Aced your degree… check.
Aced law school… check.
Ready to apply for law jobs… but no legal experience. So, what can you do?
Future employers going to want to see some legal work experience on your CV, if only to show that you have done your research and are serious about a career in law. But how do you get your foot in the door?
Volunteering is a great starting point, and even if you can only commit to a few hours a week it will add that extra sparkle to your applications and help you develop crucial skills for the legal workplace. Your university or law school careers advisor will be able to advise you on what sort of roles may be available locally. And organisations and charities such as law clinics and Citizens Advice generally welcome applications from law students for volunteer roles. You may even be fortunate enough to find a paid role, but this is less usual.
You can also approach the courts in your area to see if they require ushers or support staff. Many courts are also happy to arrange for students to shadow a judge, which is great experience and gives you something really interesting to bring up at interview.
Get involved with your university law society. Holding a role of responsibility, such as treasurer, is an excellent way to demonstrate the sort of skills desired of a trainee solicitor or pupil barrister – reliability, organisation, time management and integrity. Law societies and university careers advisors can also help you to organise work experience placements or mentoring, or to apply for vacation schemes to help you gain that extra experience and fill any skills gaps.
If you really can’t find any suitable legal work experience, consider what other roles might demonstrate your suitability for a legal position. Any role that involves communicating with people, working as a team or in a fast-paced environment, such as retail, bar work or food service, demonstrates an ability to work under pressure – absolutely essential for a junior lawyer!
One final thing to consider is the type of law you want to specialise in. If you have set your heart on a particular area of law, you might think about tailoring your work experience to that particular sector. Many shipping lawyers, as an extreme example, have maritime qualifications or experience at sea. If you are determined to go into media law, work experience in publishing, for example, is extremely valuable too.