Guide to legal work experience | law careers

In addition there are other students who all have university degrees who have proceeded to undertake a law conversion course.  Needless to say, to be successful in this area all students will be required to have:

• Top academic marks, especially if you are studying law at university
• A lot of determination;
• More importantly, legal work experience.

Legal work experience should be undertaken, preferably prior to university and most definitely during your studies as this is just one way of convincing recruiters you have a genuine interest in pursuing a career in this sector.

Before making the transition to your law degree it is worthwhile securing informal work experience in the legal sector as it creates a positive impact on your UCAS application (or application for your conversion course).  It also provides you with an opportunity to develop key skills such as working in teams, developing relationships and excellent interpersonal skills all of which are relevant to a career in the sector. Regardless of whether work experience undertaken is of an informal or formal nature, the core of any experience will focus around shadowing. 

Informal opportunities you should investigate are:

• Work shadowing / voluntary work - by going along to a legal firm's premises you are in an excellent position to observe the day-to-day work of the staff  and the legal firm in question  In addition you can chat to key employees about their roles and areas of legal expertise, the range of activities they undertake and the skills they use.  These sorts of activities are ideal opportunities to develop a network of contacts.

Informal work experience opportunities may be secured by you adopting a speculative approach.  A speculative approach means contacting legal firms directly to find out if they have any opportunities for work experience.  This can be done by:

• Telephone
• Email
• Visiting the premises of an organisation
• Chatting on a face-to-face basis with a member of staff
• Or by sending a CV and a cover letter

As well as giving you something to talk about on an application form, these informal methods of work experience are ideal opportunities for you to decide whether a career in the legal sector is for you. 

During your law degree (or conversion course), you should be aiming to undertake:

• Vacation schemes - these take place during the main university holidays and will vary in length and range of work covered depending on the type of organisation, its size, focus and location.
• Pro bono work - provides a great opportunity to gain experience in the legal sector as you will have direct contact with clients.  It also demonstrates a commitment to the profession.
• Mini pupilages - allow you to shadow a barrister in chambers for a few weeks.  The range of activities will reflect the barrister's practice and their caseloads.  

Quite often the formal work experience opportunities have specific recruitment processes which may include completing:

• CV
• Online /paper based application
• Assessment centre activities
• Interviews

As roles in the legal sector are highly sought after, more and more recruiters are using these formal schemes as part of their wider recruitment process, particularly for training contracts. As firms place varying importance on different skills and competencies the key to securing your formal work experience is knowing what the legal recruiter is looking for and successfully matching yourself to those requirements.

One of the benefits about formal work experience during you studies is that it can help you decide which area you want to specialise your career in and it enables you to put into practice the academic theory you will be studying on your degree. 

Legal firms vary in size from national and regional firms, to high street and international firms and practise law in every field imaginable from criminal law to intellectual property and personal injury to real estate.  There are a wide range of opportunities which provide you with the chance to learn about a particular employer and an area of expertise and what a career in the legal sector may be like. 

As well as giving you a variety of experiences that you can demonstrate in an application for an undergraduate degree; conversion course, and for securing a training contract, legal work experience gives you the skills necessary to be successful and an excellent way to show law recruiters you have got what it takes.

Coventry University Careers Service

04-01-2010