Law Fairs and Open Days
What are Law Fairs?
What are you supposed to do there…
I have always thought that Law Fairs are a bit like school discos. All the law firms and training providers on one side of the room and all the students on the other.
Maybe that isn’t exactly true but it certainly isn’t the relaxed evening for getting to know firms and them getting to know me as I had imagined.
Walking into a law fair can be a little daunting, and I know I felt a little awkward. You might be asking yourself why am I here, to pick up the freebies – did you see the magic balls – or you should you be going around collecting a bunch of magazines you will never read?
Hopefully, I can give you some pointers so you know what you are supposed to be doing, where the lines and drawn and the unspoken truths.
If you are planning to go to a law fair you are probably studying law or thinking about it.
-
"Maybe you’ll stop doing skids on your knees and go and talk to one of the girls, you never know it might pan out..."
Some of you might be floating through your degree wanting to be lawyers but not really sure how to get there. If you want to be a lawyer and are serious about it, and you will have to be in you want a job at the end, then you need to do some research.
First, you need have an idea of what you want – which areas of law are you interested in and how you plan to get there. If you are not sure where you see your career going then you should visit the Careers Advisory Service (you have paid for it) or take a look at our Career Path. Once you know which path you want to take you can use the firms to help you along the road to employment.
The next step is to see which firms are going to be at the fair. You should be able to find out from the Careers Advisory Service. Once you know you really need to take a look at the firms (our profiles should come in handy) and find out what they do and what it might be like working for them.
-
If any of the firms tickle your fancy, then you should scour their website (and ours) for information about them and write down a list of questions to ask at the Law fair. Law fairs are for you find out about a firm and not for careers advice. It can also be a great way to get a vacation scheme and then ultimately a training contract.
So, in conclusion, law fairs should be relaxed events for you get to know firms and ask their representatives some questions. If you can be clear about what you want from the fair and have established that careers fairs aren't about picking the best career for you, then you can really make the most out of the fair and you'll feel comfortable talking to law firm representatives. So stop doing skids on your knees and go and talk to one of the law firm representatives, you never know how it might pan out.
Jack
AllAboutLaw
30-09-2009
