Legal careers resources, maintained by Delia Venables, including
training contracts, pupillages, preparation of CV's and pro bono for students.
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Last updated January 24th.
For "normal" legal jobs, as distinct for student-oriented openings and support,
see also the Jobs page.
Two sponsored links below
The Law as a CareerThe first section is for sites which describe how to get into law as a career:Law Careers Net is a comprehensive online resource for future lawyers which has now been running for 10 years. The site offers full details of how to go about joining the legal profession. It features over 1,250 employers and legal educators in three (firms, barristers, course providers) comprehensive directories as well as the most comprehensive editorial, news and features information available anywhere to candidates. There are blogs and podcasts and the site focuses on a specific firm each week. There is a newsletter called LC.N Weekly which goes to over 15,000 readers every Tuesday and the site as a whole is visited over 3 million times per year. Law & Legal provide information on popular law careers with guidance on training and opportunities for law jobs in the UK. There are sections on entry requirements, course options and good establishments for study, gaining a training contract, CV and application tips, starting salaries and career development and job prospects. Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs was founded in 1990 to promote the excellence and professional recognition of Legal Secretaries and PAs. They are a professional organisation with Students and Members throughout the UK and overseas. The Institute provides nationally recognised qualifications and helps people with their legal secretarial careers by giving advice, support and career guidance. The Legal Secretaries Diploma course provides the legal knowledge and skills needed to work as a Legal Secretary. There are evening classes in London throughout the year and also Distance Learning available. There is a section for members only and a section for jobs. Allaboutlaw is "for aspiring lawyers helping you from sixth form to the end of your training contract or pupillage." The site describes the routes to becoming a Barrister, a Solicitor and a Legal Executive with lots of info about each branch of the profession. There is also extensive information on the different types of course available in the legal world as well as off-the-record notes and info on leading firms and chambers, blogs, tips and a forum. There are separate sections for pre-uni, undergraduates, graduates, non-law students and international entry. The site has recently expanded to AllaboutCareers which provides even more information. The site looks at both university and non-university routes and they also have a busy forum and user generated blogs. LawConvert.co.uk concentrates on explaining qualification as a solicitor for those with a UK non-law degree, including an explanation of what the procedure is, and what qualification will be entailed. There are many different routes available for those wishing to qualify as a solicitor in England & Wales. The methods in which a person may qualify will differ depending upon the situation. For those holding previous degrees, the common routes to qualifying require students to take the Legal Practice Course (LPC). This is a practical course, designed to teach students how to work in the legal environment. Students without a.UK law degree are likely to be required to take additional courses before being able to take the LPC. Whether or not this is the case, and what courses these are will be dependent upon both the location and nature of qualifications. Finally, for those without a degree at all there is a unique qualification route provided for them through the Institute Legal Executives (ILEX). There is more on all these routes on the site. Careers sites for students already studying lawChambers and Partners Student Guide, with extensive information on finding training contracts and the sort of firms to contact. There are sections: Find a Training Contract, Learn about the Bar and Pupillage, Find a Law School, and Discover how to get started in the law. Chambers & Partners has been publishing the Student Guide for 14 years and they are a very well established part of the overall legal scene.ELIXIR (European Lawyers' Information eXchange & Internet Resource) is a project based at The University of Birmingham Law School. This includes material provided by Dr Julian Lonbay on the different legal systems in all the EU countries, including training requirements, and an introduction to the EC Law on Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications in EU countries. Information on notaries and bailiffs is now also included. There is a "What's New" page which describes the areas of policy where there have been changes, and which parts of the web site relate to these. Interalialegal is a blog on UK legal issues and law comes from Darren Sylvester, a law graduate from the University of Essex who was called to Bar in 2003. His blog is particularly designed for students who can receive tips of effective learning methods, revision strategies and examination techniques as well as information on making legal applications and preparing for interviews. Practitioners have also benefited from the regular case law updates that Darren's blog provides. You can buy various legal books from his site, including his own ebooks "The Letters of the Law: An A -Z humourous look at words and phrases used in the English Legal System" and "The Legal Quiz".
