TC Deadlines Looming

If any of you lovely lot are subscribed to the All About Law mailing list you will have received an email about Training Contract deadlines this morning. In it, AAL claim that out of 200 law students only 36 will secure a TC this year. That's a mere 18% (that's as advanced as my maths gets...). So what are you doing to make yourself one of the 'chosen ones' this year? Here is my strategy...

Whittle it down to 30 firms

I genuinely cannot endorse Lawcareers.net enough for this little tip. Their Training Contract search tool is amazing for whittling down those firms that match your criteria. Whether its location, pay or start date you can find the firms that meet your needs. Don't forget, applying for a TC is as much about what you want as it is about what the firms want. 

I have found that using these broad search techniques in just the right way, you can get a list of around 40 firms that would be suitable. Now have a little browse through and get rid of about 10-20 firms that are slightly less desirable to you, leaving you with a nice 20-30 firms left.

Research and Cull!

Now to research! This will involve getting the firm's website up (assuming they have one) and having a good old nosey around. Always have in your head what YOU are looking for. Be ruthless now, you really should be looking to have around 10 final choices. I have heard untold amounts of horror stories during university of students applying to upwards of 50 firms (even in the hundreds) and not getting a single interview. Stop wasting your time, success is not found in sheer quantity. 

I find the key areas to at look are:

• Areas of work: if you are keen to get into an area of law make sure the firm you are applying to actually covers this area. This is particularly important if you interesting in a niche area of law. Simple enough.
• The firm's ethos: I recently had a discussion with a fellow student about our dream careers. She was adamant that she will work 16 hour days and forgo a relationship and family in order to reach 'the top'. On the other hand, I want a job that allows me to have a social life. I don't want to be leaving the office at 5, but I certainly won't be a regular in the 'burning-the-midnight-oil' club. Do some research about what each firm expects from it's trainees. 
• Trainee benefits: I would be lying if I said the salary and benefits do not matter. Of course they do! However, these are of varying importance to the individual. There are two things to bear in mind here. First, be realistic. The SRA has removed the minimum trainee salary and it's a very real possibility that you could be earning less than £20k in your first year. Look objectively at your qualifications and experience and choose firms you genuinely think you have a shot at. Obviously, it is also wise to have a couple of 'dream' firms in your 10 but don't let a first year salary of £35,000 completely dictate where you apply to. Second, set a minimum amount in your head that you would accept. I have done a full spreadsheet of outgoings and calculated how much would be the absolute minimum I could live off (in case you're interested it is £16k) bearing in mind having some money to have fun with! Any firms below this threshold you should seriously consider disregarding. Other trainee benefits, such as pension, access to a gym/creche, discounted legal rates are worth considering too. 

Make detailed notes during this process. Once you have researched all the firms try and put them in some sort of order of preference. The first 10 are your chosen firms - congratulations!

Law Fairs

Now you can begin the further research. Find out when these firms are attending career fairs and go along. Get chatting, ask questions, make contacts. Keep your ears open for news about your chosen firms. Jiggle your preference list around accordingly and keep making notes!

Applications

I have been doing the above process for the last 6 months so I am now fully prepared to begin my applications. There are 14 weeks until the general TC deadline. This means, 1 application per week and 4 free weeks for revision/exams. Perfect! 

My first application will be to my least favourite firm (sorry!) This method will ensure that you have gotten enough practice by the final application that your best effort will go to your most desired firm. This is the time to utilise your university careers service. Complete an application, make an appointment and take it along. Their feedback will be invaluable and could be the key to getting that interview.

Let me know how you all get on. I will be posting about my experience of aptitude tests soon. Good luck!

Career Decisions

Whether you are an LLB fresher on the starting line of the legal career race, or a hardened Trainee who has finally secured that coveted Training Contract, you will undoubtedly be aware of the seemingly endless career decisions and worries involved in a legal career. I thought I would use this blog to reflect back on some of the best and worst decisions that I have made over the past 5 years and wonder at all the infinite "shoulda, woulda, coulda"s.

