your hair down and drink lots, but this is exactly what you shouldn’t do, as the firm needs to be sure that you can act appropriately at client functions.
Spring vacation schemes closing dates: Jones Day (31 December) Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (UK) LLP (12 January) Weil, Gotshal & Manges (17 January) Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP (28 January)
Summer vacation schemes closing dates: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (UK) LLP (12 January) Burges Salmon (14 January) Herbert Smith Freehills LLP (15 January) Weil, Gotshal & Manges (17 January) Hogan Lovells (17 January) Dundas & Wilson (27 January) Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP (28 January) NB These are a selection only. For a full list of vacation scheme deadlines (including those with a deadline of 31 January) please refer to https://www.lawcareers.net/ Solicitors/WorkPlacementDeadlines
Resources to aid commercial awareness • The Economist (www. economist.com) profiles industry sectors from time to time. Use their website to find articles on particular sectors. • The Financial Times (www. ft.com/home/uk) presents a global view of business and markets (selected content only), and occasionally carries sectorbased supplements. Extracts from reports and a list of reports can be found on www.ft.com/ reports. For example, reports on corporate finance are useful in terms of understanding issues individual clients may be facing. • CNN (www.cnn.com) offers US-based news, but also covers world affairs and international news. • The Guardian (www.guardian. co.uk/business) offers global and UK-specific news.
Client focus Clients are the main priority for firms. To advise your clients appropriately, it is important to be aware of how their businesses are run - commercial awareness is crucial. If you haven’t been doing so already, now is definitely the time to start reading a quality newspaper so that you become informed about the economy and the way that businesses are run.
It’s a learning experience Although the vacation scheme is your chance to impress an employer, it’s also your chance to learn a great deal about the legal world. If you’re like many people, what you’ve learnt from the experience will be fresh in your mind immediately after you’ve completed your vacation scheme. However, a few weeks later, deep in your legal studies, you may well find it harder to remember it all so clearly. So, it can be a really useful idea to keep a journal noting the tasks you’ve undertaken and what you’ve learnt during your vacation scheme. This will prove invaluable when you start making training contract applications and when you are called for interview.
Enjoy it! Have fun! If you don’t enjoy your vacation scheme, think why this might be. Is this firm really right for you? Reflect on your experience once the scheme is over. Was it what you expected? Would you like to work at the firm if a training contract was offered? Consider your future before snapping up the first offer that you receive. Firms invest a lot of time and resources in their vacation schemes, so it is worth emailing the graduate recruitment team to thank them if you enjoyed the experience. Always remember that firms are out to impress their future trainees, so look beyond the glossy image and try to gain the full picture. Get as much out of the experience as possible, and seek out people who you really want to talk to.
Developing commercial awareness When it comes to gaining a training contract, one of the essential tools in any applicant’s skill set has to be commercial awareness. As most law firms either run themselves as a business or engage with commercial clients, commercial awareness is vital if you are going to succeed in the legal profession today. This is even more important with the advent of the Legal Services Act and the opening up of the legal marketplace. It’s not enough, in the current climate of change and movement, to focus only on the law. Commercial awareness can be described as an understanding of the business environment within which a law firm operates. For those firms that deal with commercial clients, it can also extend to you being able to understand a client’s business needs so that the legal advice you provide is contextualised appropriately. Whichever area of law you decide to go into, you will need to demonstrate that you are ‘commercially aware’, in order to convince legal firms that you are going to be able to help drive their business forward.
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• South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com) is particularly useful for an overview of Asian markets. • The Daily Telegraph (www. telegraph.co.uk/news) offers UK and world news. • The Times (www.timesonline. co.uk) offers UK and world news, and a Law supplement on Thursdays (www.thetimes.co.uk/ tto/law). • The Wall Street Journal (http:// uk.wsj.com/home-page) offers detailed banking news and analysis of global markets. The business pages of the BBC News website (www.bbc.co.uk/ news/business) are good for general commercial news updates, as well as opinion and discussion on national and international commercial matters.
It is important to focus on the word ‘awareness’ and not mistake it for the word ‘knowledge’. Remember that you are going to be a trainee, and are not expected to know everything about the law firm or their clients’ businesses from day one. One of the easiest ways to start doing this is by reading useful and relevant resources. Becoming familiar with good commercial information is a great way to begin to understand more about commercial matters. Find resources that speak to you and make things seem simple. If the Financial Times goes way over your head initially, don’t worry, start by reading something simpler, such as the business pages of the BBC website, before progressing onto ‘weightier’ material. What is important is that you understand the concepts being talked about, rather than trying to learn and regurgitate back big chunks of information that, when questioned on, you don’t really understand. There are some useful resources listed on the left to help you get started, so go ahead and take the first steps to making yourself more commercially aware.
Pro Bono opportunities next term Can you believe that we are already thinking about the pro bono opportunities that we can offer next term?
Dates for your diary:
If you signed up for Pro Bono, and were not placed on a project, then the following will be of particular interest to you....
