Stumped.... What Do I Do To Get Ahead?

I'm by no means an authoritative voice on the subject, but what is your ultimate goal within the legal profession? Are you thinking of doing something non-legal?
Just out of interest, what did you get in your undergraduate degree?

My ultimate goal.... to be a solicitor. I thought you meant do you want to become a barrister or solicitor, but if not please feel free to explain. And no, I want to practice law, so I'm not thinking of going the non- legal route. But why did you ask that? Just curious. I got a 2.2 by the way. Is there no hope?

Like I said, I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty much in the same boat as you, as far as career aspirations are concerned. I don't want to risk giving out bad advice and getting told off by nulli.

That being said, not having a 2.1 may well put you at a disadvantage, unless you can demonstrate some extenuating circumstances. The Magic Circle (or at least Slaughter and May) are quite picky with their transcript averages. Arrowhead (another regular poster in Legal) said that a graduate recruiter a fair told him that if you don't have 68 or above, don't bother applying.

This doesn't rule out small to medium-sized firms, though. A lot of firms stipulate a 2.1 via an auto-rejection filter, but not all do this. Your A-level grades are also taken into consideration. What are they, if you don't mind? Also, what is your alma mater?

Edit: work experience is obviously an important factor, so you may well have the edge there, even if you haven't had a full-time position. Is there any particular reason you wanted to do a master's instead of the LPC, by the way? Did you apply for any vacation schemes or training contracts?

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I had a vacation scheme for a week at an immigration law firm when I was in my 2nd year. And I volunteered at another immigration law firm for 6 months. How about you? And I planned on doing both the LPC and a Masters, but I didn't mention that in my first post because I can't even stomach being too poor to do a Masters, not even mentioning an LPC. When you say you're in the same boat, in what way? I'm glad you brought up the issue of law firms because there seem to be very few that practice Public International Law and even those are large sized firms, which makes sense in a convoluted sort of way. Or do you know any firms which are small and practice PIL? Also, what did you think about the amnesty/ unicef thing? I know you said you're not an expert, but I'd just like to know what you think regardless. What was your uni grade , if you don't mind my asking?

Also, who's nulli?

nulli's a qualified lawyer who posts here.

Well, clearly you're in a better position than me on the work experience front. I have a 2-week placement in a hospital charity, and that's it.
I meant it in the sense that I'm also intending to become a solicitor, although my circumstances are somewhat different; the main one is that I don't study an LLB. I'm an English Lit finalist at Liverpool. I haven't graduated, yet, but I'm on course for a 1st. I have some VS apps currently stewing for which I've yet to have responses. My initial plan was not to do the GDL until I had a TC, but given the recalcitrance of these firms, plunging straight into it seems more and more tempting. I'm not at a 'target' uni, either, so that might make it even harder to get into one of the bigger firms. We all have our obstacles. My main problem is trying to convince firms that I want to do law when I have 0 experience, and don't have a degree in it. If I'm completely unlucky this cycle, I'll just paralegal (if I can get a position) and volunteer; I'd recommend these to you, as well.

I'm sure you could tie in volunteering with your career aspirations quite easily. If you go on www.lawcareers.net, you'll see a list of firms, and also the strands of law in which they're based (family, litigation etc.) There are other helpful websites, such as the Legal 500, and ChambersStudent.

I'd recommend talking to HR about your 2.2 specifically at firms to which you intend to apply, and see what they say.

Thanks. Do you know how I can contact nulli?

Also, I know a girl who's done her GDL after doing a non law degree (I think it was history). And she volunteered at the same firm as I did. She's been there for about 6 months now. So you could do the same thing. I know its sounds awful, but that's the only way she was able to get any experience. She's waitressing as well part time, but she wants to work in immigration so she's hoping the firm she's currently working at gives her a permanent job.

Send him/ her (I don't actually know) a pm? Alternatively, I can do this.



I don't mind volunteering, but I'll have to see what happens after graduation. My uni's having a grad fair, so I might find an opportunity or two. I'm not actually sure which strand of law I want to go into, which made my VS cover letters even harder to write. I'll just have to wait and see.

