Hi everyone!
It has been a while since I last wrote and I thought since the new academic has started, a new cycle of applications for aspiring solicitors, it is time to put a plan together. Do you want to achieve your goals this year? Then it is time to take ACTION and plan. These are some of the tips and advice I shared with my mentees and thought I would share with you all:
1. Sign up to and create accounts using the following platforms which are all for free:
· Aspiring Solicitors - make an account and sign up to their events. You will need to meet certain requirements to be eligible to register and attend https://www.aspiringsolicitors.co.uk/
· Legal cheek - they have many law fairs coming up and have several events happening every other week - no eligibility requirements https://www.legalcheek.com/events/
· The Corporate Law Academy - I cannot recommend TCLA enough! It has a wide range of free resources and various forums open for discussions. You can then purchase premium or gold memberships which gives you access to classes, application reviews and more! https://www.thecorporatelawacademy.com/best-guides/
· Lawcareers LIVE event - they are offering it both virtually and in person and applications close in October. https://live.lawcareers.net/
· Harry Clark Law - from an online blog, to a podcast to free courses - the opportunities are endless and all available for free!! https://harryclarklaw.com/resources/
2. Once you meet some firms and get an idea of what type of law firm you like based on their culture, initiatives within the firm, areas of law, start to think about which of these firms you want to apply to.
· List of firms can be found here - https://www.legalcheek.com/the-firms-most-list/
· Identify what type of firm you want to apply to:
Magic Circle
Silver Circle
US
Niche
Regional
3. Complete online courses
· Insidesherpa have these for free - highly recommend especially if the firm u want to apply to has created a course. https://www.theforage.com/virtual-internships
· Harry Clark has shared a spreadsheet filled with free courses - https://harryclarklaw.com/resources/
4. Become a brand ambassador for a law firm or organisation
5. Get involved in your Law society at University or pro bono clinics or volunteering
6. Become a mentee - some universities have their own programmes or there are online schemes such as GROW, Legal and the City, LegalScene
7. Create a professional LinkedIn account and follow firms - connect with people you meet at networking events, open days, law fairs including graduate recruitment teams
8. Apply for a few winter and spring vacation schemes and see how this goes, what progress you make and any feedback you receive. If you don’t secure any, apply for summer vac schemes and direct TCs.
9. Stay up to date with news - there are so many ways to do this - sign up to newsletters such as https://linktr.ee/LorraineChimbga , TCLA, https://www.watsonsdaily.com/, https://thestudentlawyer.com/
· For commercial awareness, I created a spreadsheet and split my focus on 3 areas: law firm specific news, daily news and 4-5 news stories I was following closely that interested me.
If you have questions or want to share your thoughts on this post, feel free to drop me a comment or message! :)
Enjoy
Zainab