The Decision To Do All My Lectures At Home

At my University all lectures were available online, both audio recordings and slides, and I took the decision in my first year that attending University for the purpose of lectures was simply not an efficient or effective use of my time. Of course, neither was Jeremy Kyle, beer gardens and an extra couple of hours sleep in the morning but apparently these were overlooked in the "time-wasting-activities" cull. The result? Minimum lectures completed and a serious gap in the majority of my legal knowledge. 

BAD DECISION

(n.b. I also employed this tactic in my second and third years at uni but, appealing to my love of organisation, created a colour coded chart and ticked them off as I went- GOOD DECISION)

The Decision To Apply For Every Legal Work Placement/Experience Going

I feel very privileged to be able to say that I have had no less than 6 opportunities to gain experience in the legal sector. From 6 weeks full time and unpaid court clerking to 6 months as a paid legal assistant I have definitely grabbed every opportunity that has come my way. My advice: apply for anything and everything. How will you know what you like until you've had a little taster. Couldn't think of anything worse than a corporate firm in the big smoke? Try it! Convinced you want to work in legal aid? Intern at a high street firm. Obviously, once you have really decided, it would be wise to get experience in that area, but until then, have a little dabble. You might surprise yourself.

GOOD DECISION

The Decision To Not Apply For Training Contracts Until My First Year of LPC

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I think my trail of thought here was that I would be far more experienced by the time I had started the LPC and would therefore be more desirable to firms. However, this has actually equated to financial difficulty and yet another year before I can actually start my dream job! Had I secured a TC before the LPC it may have been funded by my firm and possibly even a maintenance grant too. My electives could have been directed by the firm in line with their needs rather than me second guessing what this imaginary employer might want. On the other hand, I am now much more certain about the areas of law I am interested in and so this will mean I am a stronger and more passionate interviewee. I have also been able to work through my LPC so have that great work experience that is oh-so-valuable to firms. Peaks and troughs. 

GOOD AND BAD DECISION

The Decison To Study At The University of Law (Formerly College of Law)

I would never in a million years change this decision. I cannot fault my LPC provider and absolutely love the course, the tutors and the campus. Biased you say? Me? Never!

GOOD DECISION

And since a lot of my decisions seem to have come out as good, I thought I would share a few generally bad decisions:

• Revising Equity and Trusts 24 hours before the exam
• Nattering in class so that when you are asked a question and your friend whispers in your aid "Pompeii", you confidently shout "Bombay"
• Walking out of the Public Law exam an hour before the end 
• Failing to employ the handbrake after parking in the student car park and returning to find your car had rolled into another parked car
• Pairing up with a student known for truanting, leaving you to plan, prepare and perform your entire EU Law presentation alone
• Missing every single Lexis and Westlaw sessions in your first year so that your idea of research involves Google, Wikipedia and the Core Text Book (if they're lucky)
• Vending machine soup. Always, always a terrible decision.

Results: PLR and Wills

I haven't written for a while. I think, after the catastrophe of the BLP exams I have been in a bit of a perpetual bad mood when it comes to the LPC. I met with friends on the first day back after exams and we had a big coffee catch up, dissecting every bit of those awful exams. We all came to the conclusion that, although we felt we were not fairly informed about the exams, what's done is done and it is time to move on. 

I have now completed 3 of my Employment elective workshops and all of the Solicitors Accounts workshops. I must say, they have been a joy! The sun has begun to shine, spring had sprung and there is definitely an air of new beginnings. 

So lets get down to business. Results. 

They were released on 18 April at 2:00pm. I was eagerly logging in before this but, alas, no luck. I logged in at 2:01 and there sat my transcript PDF to download. After 10 minutes of hovering the mouse over the 'open' button I finally did it. 

Results:

PLR - Competent 

Wills - 100%

Yes, folks, I GOT 100% IN MY WILLS EXAM! Absolutely ecstatic and just the boost I need to reinvigorate me for the final push.

But for now... back to business.... 

BLP Exam

I am writing this post purely out of duty. I am really quite deflated following the BLP exam so I will explain in bullet points.

