Guest written article by Paula McMullan
When I ask candidates about their strategy for landing a training contract, I often hear:
“I want to work on high profile deals”
“I want to work in a City firm”
“I want to do commercial law”
But none of these statements are a strategy. None of these are compelling nor are they unique to you. Don’t worry though – in this article, I’m going to give you the five steps I encourage all my TC mentees to follow so you have a robust, consistent and persuasive training contract strategy.
Know what kind of legal career you want
Law firms (I’m going to use the term ‘firm’ in this article, but of course there are many other types of training establishments) invest heavily in training their future lawyers so recruiters are concerned about ‘flight risk’. They want to be sure they are offering their precious training contracts to candidates who will stay after qualification so that the firm gets a return on its investment.
If you can’t explain clearly your strategy for applying to THIS specific law firm, it’s possible you won’t progress through the recruitment process.
So let’s go back to the question, “What kind of legal career do you want?”
A candidate recently showed me the list of target firms they had drawn up. They had included West End, US, Magic Circle and top 50 firms. I couldn’t see any consistency in it.
When I asked them what kind of legal career they wanted for themselves, they replied that they were interested in environmental law, commercial law with an international firm, and private client work. We talked about the importance of devising their message in their applications so that they didn’t raise the suspicion that they weren’t focused or dedicated to a particular path.
Remember, there may well be firms who do all of these areas, but the pool will be smaller than if you applied to firms with reputations in one or two of these areas.
Sometimes, candidates will tell me that they want to work on high-profile matters for high-calibre clients, but they can’t explain why this is important. Worse still, they believe that working on the takeover of a massive PLC by another means they’ll get ‘good quality work’ when often the reverse is true. There are so many people involved that even the junior associates are only tiny cogs in a huge machine, let alone a trainee!
So, create your own bucket list – it will be much easier to prioritise what’s important to you and to ask the kind of questions that will uncover what it’s really like to work at the firm you’re applying to.
Identify the kinds of training organisations that will offer you the career you’ve identified in Step 1
How you do this research is key. Don’t make any assumptions. Check what you may have heard from others.
Draw up a short-list using online resources, such as Chambers Student Guide, where you can search on practice areas, and Legal 500 which shows how law firms are ranked by their clients. Other less obvious places to look are legal and industry awards e.g. The Lawyer Awards, Legal Business Awards. If you are interested in project finance or construction, then Infrastructure Journal has an award for "legal adviser of the year", etc.
Then look at how each firm is structured, how they run their business and what they focus on specifically.
A candidate might tell me they want to work at X firm because they do international finance work. So far so good, but candidates often trip up on the next questions: What finance work in particular and what interests you about that?
No one expects you to know right now the kind of law you want to specialise in, but they will expect you to be able to explain the rationale for your answers.
When talking with people from training organisations, find out what it’s really like to train there by asking them to describe how the work is done there.
You will find that being given ‘early responsibility’ is advertised on a large number of careers websites, but find out (a) whether this is true and (b) what this actually means at THIS organisation by asking them to describe what they do day-to-day. This will give you a far better indication of whether training here is likely to lead you to the career that you identified in Step 1.
Create a robust tracking system
Now that you know which firms you want to apply to, put the application deadlines into a tracker. Websites like LawCareers.net have very handy lists by date, but remember that you also need to find out the approach to applications taken by each training provider.
Do they recruit on a rolling basis where they review applications as they come in? If so, you may find that your brilliant application submitted in July gets rejected because they have already filled their quota.
Put the questions from application forms into your tracker, along with your answer. Yes, you do need to tailor each answer to each application, but there’s no point in reinventing the wheel when answering questions about e.g. achievements and the reason you want to become a commercial (or other kind of) lawyer. Having all this information in one place will cut down on the amount of effort needed for a really well-tailored application.
How you track your application strategy is up to you. Some people like to use Excel which is hugely powerful if you know how to use the basics (YouTube it if not!). If you want an online tracker, Trello is a great app that I use myself for my social media content, but there are plenty of others. You can create lists for each of the firms you’re targeting and copy webpages, images and social media posts. Airtable is also a great online app, similar to Excel.
Connect what you want with what they want
When I’m reading a TC application, I can tell immediately whether the candidate ‘gets’ the firm and the profession or not. The ones who get through to assessment are those who show (a) they understand what the firm is about, how it perceives itself and what its ambitions are, and (b) that they will bring valuable attributes to help the firm achieve.
The applications that don’t make it tend to be generic – they highlight skills that will be valued by every law firm (attention to detail, being organised, being reliable). They make statements that could be true of many organisations.
Read the firm’s About section in detail to work out how they view themselves. Some are now including a purpose or values statement and some only allude to what’s important to them through the words they use. Often it’s the combination which creates the unique culture of a firm. Many firms are now saying they put their client at the heart of their business (I’m not sure where else a client should be?!). Firm P might then say that they offer a one-stop-shop for all advice, whereas Firm Q might have centres of excellence for different specialisms.
In your application to Firm P, you would highlight your experience to having worked closely with someone to understand their concerns and then how you liaised with others to make sure all bases were covered.
If you were applying to Firm Q, you would refer to having worked closely with someone to understand their concerns and then how you researched exactly what was going to get them the result they wanted and then delivered on it.
Do you see the difference? This is how to distinguish yourself in each of your applications.
Decide on your story
Finally, before putting finger to keyboard, work out your story. Your story is unique to you – it’s made you who you are, the good, the bad, the weird and the funny.
Here’s the key: YOU get to choose which parts you tell and which you don’t.
When I’m reading an application, I want to know just enough to give me insight into the person’s reasons for wanting to become a lawyer and for wanting to train at my organisation. Often, candidates go into far too much unnecessary detail.
I advise sticking to three pivot points – for example:
- Why you chose your degree subject
- What influenced your interest in becoming a lawyer, especially a [insert your chosen field in you have one] lawyer
- What you’re seeking from a career in law and what you have to offer as a future lawyer
Then ask yourself which attributes/experience/skills you want to highlight in your applications. These will change according to what’s important to the firm you’re targeting (what it says they are looking for in their future trainees).
You can then put these together into a ‘lift pitch’ for when you’re talking about yourself at networking events, assessment days and interviews.
So, even if you are not specifically asked for your story, you will have scoped out the best bits that you can then talk about with ease.
These are quite chunky steps to take, but once you’ve done your thinking and your planning, I guarantee that you will:
- Find it easier to articulate what you want and assess training organisations against your bucket list
- Write tailored applications that will make you stand out from the crowd
- Be confident in interviews because you not only know why you want to train with THIS firm, but why they should offer you a training contract
Good luck!
Paula McMullan is the Career Coach for Lawyers, offering coaching and mentoring to lawyers and future lawyers at all stages in their careers. Check out her website for free resources to help you advance your legal career.