Personal Statement for Law School Tips

First things first, where are you applying to? Some places expect different levels of quality than some others. Also, is it straight law? Or is it law and something else?

Oooh I'm applying to Durham too! What college are you going for?

What I did was my personal statement was purely academic. I spoke about stuff outside of my subjects such as extra reading and any lectures or courses I've gone to.

I used this layout

Intro
•Speak about why you want to study law, make it personal/anecdotal

Main Body
This could vary depending on how much you've done

Paragraph 1: Outside reading/lectures
•Speak about something you've done/an article you've read/lecture you have attended.
•Talk about why it interested you
•Link it to Law by saying how it's encouraged you to develop further at degree level.

Paragraph 2: Any more wider reading/short courses/work experience (if relevant)
•follow the same structure used in paragraph one

Paragraph 3: A Levels
•Make sure when you talk about A Levels, it is revelant to why you want to study law.
•You don't need to talk about transferable skills, it can be seen through your predicted grades, courses, reference, LNAT score and the way you write.
Example: English Literature = translates my love for reading into critical analysis and linguistic skills. Also was given opportunities to read and interpret a variety of texts reflects how the law lords interpret texts in order to charge people and determine whether an act is constitutional or not
Ngl I wrote exactly that in my personal statement so I'm on dangerous ground here

Paragraph 4: Extra Curriculars (optional)
•This should be your shortest paragraph 3-4 lines max
•You don't need to go into much detail at all
•You don't need to include it. It can always be put on your reference instead

Conclusion: Why you want to study law
•Here you can go off and refer to any areas of law you want to specialise in
•Just highlight that a strong law degree at a good uni would enhance career prospects

Recommended texts and stuff
Eve was framed: feminist criticism of the law. You don't need to read all of it (You can even read the preview online to get a flavour of what it's about. But it's an amazing read and great to talk about)

Courses on Future Learn: I never finished mine but you get the gist really quickly and it's quite easy to talk about

Gun laws in the US: Quite an easy one to research and talk about. Quite topical today

Case of Lavinia Woodward: She's an Oxford student who stabbed her boyfriend but she avoided jail because she was smart and they didn't want to damage her career prospects - can also refer to Eve was framed when talking about it.

There's quite a lot more things you can talk about if you need it but that could be enough. I didn't want to give to much away otherwise I'd end up accidentally posting the whole of my personal statement on here but I hope this is enough help for you. The unis you're applying to are quite competitive and you'll be against people who are private schooled and got their statement written for them so try to keep yours as academic as possible!

You don't need to talk about your A Levels - you should focus on your interest in law, through things like extra reading