Written exam:

• I couldn't sleep due to nerves and took the exam on just 30 minutes kip (not even exaggerating, my alarm went off just as I went into that lovely dreamy phase just before falling to sleep properly)
• I took a wrong turn on the way to the exam and ended up sitting in traffic for about 40 minutes before I could turn off and go back. I therefore turned up to Guildford running late and had 10 minutes to get to the room.
• Despite 2 weeks solid studying, I felt underprepared and not exactly confident, which does not bode well for morale! For whatever reason, lack of sleep/panic, I felt unable to think clearly and on a couple occasions found myself 10 minutes into a question and realising I had missed a vital, answer-changing piece of info, and then having to begin again.
• ....This then resulted in an approximately 30 minute answer time deficit. I did two questions (worth 18 marks, 22% of the paper) in the remaining 40 minutes. And felt shockingly terrible about it. 

I think what has made this whole thing worse is the fact that I got 72% on the mock. I re-took the mock during my revision and got 84%. I also did the specimen paper in exam conditions and got 79%. You can understand my frustration as I am quite sure I will not be getting a distinction in the BLP written paper. 

MCQs:

• More sleep this time! Phew!
• However, HUGE fatal error. At the beginning of the Introduction to Professional Practice course we spent 2 workshops on balance sheets and liquidity, using the Solicitors Accounts textbook. Since then, these workshops haven't been mentioned and so I never thought to bring these notes or textbook to the BLP exam. This was also due to the fact we are doing a whole module next term on Solicitors Accounts. Shame that 5/15 of the questions were on balance sheets.....Yes, you heard right, a quarter of the paper based on only 2 out of 22 workshops. I could have kicked myself! I had done so well in those workshops and could have easily answered those questions with my notes.

Predictions:

Wills: 70%

BLP written: 55%

BLP MCQs: 60%

Jobs and Juries

So this week has been mainly focused on revision and work. Nothing much to report! However, there are two things I feel the need to blog about. First, my growing unhappiness at my current job. Second, the story in this weeks news about the Vicky Pryce jury. 

"Find something you love to do and you will never have to work a day in your life"

I feel uneasy and unsettled. The last 5 years of my life have been all consumed with getting THAT legal job, just a foot in the door, "just someone give me a chance!" 

As you may know, last summer I was lucky enough to land a summer placement doing commercial work with a large in-house corporation which led on to a part time job on a temporary contract until December. Imagine my delight! This, in turn, allowed me to get another part time job working reception at a small high street firm. I thought all my Christmases had come at once. The dream I have never dared to pin any certainty on seemed to be happening and I begun to wonder if a TC could be possible. 

Fast forward 3 months.

I don't feel fulfilled. I don't feel hopeful. I don't feel happy. And it's the job. Without being too dramatic, I am genuinely questioning every career choice I have made in my short time since school and wondering if law is even for me. Ever since starting at my current work I have hardly been welcome. One particular partner is pretty horrendous to me and barks criticisms every time I work. I attended the Christmas office party in skinny jeans and a pretty top, having been told by my fellow admin staff the dress code was smart-casual, only to be met by the whole office in black tie. I have had numerous notes sellotaped to my desk regarding the way I work (trivial things like hand writing size), but with no names so that I can't follow it up. I am finding it difficult. In response to this I have shrunk into my shell and tried to have as little interaction with certain people as possible. Counterproductive? I have since heard that the partner who has a particular dislike for me has told a number of secretaries that I am "too quiet" with "not much to say". I cannot win and I dread work every week. 

It is possible that I am maybe not right for law? Academically I am well suited. But we all know that it takes more than that. A partner at a firm I did 3 months work experience with in my third year told me he thought I had great potential so why have I gone so wrong here? Just bad luck?

"Death by Ridicule"

Yes, that is apparently the fate of the jury in the Vicky Pryce trial who, during 2 days of deliberations, submitted no less than 10 questions to the judge in what was described as a simple trial. This story has really caught my attention and is under bitter scrutiny by many legal writers. Some see this as evidence of a jury system functioning how it should: asking for clarity in order to come to a legally safe verdict. Others see this as devastatingly worrying evidence of a system allowing people, who may not reach a basic threshold of intellectual ability, to be involved in such a complex and life-changing process. 

