People who've done law work experience?

Basically i'm doing work at a law firm now, a weeks work experience, today for eight hours i was in a room on my own sitting there putting letters into envelopes, for eight hours with basically no-one speaking to me other than "Here's another letter mate"

Please tell me it will get better?

It's pretty rubbish when you go to a local firm and you're still at school - they tend not to have the resources to give you any hands on responsibility and so unfortunately a lot of it is admin work and making lots of coffee. Stick at it though; it looks good on your personal statement and is pretty much a pre-requisite when you come to apply for your own training contracts or pupilages (assuming that's the route you go down). In the future you should probably try bigger organisations like the CPS or Court Services.

How is it a pre-requisite for training contracts or pupillages?

You need to be able to show that you have had at least some exposure to the kind of environment and work of a lawyer.

How is it a pre-requisite for training contracts or pupillages?

You need to be able to show that you have had at least some exposure to the kind of environment and work of a lawyer. I haven't applied for pupilages but as far as the TC is concerned, most firms dedicate quite a big section of their application forms to finding out about any law-related work experience which has been undertaken - a lot of firms often develop this particulat point at interview. They get hundreds of applicants per place and the interviewee who can say "I liked "x" about working for a law firm" comes over a lot better both on paper and in person that somebody who says "to be honest, I haven't got a clue what a lawyer does." Note the "pretty much" though; there are of course other ways to demonstarte knowledge of the legal industry.

I was talking to a trainee at A&O last week, who hadn't secured a Vac Scheme beforehand. Its beneficial, and well-advised, but doesn't make things impossible.

Surely law-rellated work experience such as mini pupillages and vacation schemes would be preferred over work experience done between the ages of 16-18 with hardly any exposure to law.

Making tea and photocopying is nothing compared to mini pupillages and vacation schemes so how can work experience like the aforementioned be considered a pre-requisite?

It's pretty rubbish when you go to a local firm and you're still at school - they tend not to have the resources to give you any hands on responsibility and so unfortunately a lot of it is admin work and making lots of coffee. Stick at it though; it looks good on your personal statement and is pretty much a pre-requisite when you come to apply for your own training contracts or pupilages (assuming that's the route you go down). In the future you should probably try bigger organisations like the CPS or Court Services.

Completely true and I'd be the first to admit it. A vacation scheme is considerably more difficult to get than self-organised work experience at a local firm though - and I'd be very surprised if your contact didn't have any of this. When I secured my vacation scheme at Lovells one of the reasons was because I had an extensive record of work experience which I talked in detail about at interview and was able to relate to the inevitable questions such as "why do you want to be a lawyer?"

when i did my work experience at a law firm last year after my GCSE's it was actually really good. The first day was pretty boring but they had different stuff for me to do every day. I went to the Old Bailey, got to work in the library, helped in the office of a legal executive and i was even given some mock little research tasks to do. I guess I was lucky that i had a family friend who was a solicitor in the firm. If you still wanna get some interesting work experience i could pm you thr name of the firm i did mine at.

You're most probably right, he would have got some other work experience. I didn't secure a vac scheme this summer, but I've worked at an employment law firm part and full time for two years now, and this contact said it sounds like I've done more work than him in his TC employment seat! If it wasn't for this, I would be concerned about answering those questions myself.