How and When to Make Applications as a Non-Law Student
Sending your first few applications to Law Firms as a Non-Law Student can be daunting. Hopefully, this blog will provide some good tips on how to approach them.
The first step to overcome is even knowing when to apply, or even whether you have to do anything different compared to a law student. This can be quite complicated since different firms take different approaches. It is true that some summer vacation schemes are only open to penultimate year law students and final year non-law students, and therefore you cannot apply as a penultimate year non-law student. However, this doesn’t mean that you cannot apply to any vacation schemes at all. In many cases, if non-law students do not apply for vacation schemes in their second year, they can find that they are actually illegible for vacation schemes in their third year – Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is an example of a firm which has operated last year using this model. Given all these complications, the best thing you can do is to check the graduate recruitment websites of the firms you want to apply to and keep a log of when all the deadlines are and whether or not you are eligible to apply as a second or third-year non-law student. Like with most opportunities, the more research you undertake the more you will find! Furthermore, you are generally not restricted from applying for places on Open/Insight Days at firms. This is a fantastic way of not only getting an insight into the culture of firms, but also allows you to justify why you are applying to the firm the following year for vacation scheme/training contract.
Secondly, it is really important that you have a very clear idea of why you want to be a lawyer (a corporate lawyer in particular, if that is what you are applying for). Whilst this is a question that is also posed to law students, it is a particularly crucial one for students of other disciplines. For example, as a History student I have regularly been asked “Why Law?” Personally, I like to draw comparisons between source analysis and work I have undertaken during work experience. I like to emphasise that I enjoy evaluating pieces of work written by authors from completely different backgrounds and that I find legal work to be a similarly diverse exercise. My advice would be to ask this question to representatives from firms when you meet them. Getting a clear idea of what being a lawyer involves and how the work might differ from other careers makes it far easier to work out, and explain, why you have chosen to pursue a career in law.
Finally, it is really crucial to get involved with as many Law related events as possible and to try and get work experience (even if it is informal experience, or reaching out to a local high street firm). Getting involved in the Law Society will help you gain a further understanding of what a career in Law entails. It also allows you to demonstrate that you have a genuine interest in Law and can, therefore, really boost your applications. As a non-law student you can become a Department Representative and should ideally try to attend events whenever you can! This will also help you meet other students that are pursuing careers in Law. Building a network like this is crucial for getting advice from others on interview preparation, finding someone that has a contact at a firm you are interested in, or even simply proof reading applications. Getting work experience will become a much less daunting challenge if you engage with the Law Society in this way. For example, this summer I managed to organise a two-week placement with a firm whose representatives I would not have met without going to a Law Society event. In turn, any and all work experience and vacation schemes you manage to organise are an excellent way to be sure that a career in Law is right for you!
The only thing I might add is that I hope to see more non-law students at Law Society events that myself, and my colleague Christina Matjilla, are organising for the upcoming year!
Mungo Graham and Paul Edwards