I cannot find this site at the moment - can anyone help me? Lawbore Future Lawyer is a blog focused on careers information for students from City Law School. LawWorks Student Section describes the activities going on across the UK within law schools, and also those student pro bono activities available outside of law school. There are also useful links and resources and information about upcoming and past events. Their aim is to encourage the widespread involvement of law schools and their students in pro bono activity. The ultimate aim is to establish a commitment from students that will continue throughout their professional career. The site has a facegroup group to encourage contact between people interested in pro bono developments. Lawyer2B.com is a useful student and trainee website and journal from the Lawyer. It provides information on careers in the law and how to secure a training contract or pupillage. There are news stories selected from the Lawyer's main coverage and various features. There is also a video of LPC students at the College of Law talking about their experiences (not all good). There are separate sections: Law Firms and The Bar, Law in Practice, Education & Training, Careers, The Lawyer, and Graduate Recruitment Guide. Newly Qualified Solicitor Jobs is a specialist website giving careers advice to newly qualified solicitors including application tips, latest job vacancies and general job hunting advice for junior solicitors. The site was created, and is maintained by, an ex-lawyer who has become acutely aware of the problems faced by many young lawyers at the start of their careers. There is a lot of useful information here about that vital first job. Pupillage Portal is a site from the Bar Council which provides access to all pupillage vacancies in England and Wales. It includes information from chambers offering pupillages as well as handy hints on identifying the right chambers for you. It also houses OLPAS, the online pupillage application system, which allows applications for pupillage to take place online, backed by the Bar Council. Students can apply one or two years ahead and can apply for up to 12 chambers per season. There is lots of information about the process of obtaining pupillage on the site and dates for application deadlines. Student Pro Bono describes itself as "the gateway to Student Pro Bono". There is a database of what law schools are doing in the pro bono area. The information available includes project description, who takes part, supervision details and contact information for those wishing to find out more. It can be searched using a variety of criteria. The initiative comes from LawWorks and Queen Mary University of London, fusing parallel initiatives and combining resources to create and develop a website solely dedicated to student pro bono and its promotion. TARGETjobsLaw.co.uk is used by solicitors' firms to advertise their training contracts and vacations schemes, and barristers' chambers to promote their mini-pupillages and pupillages. The site also provides useful advice for law and non-law graduates on securing a job in the legal sector and the skills necessary to make a good lawyer, alongside graduate profiles, overviews of practice areas and legal news. TARGETjobsLaw.co.uk is part of targetjobs.co.uk, the UK's largest source of graduate jobs, work experience and advice. There are two very useful lists of graduate job contacts here (related primariy to careers as a solicitor) and here (related primariy to Bar careers). Ten percent Legal Recruitment are legal recruitment consultants for UK and international legal jobs and also provide one of the largest free sources of information for law students and lawyers on legal careers. The website has a careers centre with over 100 pages of information and advice, and is linked to LegalRecruitment.blogspot.com with a further 200+ articles on legal careers and recruitment, written by the Managing Director, Jonathan Fagan. There is a legal work experience scheme available to students and graduates at no cost, as well as the well-used list of "100 top legal job interview questions" (answers are available through the blog). The company also provides paid for services including Legal Career Coaching for a range of clients from law student through to senior partners and CV Writing Services. Trainee Solicitor is a forum for trainee solicitors and wannabee trainees to discuss issues surrounding qualifying as a solicitor and training contracts. Trainee Solicitors is a site designed to bring together students seeking a training contract with the firms looking for suitable candidates. Students can upload their profile on the website (ie. qualifications and experiences) and Law Firms can invite suitable candidates from the website for Training Contract, Vacation Placement or Paralegal interviews. WikiJob is a careers advice website for students and graduates interested in finding out about top careers, jobs and discussing interview processes at law, finance & accountancy firms in the UK. The site has been designed to let students and graduates find out what careers, employers and interviews are really like. It is the first candidate focused graduate recruitment website and the largest graduate job search community on the internet. WikiJob helps candidates find out what they really want to know about employers, and puts the power in their hands to tell other people what they think too. WikiJob's Wiki profiles are open for anyone to edit, which means the information inside them has been written by both candidates and companies.
Particular firms offering training contractsEversheds Training Contracts are available to legal graduates and students looking for legal graduate jobs. Their training contracts consist of four seats of six months each over two years. At least one seat must be in a contentious area. As part of any training contract, you can also apply to do a secondment at a client office or at another Eversheds office in the UK or internationally.For "normal" legal jobs, as distinct for student-oriented openings, see also the Jobs page.
Overall Legal Resources home page Comments or queries? delia@venables.co.uk
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Choosing the right course from among the many