Future Lawyers: what things should you do this summer- UNI 2015

I'll be going to year 13 in September and I really want to make this summer worthwhile in terms of building up my personal statement and doing things to contribute to my future career; hopefully a lawyer!

What would you recommend are good things future lawyers should do this summer? E.g. events to go to, things to sign up for, books to read

Thanks :smile:

Reply 1

Unsworth

14

Original post by deborarosa

I'll be going to year 13 in September and I really want to make this summer worthwhile in terms of building up my personal statement and doing things to contribute to my future career; hopefully a lawyer!

What would you recommend are good things future lawyers should do this summer? E.g. events to go to, things to sign up for, books to read

Thanks :smile:

First of all, although it is great that you are thinking about all of this so early on, I would suggest that at this stage there probably isn't anything of real significance you can do that will make a meaningful impact later down the line (in comparison to things you can do in future summers when you are at university).

Nevertheless, here are a few things I would suggest:

- Subscribe to The Economist and/or the FT. Start reading commercial news frequently so you are constantly up to date with big developments. Not only will this be interesting but it will boost your 'commercial awareness', something that all law firms want in potential trainees.

- Following on from the above, start reading The Lawyer (website is free and easy to use). This will help increase your knowledge on law firms and obviously allow you to folllow big developments, again you will hopefully find it interesting too.

- Read the Guardian's law feature on their website regularly. This again will be beneficial and will usually be more focussed on the academic side of law in contrast to The Lawyer which is geared more to the practise of commercial law.

- Read a variety of books. My favourite law related ones were the 3/4 by Lord Denning, Mcbride's Letters to a law student and Bingham's The Rule of Law, HLA Hart has a good one also. These will be great reading ahead of starting a law degree.

- Following on from the above, I would also suggest reading more business related books. This is something that doesn't have to be done now, but simply over time. Although you're interested in becoming a lawyer, you should be familiar with the wider business world, especially if you are interested in corporate law and the big city firms. Knowing about investment banking, accountancy, private equity and etc will all help you, in the sense of knowing what they do, as these will all be clients of top law firms.

- Improve your skills in an interest you have. I.e, if you play a lot of football, continue doing so. If you play an instrument, keep it up. If you are learning a language, do more over summer and beyond. Having interests outside of academic work is essential, not only to keeping you sane while you hit year 13/uni hard, but it also shows you are a 'rounded' individual, another thing law firms want in candidates.

- Attend public lectures. Although this isn't by any means a requirement, I found some quite fascinating lectures that are free to attend held by LSE and the Law Society in London while I was working in the city on my gap year. Some were extremely interesting and great talking points with people at work, also learnt a lot from them.

- Try and gain some kind of work experience, whether it be law related or just a part time job somewhere crap - both will look good and be beneficial. Pinsent Masons run work experience programmes for sixth formers each year, do check them out.

- Try and be in some kind of leadership position at school in your final year. This will be a great benefit and will serve as good experience for you to get one while at uni. Positions of responsibility are again another big thing law firms are interested in, having leadership experience will only benefit you.

- Check out Chambers and Partners' student website. Fantastic resource and one which will be your law firm guide when/if you apply for vacation schemes/training contracts in the future. It is incredibly useful.

- Although not a summer thing and something that doesn't really need to be said, study hard. Law is incredibly tough to get into at top universities and is even tougher when trying to get vacation schemes/training contracts, excellent grades are expected. Top grades will get you into the top unis, however they won't get you into the top law firms, you need more than this. However I can assure you that bad grades will stop you getting into both.

Just a little advice I have. Most of the above shouldn't be things just for this summer though, they should be things you take on board and continue to do throughout university if you still plan on becoming a lawyer. I'm sure other people will have more suggestions, this is just my two pence.

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Reply 2

ragandbone

1

Original post by Unsworth

First of all, although it is great that you are thinking about all of this so early on, I would suggest that at this stage there probably isn't anything of real significance you can do that will make a meaningful impact later down the line (in comparison to things you can do in future summers when you are at university).

Go watch some cases in your local magistrates and county courts - you could also throw in some employment tribunals

Try and do things that you are interested in - it will help if you have a passion - for law, things that show you have some initiative are good - but they don't have to be law-related ie you got together with some other people your age, raised a bit of cash, hassled local business for freebies and planted lots of flowers in a bit of wasteland in your community. Then got it in the paper. That type of thing.

Studes often complain that their Training contract application is exactly the same as everyone else's - it is good to do stuff for your own interests, not just because you think it will look good on an application.

Do something which shows you have some sort of staying power - it surprises me when people only do voluntary work for four weeks say - that says to me, only did it for CV. Get some sort of little vol job taking a few hours a week and do it regularly for some time.

Do some travelling! Do some sort of team-playing sport thing - law firms like that.

You need to show you are a well-rounded individual who people might want to work with so don't just try and do academic stuff - questions often say 'outside the academic arena' what have you achieved?

Good luck

Reply 3

333allicsirp

2

Original post by deborarosa

I'll be going to year 13 in September and I really want to make this summer worthwhile in terms of building up my personal statement and doing things to contribute to my future career; hopefully a lawyer!

What would you recommend are good things future lawyers should do this summer? E.g. events to go to, things to sign up for, books to read

Thanks :smile:

Hi, I recently started a Commercial Awareness blog - www.commerciallyaware.co.uk. I've just finished my first year as a Law student, so I'm not giving expert advice or opinions, but I'm hoping to make the process of finding and engaging with relevant commercial issues easier for Law students like myself. So far I've written about stuff like fracking, Scottish independence, and the Libor fixing scandal. There's also a list of helpful websites where you can find business news and information on law firms. Please let me know if you find it useful. Feedback is very much welcomed :smile:

Future Lawyers: what things should you do this summer- UNI 2015

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