Inns of Court Dates
GDL students
31 May 2014 – Closing date for Inns of Court membership applications (if starting the BPTC in 2014) • You do not need to be a member of an Inn before you apply to it for a scholarship. • If you are already a member of an Inn, you cannot apply for a scholarship at another Inn. You should apply only to your own Inn.
BPTC applications Applications for a place on the BPTC must be made through the Bar Standards Board’s central applications system: BPTC Online (https://www. barprofessionaltraining.org.uk/s4/ oa/candidates/start.asp). You are strongly advised to submit your application as early as possible. The online application process timetable is: 9 January 2014 - Closing date for first round applications (2.00pm) 6 February 2014 - System reopens for new applications into the clearing round (9.00am) 5 March 2014 - Offers start to be released from first round applications (9.00am) 2 April 2014 - Acceptance deadline for first round offers (2.00pm) 15 April 2014 - New clearing round applications and unsuccessful first round applications are released
Many more interesting opportunities are available to you from the new term including: • • • •
Student advising in the Legal Advice Centre Taking clients’ instructions as part of the Triage team Shadowing on the telephone advice lines More Streetlaw
LPC/BPTC students As the Environmental Law Foundation Clinic takes off with a flying start, there will be more opportunities to be involved in this unique project. We will advertise the opportunity and then carry out a doodle poll, matching our solicitor’s time with your free time. There will also be other opportunities to take part in another successful NCDV training session, giving you the chance to help men and women end the violence and abuse from which they are suffering.
All students Look out for our Amnesty International Letter Writing webinars, which are proving to be popular, and also for new notices on the noticeboard on the Pro Bono pages, and through the weekly employability newsletter.
Case study Peter Mabe: GDL 2013-2014 Training Contract with Sidley Austin Some people opt, successfully, for the scatter-gun approach to applications. I found it more helpful to choose fewer firms and give more time to each application – they can take a long time, so make the most of that lovely summer at the end of University before the GDL starts! Really tailor each application, page 4 of 5
31 May 2014 - Closing date for application to an Inn of Court - you must be a member of an Inn to commence a BPTC (Students are strongly warned that if there is likely to be a problem with your application to an Inn, please ensure that you apply as early as possible as this may mean that you cannot start a course if your membership is not confirmed in time for enrolment) 29 August 2014 - Clearing round closes (2.00pm) 12 September 2014 - The system closes (2.00pm)
Quick Queries: Normally Monday to Friday at either: 12pm -1pm and 3pm – 4pm or 12pm-1pm and 2pm-3pm (these times are subject to change, so please check on Elite or with the Careers Service if Quick Queries are running, and for the times that day) Quick Queries are short 20 minute drop-in sessions for you to speak with a Careers Adviser face-to-face or by telephone. Sign up for these 5 minutes before the start of the session (unless you are a part-time student – in this case you can just sign up on the day) either in person at the desk, or by phone. These are provided on a first-come firstserved basis.
as each firm will be receiving thousands of applications, and you have to understand the firm and stand out by showing them that you are exactly what they are looking for. Don’t wait to submit applications just before the deadline, as some firms close applications early if they have who they want. The biggest advice I can give, which annoyingly I found out, rather naively, quite late, is to go for the vacation schemes. They are the best route to a training contract, as two weeks will give you enough time to see if you like the firm, and them time to know you, and they schedule an interview for the training contract at the end. It goes without saying, but get as much experience as possible – yes, lots of legal work, but also other interesting experience, so that you can say law is the profession for you. Also, if you did a subject that wasn’t law (I did English Lit), have a spiel ready for why you didn’t do law at University. Think of the process as online speed dating, once you’ve got to assessment day/ interview stage. They like what they’ve seen on your application, now show them your character, humour and intelligence – they’re looking for someone reliable they can enjoy working with - and make sure you know your application form back to front! In vacation schemes/ work experience, be charming to everyone. It may seem unnecessary to say, but you will never not be being assessed. Be confident – trainees are given things, and told to do them, sometimes with little, if any, explanation. Don’t leave the work experience without having met the HR team – make yourself known so they will recognise your name in a long, long list of applicants. After-thought - don’t be worried about rejections; after speaking to many partners in different law firms, they agree that ‘luck’ seems to have rather a lot to do with things... The University of Law offers an unbelievably good, and free, Careers Service. The careers team is friendly, professional, and always approachable. I booked appointments as often as I could and they were always happy to help. You can never have too much interview practice – your answers should be genuine, and trip off the tongue with thought, but without hesitation. Ask for feedback forms for a particular firm, as they give a good, general feel for the types of questions asked, and the basic criteria the firm’s looking for. The University also offers assessment day sessions; use them! Also - check out the StEPs available on Elite, all of which assistance is open to you the day you sign up to the course, not just the day you actually start.
December careers workshops and employer talks Please go to Elite>My Employability>Bloomsbury Employability Service>Careers events for further details and instructions on how to sign up. Date
Event Type
Name of Event
Time
Thursday 5th December
Talk
Osborne Clarke (MOORGATE)
6pm
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The University of Law Limited 14 Store Street, London, WC1E 7DE. 0800 289997
1V9527/1113
to Providers (2.00pm) (Offers are released continuously in the clearing round. There is no set date by which all offers will have been made in this round)