How did you do that? I can't see an actual post by nulli. I can only see your quote of nulli's smiley but thats it. How does that work?Also, what kind of firms are you applying to?

I just found an old post, copy-pasted into my dialogue box, and replaced the original content. Unless I did it incorrectly, it should send a notification.

I posted in the VS thread, but I applied to Wilsons, Marriott Harrison, Berg, Field Seymour Parkes, and Birkett Long, primarily.

I got a rejection from Wilsons, but it was sort of surreal, in that I barely remembered making the application. I found the application form I supposedly sent to them just this morning, and I honestly don't even remember filling it out. The other 4 were just CV+ cover letter ordeals. Nothing too strenuous.

I'll be crying into my pillow when I get 5/5 rejections, though.

That may not happen, you know . Are you taking a part - time job at all? Also, tell me about studying English Lit. What's it like? And did you always want to study law, or did you discover while taking English Lit. that it wasn't for you?

Like I said, I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty much in the same boat as you, as far as career aspirations are concerned. I don't want to risk giving out bad advice and getting told off by nulli.

That being said, not having a 2.1 may well put you at a disadvantage, unless you can demonstrate some extenuating circumstances. The Magic Circle (or at least Slaughter and May) are quite picky with their transcript averages. Arrowhead (another regular poster in Legal) said that a graduate recruiter a fair told him that if you don't have 68 or above, don't bother applying.

This doesn't rule out small to medium-sized firms, though. A lot of firms stipulate a 2.1 via an auto-rejection filter, but not all do this. Your A-level grades are also taken into consideration. What are they, if you don't mind? Also, what is your alma mater?

Edit: work experience is obviously an important factor, so you may well have the edge there, even if you haven't had a full-time position. Is there any particular reason you wanted to do a master's instead of the LPC, by the way? Did you apply for any vacation schemes or training contracts?

Hi Guys, I'm wondering if you can help. I have a huge problem.

I've done my LLB in Law and I wanted to do a Masters in Public International Law. However, I don't have the funding for this so I decided to get a job and pay through the post grad degree. That was a year and a half ago. I have been unable to find a job since then. I have had a few temporary jobs, but obviously they didn't last. So no job = no masters degree.

In addition, I have absolutely no idea how to go about getting a career in International Law. I asked a teacher at my university but his reply was that I shouldn't go into it because it is a very difficult field to get into. Now I'm stuck with absolutely no idea where to head off next. A lot of people say join Amnesty, UNICEF etc. That makes perfect sense, but the only vacancy I have seen in Amnesty is a Coffee Shop volunteer. There's another opening for fundraising in UNICEF, but are either of these going to help advance my career in that field of law or look good on my CV ? So should I start there in the hopes of working my way up the ladder, or look for something else?
I read a few articles in the papers recently that are practically begging people to come on board the international jobs route, join the EU Commission and all that, but it still comes back to the same thing. No money. A lot of it seems to be self - funded, and like I said I haven't been able to find even a job in McDonald's. Everyone and their baby wants experience ,and I've only ever studied law so I truthfully don't have any. And I can't even apply for benefits because I traveled a few months back (an aunt paid for me to come visit her) and apparently you can't get any welfare if you traveled in the past 2 years or something.

So really I'm at my wits end. Can anyone offer any help?

I agree, I think that a 2.2 would be a stretch for the MC. From my own experience, at Freshfields, a surprising number of the trainees (that I met) had 1st's and/or grad degrees. I've been told that Linklaters gets up to 4,000 applications for TCs so I suppose they can afford to be picky!

However, that's not to say that a 2.1 isn't enough. I was on the Slaughters vac scheme and plenty of people on it had/expected to get a 2.1. I agree that work experience and extracurriculars are increasingly important. I wouldn't take too much notice of Arrowhead's statement that you need 68 or above for Slaughters. I think he was maybe a little bitter, as they were the only MC firm that didn't reject him outright.