Anyone done their lpc?

Aliiyn

ames100 wrote: »

Thanks Aillyn- how do you find your position?

Unfortunatly i am a year out of sync if you see what i mean, due to extra ciricular committments essays, exams, change of course structure ( i know i should have effectivly time managed) i have my lpc place yet have not started to apply for tc as i thought my window of oppurtunity had closed until the round for this year.

I think i have safely ruled out a masters now and it was something which didnt logically sit quite right with me.

Alternativly i was going to go ahead with the lpc and apply for legal aid funding but i dont like the idea of being pinned to one area of the profession, limited in terms of wages and a bit like a snake in the grass - obtaining funding and doing a runner asap! i gather this is quite competative.... what i wouldn't give for a lottery win - is it odd that its not the fact i might not have a job after but that the main obstacle is the money?!

I got my TC after doing an vacation scheme with a firm. It was a great way to get a feel for the firm and see the kind of work you'd be doing, as well as an opportunity for them to assess whether YOU'D fit in! It also meant I didn't have to go through millions of group exercises or "tell us a time when you climbed a mountain/saved orphans/hiked around Italy etc" :rolleyes: I would certainly recommend applying for some/more if you decided to take a year out! Other thing btw it is really useful for is telling how that firm differs from its rivals-this is the ONE thing our HR always bang on about. Every firm says they do good work or that they are friendly; you need to know what makes that firm special and unique.

If you did decide to defer for a year, I wouldn't worry that it would hurt your prospects. There was a girl on one of my vacation schemes who was a law student taking a year off before the LPC and she got offered a TC. Law firms are reasonable and they know how tough it is finding the money to do the LPC (which really is ludicrously expensive :eek: ). Making sure you have the money is really just financially prudent and that should surely be something they encourage! I think saying something along the lines of "I decided to take a year out before doing the LPC to travel/to make the most of my extra-curricular opportunities (especially relevant given some of the great positions of responsibility you have held)/to get more legal experience and really focus what field of law I want to work in" would stand you in good stead. What I would say is that you would need to make sure you made the most of the year; hit the milkround hard, apply for vac schemes, do local placements, keep up the extra-curriculars etc.

I was a non law student and I found I just had too much work/other opportunities in my final year to apply so took a year out. It was hard working a 9-5 and applying for jobs but I got there in the end and I'm glad I did it that way. It made me think about what law I wanted to do and kept me very focused (I WAS going to get a TC if just to escape the job I was doing!):rotfl: