Vac Scheme: First Rejection

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lawstudent2005

I have to agree, the "why law / why this firm" questions are the most difficult to get right.

I would much appreciate it if anyone would read an answer that i've written, just to see whether it comes off well and if/where any improvements could be made. Please tell me if you'd be happy to do this, and I'll PM it to you (obviously don't want to put it where everyone including recruiters could see it!).

Thanks.

Reply 21

rah2

Manatee

I would try to be even more specific than that - i.e. why law rather than, say, accountancy? What draws you to the sort of work lawyers do every day?

To be honest, I don't know where you got the idea of more flexible hours or decent colleagues. The law has its share of unpleasant people like any other profession, and the hours (unless perhaps you work for the Government Legal Service) are no more flexible than elsewhere. Or perhaps they are - they certainly often stretch well beyond 5.30.

Remember that the interviewer will not want to hear that you want to work for them because you think it will give you skills which will enable you to find a job elsewhere. Similarly, mentioning flexible working hours will probably not go down well since most firms expect their lawyers to work whatever hours are required.

9 - 7.30 doesn't daunt me, 7.20 - 10 for IB certainly does :wink:

By flexibility I meant more that you aren't necessarily required to be chained to your desk all day, to be seen to be making the hours. At CC for example it seemed to be just about acceptable to take an hour off during the day to pop downstairs to the gym without encuring the wrath of the partners.

In terms of decent colleagues, by that I meant that the vast majority of people/partners/applicants/trainees i've met have been people I could see myself getting on with. In comparison to those I met at the big4 accountancy firms say, they seemed to have a lot more about them and generally seemed more interesting.

This might just be all just be personal perspective though.

First point you made is very relevant though...

Edit: oh and lawstudent feel free to send me what you've got, be warned, i'm known to be harsh by friends who ask me to edit their essays, hopefully i can make a few useful points :smile:

Reply 22

lawstudent2005

rah2

Edit: oh and lawstudent feel free to send me what you've got, be warned, i'm known to be harsh by friends who ask me to edit their essays, hopefully i can make a few useful points :smile:

rah2, you have mail.

Thanks for taking a look :smile:

Reply 23

chalks

Lawstudent - I'm happy to take a look (my "flexible" working hours permitting of course).

Reply 24

Tricia Rooney

niksip

I’d be really grateful if someone could outline exactly what a commercial lawyer does

It is probably very difficult to find out what a 'commercial lawyer' is because they don't exist. A person who says he is a 'commercial lawyer' is lying, there is no such thing as 'commerical law' - its just a term used for describing concepts and areas of law - such as intellectual property.

Obviously, don't tell a commercial lawyer that they don't exist as this will be a major faux pas! :wink:

Its pretty much the same as all of the graduate recruitment officers looking for 'commercial awareness' in training contract applicants - I don't think anyone has a clue what this actually means! (it certainly doesn't mean that he/she must have studied commercial law)

Reply 25

chalks

At its simplest, a commercial lawyer is someone who acts for corporate entities rather than individuals. Whilst that is not strictly true, it is good enough for these purposes.

Companies have the same requirements and problems as individuals. Companies need to raise money - accordingly there are "commercial lawyers" who specialise in banking. Companies need to expand - there are lawyers who specialise in corporate takeovers and mergers. Companies have disputes - there are commercial litigation lawyers. You can work out the rest!

Commercial awareness means having an understanding of the business world and the environment in which companies operate.