I am a staunch advocate of our adversarial system and the jury that comes hand in hand. Who can possibly be better to make such decisions than 12 different people from different walks of life, unbiased to the legal system? How else could we better avoid corruption in such decisions or undue influences from people on the "inside"? (my conspiracy theory side running away a little bit!). 

However, we cannot hide from the points this case raises. I could possibly be swayed into thinking that an aptitude test might be appropriate. If we can be convinced that a jury possess basic literacy/numeracy and analysis skills, would that not solve the problem? But then what about a human rights... would subjecting members of the public to such tests be a little invasive and embarrassing- as well as time consuming and expensive. Equally, we cannot sit back and do nothing. It is not sufficient for the fate of those on the stand to be in some kind of "jury lottery" in which when you lose, you lose big.  What does that mean for consistency and certainty of the application of our criminal law. 

Some have suggested an opt in system- you opt in to jury service and take aptitude tests in order to be entered onto a waiting list. Personally, I think this will alienate a large slice of society. A compulsory jury service plucks people from all backgrounds, many of whom might be unlikely to sign up to such a process. Might a voluntary jury be filled with middle class intellectuals? Lawyers, accountants, doctors... with the less intellectuals or most wealthy sections of society being excluded. 

Alternatively, the most complex legal cases could be reserved for decision by a panel of judges. This of course removes the problem of the need for intellectual testing but then what about the idea enshrined in our system of a lay jury deciding on a person's guilt. Could this just open up a can of worms for the appeal courts?

Clearly the issue is a difficult one to solve, but it would seem that some kind of reform is on the horizon. I watch with baited breath. 

Wills and Administration of Estates exam

Friday was the day of the Wills exam. It was a one hour MCQ paper and, to be honest, I was way too chilled out about it. I didn't begin my revision until Wednesday and even then it was slow paced. In my defence, I do prepare really well for the workshops so there was no missed reading/i-tutorials to catch up on. 

My lack of preparation only dawned on me at 6:00pm on Thursday evening when I achieved exactly 50% in the past exam paper online. Wills is marked on a fail/pass basis and so anything over 50% is irrelevant anyway, but I felt extremely uncomfortable that I had only scraped a pass. Cue panic. Needless to say, much cramming was had that evening and I arrived at 8am on Friday morning to do some final preparation with my friends. Cue second panic when I realised I had overlooked some quite vital consolidation work at the back of the Wills work book pack. I quickly completed the tasks, marked it and achieved... 56%. Oh lord. I worked through my errors and made notes of where I had gone wrong before we quickly headed off to the exam. 

Cue third panic when I sit down to realise the MCQ answer paper can only be marked in pencil and guess what? I had no pencils. A quick scout around sorted me out, and it wasn't a big deal, but I loathe to feel unprepared. Feeling panicked is a terrible way to begin an exam. I actually took a year out between my first and second years at uni but had left in January so when I returned I had to be manually entered onto the university data system. This genuinely caused me no end of problems: I wasn't on teacher email lists/registers, my electronic submission of assignments was not sent to tutors, I had no online timetable so received no change of time/room/etc notifications.... the list goes on. Anyway this all came to a head when the exams rolled around. Land law was first and as soon as I turned up to the exam I realised I hadn't been allocated a seat. I followed the people with the land law statute books to the main hall and explained my problem. Luckily they seated me at a spare desk at the back and put the relevant papers on my desk. Property Law. Hmmmm. Something didn't feel right. But I sat there until the exam started and opened my paper. It wasn't the same format as the past papers. Something definitely wasn't right. My tutor was stood at the back so I caught his eye and ushered him over:

"Am I in the right exam?"

"Err I'm not sure... are you in my property law class?"

"Yes I'm in your land law class"

"OHHH! No, land law is the the small hall at the other side of the building!"

Turns out, because I had already begun the land law course, all of us that had intermitted half way through the year were on the old version of the course and were taking a different exam. I ran to the small hall and explained I had no desk etc. I was eventually seated and achieved a 61 in that exam. But I genuinely believe to this day that the panic and anxiety I felt at the beginning of that exam affected my overall result. 

