The LSE Careers Law Fair is being held over two nights on Tuesday 25 October and Thursday 27 October and booking is still open for both. This is an opportunity for you to meet representatives from commercial law firms and the Government Legal Services – whether you’re currently studying law or not. There’ll be a separate event for barristers chambers in January 2017 so look out for when booking opens on CareerHub nearer the time. If working in a legal department of a company interests you, BT’s in-house legal team is running an event on Wednesday 26 October at their offices in London as well, which is primarily aimed at final year students.
If you’re already making applications to law firms you can ask some good questions to help you fill in all those boxes. If you’re just beginning your exploration of a career in law, come along to the fairs and talk to current trainees and lawyers about the challenges of their work and what the culture of their firm is like. As it’s important to make a good impression, you never know where a conversation may lead, come prepared.
Here are some tips on preparation:
- come in business dress
- research the firms attending in the brochure we’ve put together beforehand, and check out those you haven’t heard of
- think about what you really want to know in advance – firms remember students with good questions
- don’t ask questions that can be answered from their website or the obvious eg. ‘What does a law firm/lawyer do?’ (check this out at chambersstudentguide.com) or ‘Do you offer training contracts?’ (see tcph.co.uk)
- take a notepad – it’s easy to forget who has told you what
- be polite with introductions and say thanks at the end
- firms will be focusing on recruitment for UK offices, so please make it clear that you understand this if you have a question about an office outside the UK (check office locations on firms’ websites)
Non-law students: for some background information please see our recent blog!
