Summer Work (experience at Law firm)

sahun

i am looking to study law at university but obviously need endless amounts of experience.

what i am looking for is if anyone can recommend Law firms in the Mansfield, Woksop, Nottingham area that would be good for gaining this experience.
i would like to be able to see how a Law firm works and how they handle the different areas of Law and the different types of cases within these areas.

If anyone knows someone that works in a Law firm, and can strongly recommend their firm, by 'know someone that works in a Law firm' i do not just mean your solicitor/barrister/ etc. but maybe a member of family or family friend that may have a high reputation for work experience candidates.

As much help as poosible on this topic would be extremely greatful as i do not really know where i could look for this.

Thank you

manyshadesofbrown

I study law (2nd year) at SOAS. It helps if you know what kind of experience you are looking for, whether its high street or commercial practice etc. What I recommend (I guess your in lower VIth) is to map out the industry first as it is very wide.

Experience at this stage is not massively important, what is important is a dedicated and genuine interest in the subject. This can be shown by work experience but it may also be helpful to make a trip to the law faculty at Nottingham and see if you can talk to one of the lecturers, perhaps in a subject region you are interested in, e.g. family law, and try and get a feeling for this dynamic subject. This will be reflected in your personal statement.

When I applied to SOAS I had no experience whatsoever and I still managed to secure a place on this exclusive course.

However, I do not want to undermine the importance of work experience in law, if you can get a good placement, seize any opportunities. I wish you the best of luck. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. If anyone disagrees with what I am saying, I also welcome your contributions.

Raquela

I am also a second year law student... at Nottingham no less. The best thing I can advise you to do is use the yellow pages to find solicitors / barristers in the area, and offer yourself up for shadowing. This will give you a bit of experience and look great on your ucas entry form. Also, make sure you go on some court visits - sit in the public gallery at the crown, county and magistrates courts.

There is a wealth of info out there.. https://www.lawcareers.net, I use and is fantastic. Don't think it has a regional search on it tho.

digp

1) try the legal500.com
2) try chambers and partners guide

sahun

Thank you for giving me your opinions and help in this matter, it has definatly opened my eyes to how to go about this course, and how other people have done it.

The reason i ask about getting the work experience is because the UCAS adviser at school recommended that we got as much as possible, and to attend any Law courses which are available (but monetary problems arise here!)

'manyshadesofbrown' yes i am in my lower VI year (year 12) and we have been told that we need to start getting experience etc. now for the courses but i can see that some people do not actually get any experience. I intend to aim for a highly academic university (i am not saying that SOAS is not highly academic) but at the moment i am aiming for Cambridge, so therefore i need as much as possible to put into my personal statement to show that i want to read Law because my GCSE grades were not the best!

Bossyboots

If you have an area of law you are interested in you can go to the Law Society website and access their solicitors on line directory. You can put into that the area of law and geographical area and it will give you a list of appropriate solicitors. Send your CV and covering letter to all of them. Be prepared to do anything. My friend is a barrister. While at Uni he did work experience in a law firm on and off for about five years. In that time he was office junior, office secretary, outdoor clerk and basically anything else he was asked to do. If you can make yourself a worthwhile contributor to a company, they will ask you back. You also enhance your chances of getting a training contract further down the line.

Outdoor clerking is an area where many firms are desperately in need. (If anyone wants to know what this is I will explain but I don't want to patronise anyone by doing it if you already know).

sahun

Sorry i do not understand what 'outdoor clerking' is so please explain. And also, this may sound stupid, what do you mean by covering letter? is that just the same as a letter of application?

Sadly i do not actually know the area of Law in which i am interested at the moment, which is obviously going to be a very big problem!

What is the 'law society' website? or is it the same as the lawcareers.net?

thank you for the help,

anymore suggestions then please give them

skiddy2k

Have you tried your universities careers service?
they can help you find any jobs in that area or sector.

Skiddy

Bossyboots

sahun wrote:

Sorry i do not understand what 'outdoor clerking' is so please explain. And also, this may sound stupid, what do you mean by covering letter? is that just the same as a letter of application?

Sadly i do not actually know the area of Law in which i am interested at the moment, which is obviously going to be a very big problem!

What is the 'law society' website? or is it the same as the lawcareers.net?

thank you for the help,

anymore suggestions then please give them

I think you need to do a lot more research on your chosen profession. The Law Society is the governing body of solicitors and set down the rules by which law firms operate. They have a website which contains pretty much all the information you would need.

To find the law firms in a particular area you need this section http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/findasolicitor.law.

By covering letter, I mean a letter with your CV introducing yourself and asking whether they would be willing to let you shadow or do some work experience. Do not pretend you are familiar with a firm and have heard great things about them and you really want to go there (unless it is true). This always sounds false and patronising. Just explain why you would be keen to get some experience. Do not just send your CV. As you don't know what area of law you would like to work in, just take what experience you can. This will help focus your mind as you will soon find some areas more appealing than others.

Outdoor clerking is where you attend court with a barrister to take notes on behalf of the solicitors firm instructing said barrister. You act as a buffer between the barrister and the solicitors office if any info needs to be obtained and also as a buffer between the barrister and client. You are also there to support the client so it is a dual role. You need to be able to take comprehensive legible notes.

You also need good people skills and a good attitude.

pin

Hi

Glad to see you are showing so much interest in the law so early on.

Are you looking to be a corporate lawyer doing stuff like mergers or more of a high street lawyer dealing with stuff like local companies and conveyancing?

At your age in terms of working in a law firm you will probably be able to get a few weeks unpaid work experience at a local law firm. See if you college / school has any links with a local law firm. You will probably be able to shadow a lawyer to see what sort of work goes on and maybe read some of the files the lawyer is working on.

Apart from that you will be given general "grunt" work. This can range from photocopying, page counting (which is exactly what it means, counting pages), filing, delivering documents, stuffing enovolopes, basically anything that the office has avaialbe for you to do.

OK what is the Law Society. It is the body that regulates solicitors in England and Wales. The Bar Council regulates Barristers.

Universities. Cambridge is problably one of the best. However I should also point out SOAS is pretty damn good as well, has a very good international reputation.

Anymore questions please feel free to ask (btw I'm a lawyer).

sahun

At the moment i am still unsure of what type of Law i was intending to go for!
Supposably i am actually late in starting to look up and find out about law, according to school UCAS adviser, because one of the candidates was preparing for law for 4 years bu because of this he got into Oxford. Personally i am aiming for Cambridge but i am struggling because did not get the grades at GCSE, which are important.

the problem with getting work experience through school is that it does not show initiative, supposably, because i did that summer just gone worked for a week in a firm, but i just followed the junior secretary around, which i felt did not really show me how the law actually works (obviously it is not possible to gain all that from one visit but i went expecting more than what i recieved, i thought that maybe i would have shadowed a solicitor.)

bossyboots: i have only just really started looking, properly, into what happens in law i have not looked in depth about the different departments which make it work etc. but obviously from asking questions on here i am finding out some of the simple stuff that i need, so i don;t just dive into the deep stuff without having a clue what i'm looking at.

thank you alot for your help pin because it is very good to talk to a lawyer seeing as you have actually gone through all the rhythms, and stress. A little question, did you doi the 'law' course or did you go via a conversion course?
it also sounds like you know about universities, would you be able to, if possible, to give me a list of a few universities which are notable for their law course, being reputable, because i have a list of the top 'fifteen' universities but these are just general and not specific to just law.

All the help given is very useful because i am leanring from all the posts on what i need to do and how othe people go/went about it.

offer more input if anyone has any please