Legal Services, Lawyers, Solicitors

Anyone wanting to get a training contract is well advised to get some legal work experience along the way. By getting some legal work experience they can see the difference between practising a particular area of law and studying it.

Many students will find that they enjoy more than one subject when studying, for example commercial law and criminal law. But when they start looking into which firms to apply to they will find that firms will tend to practise one of these areas or the other.

Consequently, they may think that they want to apply to both of these sorts of firms. This may be risky, however, if they have not gained some practical work experience of the different types of law.

The risk is that when they start a training contract with a law firm that only then do they discover that they do not like the practical application of that type of law in the same way they liked it as a study option.

This illustrates how important it is for law students to undertake some real world legal work experience with a range of law firms.

The individual in the previous example would have been much better undertaking short law placements with a large commercial firm and a smaller high street firm specialising in criminal law. By doing so they would have been able to make a much more informed decision about where to apply to for their training contract and therefore reduce the risk of making a mistake.

Legal work experience exists in various forms from formal summer vacation schemes to more informal work shadowing or voluntary work.

It is important to look into the various work experience possibilities not only in the area you live to study but also where you might be living during the university or law school holidays if different.

Upon completion of your research, you then should construct a plan about when you will make your applications and where. This will help ensure you get experience in the areas you are most interested in but also to ensure you get a broad range of experience to inform your decisions down the line.

Unfortunately, for those wanting to secure a legal training contract and go on to become a solicitor it can be very much a lottery based on the state the economy is in at the time of graduation. Obviously it is much better to graduate in a time of boom than it is a time of bust.

It is not all bad news however, as law firms will always need to recruit trainee solicitors even in a damaged economy.

There is also a proverbial silver lining for those graduating in a recession. If they are able to secure a law training contract their future may actually be brighter than someone who starts their contract in a time of boom.

It follows that if there are less trainee solicitors taken on during the recession there will be less solicitors qualifying a couple of years down the line. This will mean more opportunities to pick the newly qualified solicitor job of their choice and increased demand from firms for solicitors at their level of experience. This may well result in better pay and improved career progression chances.

The most important thing therefore is to get to grips with how to increase the likelihood of success with applications for law training contracts.

The best thing to do to help with this is to start planning your career and your application strategy early. This will seem like a lot to be considering at an early stage if you try to do it all at once. The key is to know which things to focus on and when.

The initial things to be focusing on are the research and planning of which universities to apply to, what areas of law you want to study and which courses suit you best. You will then want to move onto making a plan about that sort of work experience to undertake, what non-academic activities to get involved in and the types of firms you might want to apply to for their summer vacation schemes and ultimately for a training contract.

Once at university, getting work experience and applying for jobs should be seen as another module in your course. Something that you do consistently throughout the year and which you build your knowledge and skills in constantly so as to put you ahead of the others.

It stands to reason that success in exams and the achievement of better grades than others is down to more thorough research, planning and dedication. If you want to set yourself ahead of much of the competition you may want to adopt a similar approach in respect of your training contract applications.

Some of the main jobs of solicitors have to undertake are; representing their clients, compiling legal documents, communicating with professionals and spending time with clients discussing their cases. In order to become a solicitor you will require a lot of training as law is a very competitive industry with lots of graduates looking for jobs.

There is a set route which you will need to follow in order to become a qualified solicitor. If your degree is not a law degree then you will need to complete a law conversion course. Law graduates and Law conversion course graduates also both need to complete the LPC Legal practice course which is a vocational course that gives you the skills that you will require in order to apply law to actual real life scenarios. You will then need to complete a training contract with a firm of solicitors where you will be known as a trainee solicitor. When you have completed the training you will be able to call yourself a solicitor.

Obtaining a permanent job at a legal firm can be difficult due to the sheer amount of candidates entering the field of law. It is a good idea to thoroughly research your options in order to know when to apply for each stage.

Training contracts are provided almost always by law firms however other legal organisations do offer them sometimes. Firms of solicitors vary in size and specialist subjects which means the working environment will be different too.

If your ultimate goal is to become a solicitor then you will need to secure a training place as soon as possible. Work experience in a law firm is also very, very important and favoured by potential employers.