Training Contract Applications 2022

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It sounds ridiculous, but make sure you are answering the question asked, a lot of students write about what they want to write about (use the wording of the question if it helps - I always do!)

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If it’s a question asking you to outline the reasons you want to apply to a firm specifically, or what skills you have developed, I try and have a starting sentence outlining my rough structure e.g. ‘I was initially attracted to X due to its Y approach, the firm’s high quality of work and my experiences at the firm’s Open Day.’ The rule of three is generally good here. This can apply to most application questions.

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Don’t use flowery language that you wouldn’t use in day to day life.

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Make sure you research the firm and tailor the application, if you can put another firm’s name in its place it isn’t specific enough. I particularly see this in relation to ‘interesting work’, ‘international’ aspects and ‘high profile clients’. These reasons are mentioned but no further depth is provided. These are very good reasons to apply to law firms, but you need to say why these aspects interest you specifically and why that firm excels/is particularly appealing e.g. ‘Secondly, although many firms advise on high-profile deals, X firm advise on more Y type of client than any other law firm, setting them apart in terms of quantity and quality of client work. This standard became particularly evident when discussing the X/Y deal with Partner X…’ (go on to discuss why you found this particularly interesting).

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Start a couple of sentences with words ending in ‘-ing’ such as ‘listening’, ‘learning’ or ‘spending several weeks in X firms has taught me about….’ - this makes your application more active rather than purely descriptive (and it can vary up your sentence structure a bit more).

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Always give examples and try to quantify results - how many people attended X society’s workshop/ % increase in membership or % who found useful/very useful.

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Everything you write - be prepared to talk about - don’t write that you learnt about ‘interested in the legal and financial processes in large capital-intensive markets and challenges this poses’ if you can’t talk about it.

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Your parents/friends are invaluable for proof reading, I also like to make use of the free version of Grammarly.

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If the sentence/part of the sentence doesn’t add anything to the answer of the question, get rid of it.

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Only name drop if you learnt something from them and can write about this, and don’t name drop excessively.

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Keep it to two pages of A4 max (and don't make your font or margins noticeably small, if it looks like you're trying to take advantage of the two page limit then you probably are).

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My general structure: ‘Education’, ‘Employment and work experience’ (split this into legal and non-legal sections if you have legal experience), ‘Responsibilities, awards and achievements’ and ‘References’ (I don’t include a personal bio at the beginning or a skills section).

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I’m personally a fan of bullet points rather than prose, one of the recruitment partners at Slaughters said this was their preference.

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I wouldn’t directly reference skills outright, especially in a CV where you’re particularly limited in terms of space - I would tend to demonstrate them through my responsibilities, actions and results.

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All of my points were 2-4 bullet points:

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The first always provided context e.g. Shadowed Senior Associate X in the Y Department; full time job advising employers and learners on training courses such as X and Y

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The second and third would outline my responsibilities/actions e.g. Responsible for researching and writing a ‘X’ website article about Y; researched updates for clients regarding X and Y, focusing primarily on corporate strategy, government reports and legislative developments; ran workshops such as how to X and Y, as well as dealing with administrative paperwork

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My final bullet point would include any results, if I had any e.g. achieved X% above average for the number of successful dialogues with clients; progressed to training other members of staff; the team’s subsequent community event raised over £X for charity; nominated for X award (quantifying your results is always good if possible)

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Note: not all your work experience has to be ‘impressive’ per se - law firms took great interest in my part time job in retail and full time factory work over the summer to fund university - I think jobs like these can sometimes show more grit than others!

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Make sure to check you you’re meant to be addressing the CV to - it’ll either be to an individual or a graduate recruitment team. If it’s to a graduate recruitment team make sure you get the official title correct, as some are called Graduate Resourcing and Development teams etc. Similarly, if you’re addressing the cover letter to a woman, make sure you get the Miss/Ms/Mrs title correct. I don’t think it’d be make or break by any means, it’s just polite and preferable.

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The cover letter should be no more than a page max (I have a friend who wrote a few sentences for Slaughters and got a interview, however his CV was very impressive).

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No need for an address or any personal details, I just start with ‘Dear X’.

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Have a little intro stating what you are applying for and note your initial interest in the firm e.g. ‘I am writing to you to apply for the 2021 Training Contract. As an attendee of the X event last September, I had the opportunity to meet with representatives from Y firm and was subsequently able to meet with X at the firm, who shared his positive experiences with me’. This was an external event, not at the firm itself, the noted person was also a graduate recruitment partner so that’s the only reason I singled him out - otherwise I would be more general. If you have had any personal experiences with the firm I would highlight this in the ‘intro’/starting sentence.

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Make sure you make use of practice tests online.

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Make sure you understand the instructions and terminology e.g. probably false - more likely to be true than false.

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Quite a lot of sites will provide the reasoning behind the answers at the end of test, make sure to look at this reasoning, whether you got the question right or wrong, just so you can learn how the test ‘thinks’.

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I personally didn’t personally pay for any resources, if you are part of organisation like Rare they can provide WG practices.

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Please check your eligibility for Rare, Aspiring Solicitors, SEO, Grow Mentoring, Sutton Trust etc, I was involved with the former two and they provided invaluable advice for applications and interviews, exposure to the firms through Open Days and Rare also went above and beyond to provide me with a last minute full-day mock assessment centre in London. I’m also a mentor with Grow at the moment and anyone can sign up to be a mentee.

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If you’re in college/sixth form you can also look at PRIME for potential work experience (however I'd like to stress that PRIME, first years schemes and even vacation schemes aren't vital to securing a TC)

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Make use of podcasts on your commute/journey to university. I particularly enjoy Wake up to Money and The Bottom Line.

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Make use of online resources and social media such as The Corporate Law Academy, The Business Update and Simple Politics.

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The Chris Stoakes books are great for getting to grips with the basics.