Why do YOU want to be a Lawyer?

And so it has come to this. Goodness me it's like applying for University all over again. For those of you who aren't residents of the UK or just don't know, today's discussion is about applying for a Training Contract with a Commercial Law Firm - someone who will pay for me to do my law conversion and then take me on for at least 2 years. And of course as a non-law graduate, I will need to know the answer to the above question before Autumn - when applications open - not having had the advantage of writing the answer in my undergraduate application, and having that file neatly stored away somewhere I could find it 3 years later. It's quite a good question though, but I'd like to point out the the you has been capitalised for a reason. This is one of those questions that one may know the answer to, but not necessarily know how to put across, or at least not in the right way. And when it comes to securing a Law Training Contract, that's all that matters.

"Why do you want to study Chinese?" is looking like a walk in the park these days - there were much fewer people applying for that, and somehow it seemed much easier to make yourself 'stand out'. But now, now, everyone applying for Law has a 2:1 or above (above! Who are you people?!), everyone has had work experience, everyone has wanted to be a lawyer since the dawn of man, everyone has the correct amount of UCAS points and everyone has a bloody good reason for wanting to be a lawyer. And there are a lot of everyones. Of course, there are ways to put yourself at the proverbial advantage, at least on paper - do lots of extra-curriculars, have non-legal work-experience, volunteer, be a balanced, open-minded, well-rounded individual who shows evidence of working well individually, as well as in a group, and has a good sense of humour whilst being appropriately professional. I find it ironic that they expect you to have had such a good work-life balance when everyone know that City law firm employees have no such thing. 

They discourage the scatter-gun approach (applying to as many firms as possible with a sort of blanket approach), but with competition so fierce, you'll definitely need to spread yourself thinner than you'd like. Unless you've got the kind of confidence that makes you think you'll get a job by applying to just one or two firms - the type of attitude they also strongly discourage. You have to know why you want to work for that firm as well - look at their bio, their 'philosophy' as a 'global/leading/dynamic/expanding' firm with an 'international/unprecedented/well deserved' reputation, their recent cases. Are you Commercially minded? do you even know what that means?!

Needless to say, getting a training contract it tough. Realistically, at an average of 5-10% acceptance rate, it seems like applying for a training contract consists of selection, re-selection, de-selection, rejection, the deadliest competition you've had to face since the egg-and-spoon race in year 4 and a series of questions so probing you start questioning your very reason for existence.

Having researched and read and researched some more, I, of course, know why I want to be a lawyer. My reasons have been jotted down in my mental note book into two very neat columns - 'things that you can say in an interview' and 'they probably won't hire if you say this, even though you know it and they know it'. The first includes things such as challenging work, in many firms a chance to go far far and away on secondment,  and access to big profile cases and clients. The latter includes things such as freebies, a chance to get something that'll knock the socks off future employers on your CV and the chance to earn bare dollar while you're still young.

(As an aside, please don't get Coporate law confused with the 'helping people' law. Corporate lawyers work for the people who run the world.)

As many people know however, Law in the City (or in any Commercial firm really) is a mixed bag, so you'd better make sure that if you'r going for a training contract that you really want it. Read the reviews of any high-profile law firm written by a trainee if you care to here - most play down the long-hours that any civil-servant would balk at, the lack of a life outside of work (as if you would need one with such a fantastic job!) and instead play up the subsidised goodies and the type of pay that someone under the age of 30 with no dependents neither needs nor deserves. I mean, really, it's just ridonkulous! Although for some people, of course, it's just not enough - check this guy out:

"The pay is OK, I guess. But like everyone else, you always want a little bit more lolly." First year trainee (earning £39,000)

What are you talking about?! If you're like me and planning on living with your parents in the suburbs in comfort for as long as socially acceptable, you certainly do not need that much money. If, by someone's grace, I did get a training contract, I wouldn't know what to do with my earnings! In fact, I would - I'd just withdraw my daily limit everyday and 'make it rain' as it were in my room... by myself. It's not like I'd have any time to spend it. 

Even the most sunshine-and-rainbows of reviews, however, do manage to include a footnote somewhere between mention of a free on-site gym and weekly massage therapy that they clock anywhere between 50-70 hours a week. That's 10-14 hours a day for those of you going 'huh?', not including the occasional "can you come in on Saturday?"s because of a deal that needs closing, for which you are, obviously, indispensable. Well, don't let people say they're paying you for nothing.

Sorry, this post was a bit long, being half rant half encyclopedia. If you were dead set on applying for the big City anyway, I doubt I would have put you off, as you're the type of person who almost definitely enjoys hard work and reckless violence whilst maintaining a positive, out-going and approachable personality. For everyone else, I hear McDonalds are accepting  applications - although you need a minimum of 5 A-C GCSE grades. You just can't win, can you?

Edi Xx