selling yourself | law jobs

To convince recruiters you are right for a role, follow these top tips for writing your personal statement:

Match yourself to the firm’s requirements – identify the competencies they are seeking and think about how you match those.  You can do this by reading the literature on their website.  Think about the tasks and activities you could be involved in on a daily basis in a law firm and the skills they require.  Also consider your  colleagues, the range of  clients and other organisations you could be working with.

Market yourself – no one is going to do it for you.  It is a good idea to draw on a range of recent experiences and activities to demonstrate you have got the competencies the firm is looking for. Think about the areas of your life (studies, work experience, leisure interests, voluntary activities).  Consider the tasks and activities you been involved it, especially if they are linked to law. How did you contribute?  What was the end result?  What did you learn?  This will provide you with a ‘skills bank’ of examples which you can use. 

Promote your interpersonal skills – law recruiters place a huge emphasis upon working in teams, developing relationships and collaborating with colleagues.  Your statement needs to reflect you have excellent interpersonal skills.  Relevant experiences to highlight are involvement with clubs, societies and sporting activities at university; part-time job, internship or placement, especially if it has been in the law area.  Even working in groups for projects whilst at university is relevant. 

These activities highlight to a law recruiter you are a team player and enable you to demonstrate you have developed powerful skills such as leadership, teamwork, negotiation and persuasion, of which employees in the law sector use on a day-to-day basis.

Demonstrate  you are commercially aware – you need to make it clear to a law recruiter you have a genuine interest in the area of work you are applying for and that you understand how a particular firm and the law sector as a whole operates, and how this impacts upon the clients.  One way to do this is to keep up-to-date by reading relevant legal and business journals and publications, newspapers and websites.

Create the right impression – make a positive impact by keeping your writing concise and to the point.  Check for spelling and grammar errors.  This will show you have effective written communication skills and have an eye for detail and accuracy, both of which are key skills in the law sector.

Don’t cut and paste – when you are actively seeking a role in the law sector (or any sector for that matter) it is all too easy to cut, copy and paste sentences and paragraphs from previous personal statements into others.  To avoid putting the wrong law firm’s name on a personal statement, it is important each one is specifically targeted at the individual law recruiter as roles and competencies sought will vary depending the recruiter and area of law being practised.

Jane Howie

Coventry University Careers Service

04-01-2010