I digress. 

So I started the wills exam in a bit of a tizz. Luckily, there were't any questions I felt really really out of my depth with and I am hopeful that I will have passed. With BLP exams in 2 weeks, my terrible revision for wills has definitely made me realise I must be much more on the ball. Bring on the revision.

Beware the Partner

So this week we had the final workshops for the Business Law and Practice module. It was bitter sweet. We now have exams to face and then when we return our group will be split up for our electives, and I must admit I have made some good friends in this current class so I will be sad not to have workshops with them all. 

With all that said, this post will be less focused on the LPC and more about our (hopeful) future lives as trainees! I have been considering writing something like this for a while but was finally convinced to do it following some conversations that were had in class this week. So, this post is dedicated to...

The Partner. 

I myself have only come into contact with a limited number of partners, so please excuse the gaps in 'partner' information. If you have any stories of your own please feel free to comment :) 

We all know that The Partner holds the key to your future success. Whether it's getting on that first vacation scheme, or getting that promotion you've been slogging away at for the past 3 years- The Partner is the guy (or gal!) you need to impress. So who is The Partner? What makes him/her tick? More importantly, what do you need to do to win The Partner over? Read on at your own peril. 

The High Street Partner

Ahhhh The High Street Partner (HSP). My own experiences of these fine chaps are that a good many of them are susceptible to, what I like to call, Big-Fish-In-A-Little-Pond syndrome a.k.a. superiority complex. Working in a high street firm, I am constantly reminded of the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

"... when she was good she was very very good,

and when she was bad she was horrid..."

The 'good' HSP is bloody fantastic: helpful, friendly, interested in other members of staff- an all round nice guy.

The 'bad' HSP is a nightmare. 

And since this blog would be far less interesting if it was all roses and rainbows, I think I will share a few 'bad' HSP characteristics (all based on experiences of people I know):

• the bad HSP is prone to a lunch time tipple (and an after work tipple for that matter). Just make sure you're not in the firing line when he returns after a bad client lunch because he may just throw a wad of papers across the room at you, while screaming so hard he's gone bright red. All in front of several big clients.
• A running joke amongst many students I know is that the bad HSP will not, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, take calls from estate agents. I have even asked friends who are estate agents about this myth and they too agree that many solicitors will just not accept their calls. Beware, little trainee, or you will rue the day you ever try to put that call through.
• The bad HSP does not want to know about your evening/weekend/cat that is at the vets having been struck down with some mystery illness. In fact, he hardly wants to engage you at all (that is unless you have the capacity to line his pockets). So don't take his grunts and lack of eye contact personally. But do carry on smiling and asking him about his evening/weekend/cat that is at the vets having been struck down with some mystery illness, if only to gain some secret satisfaction that you are seriously winding him up.

The In-House Head of Department

Okay, not strictly one of The Partners, but not to be disregarded nonetheless. My own experiences of in-house are that those in the legal teams are generally happy to have escaped the rat-race of law firm life. Less pressure, less targets and less opportunity for promotion... 

Head of In-house legal knows significant pay rises are few and far between. He has reached the top and his pay is not dependent on who/what is coming through those double doors. Enter Mr relaxed-but-maybe-not-as-fulfilled-as-a-law-firm-partner. Probably won't be busting your ass for results, but you know the only chance of you moving up is him moving on. 

The Regional Partner

These beauties fit somewhere between our lovely HSP and the mega-successful large commercial firm partners. The Regional Partner (RP) is balanced, you might say? I am sure the majority of them are, but RP's can and will shout. Alot. Just don't do a nervous giggle and you might get through it unscathed. I have also heard stories of unsavoury things that the RP may ask you to do for him but I'm sure those RPs are very few and far between....

In spite of all the above, I really do respect The Partner. After all, he has worked his butt off, sacrificed ALOT of personal time and, especially in the case of the HSP, the firm may well be his 'baby'. There are some absolutely fabulous partners out there, punctuated with the odd nightmarish partner. But, if you have the misfortune to meet him or work with him, I am afraid you'll just have to grin and bear it.