In the second part of the career series for law students, I want to talk about work experience. With the current climate it may feel at times that it is impossible to get any experience in the field of study you are interested in. However, there are so many exciting opportunities available to you from the comfort of your room.
Virtual internships:
There are plenty of law firms who have adopted the scheme of offering online internships that can be completed virtually. These give participants the chance to experience what a day in the life of a lawyer working with their firm would be like. Stepping into their shoes and experiencing the work load and style of cases the firm deals with day to day. You are supported and guided throughout the experience by senior lawyers and trainees completing tasks. The best part of it all is that you can complete the tasks at your own pace…with no time limit. It works around your uni life while still being invaluable experience for life as a lawyer…and looks great on your CV and training contract applications.
Examples include: Clifford Chance, Internship Experience UK, J. P. Morgan, Bright Network and many more… So keep an eye out for opportunities throughout the year.
Social media advisor:
Through social media, many students have been creating accounts that offer advice to current law students or those applying for vacation schemes, internships, post grads, training contracts, pupillages etc.
Although not for everyone, it is a great way to demonstrate your passion for a career in law and also improves your knowledge of the application process when helping to advise others.
Brand ambassador:
So many websites out there have been created to improve your commercial awareness, offering bitesized posts of information that keep you up to date with what is going on in the world. These sites sometimes offer exciting opportunities to join their team as brand ambassadors. Becoming a brand ambassador helps encourage your commercial awareness – an essential skill required by almost all law firms but often difficult to understand what it really is or how to improve it – I will talk about this more in my next blog.
Mini courses/certifications:
Certifications showcasing your ability to carry out legal research and legal writing demonstrate to future employers your excellent skillset and capabilities. Lexis Nexis offer foundation and advanced certifications to demonstrate your ability to research to a very high standard using their legal search engine. The test takes no time at all and the results are released immediately with a downloadable certificate to be used on LinkedIn or legal CVs!
There are also courses available to demonstrate your dedications to learning how to draft legal documents and improve administration skills through legal writing or secretary courses, giving you a booster for your CV.
In my next blog, I will be sharing knowledge about how to improve your commercial awareness, recommending various sites, competitions or pages that will help you to do this and give you a competitive edge over other law firm or pupillage applications…