start career planning

• Find Out About Yourself
• What Skills Do You Have?
• What Skills Do Employers Want?
• Using Your Languages
• Using Law & Languages
• Further Study
• Something Different

Using Law & Languages

Language students who study law have a lot to offer. As well as legal knowledge, you will develop skills of interest to many employers during your year abroad including:

• communication skills
• ability to state a case
solving problems
• assimilating facts

Whether you plan to practice in law or find other alternatives, this section will help in the decision making process by focussing on some of the career options open to you when you graduate:

• Considering becoming a solicitor
• Considering becoming a barrister
• Useful legal websites
• Want to do something outside law?

Potential Solicitor Timetable

You should try to apply to law firms whilst you are abroad. Most legal directories have websites and many firms will accept online applications and/or emailed CV's. Firms who could fund your Legal Practice Course recruit in your penultimate year of your law degree i.e. before you begin your final year. Interviews start in the September of your final year so you should apply on your year abroad to make sure you won't miss out.

Before you go abroad

• Try to get some work experience in a small general practice firm. Make speculative applications using a CV and covering letter for unpaid work experience. Use The Solicitors Directory - a complete list of practicing certificate holders and includes in-house and employed lawyers.

August - December of your year abroad

• Research different employers. Guides such as the Training Contract & Pupillage Handbook, Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners Student Guide to the Legal Profession provide useful information about firms and their areas of practice.
• Research different areas of legal practice
• Take a look at the Your Practice Options page on the College of Law website. This compares different practice areas for solicitors in terms of work environment, skills, qualifications and personal qualities required. It also gives you the 'hard facts' about prospects for entry
• Find work experience for the summer with general/high street firms. Think about other experience as well e.g. HM Courts Service, local government, in-house departments and CPS all offer unpaid work experience. Law centres and other pro bono opportunities such as Citizens Advice Bureau can strengthen your CV.

December - early February of your year abroad

• Apply for vacation placements for the summer in commercial firms. These are paid and are often part of the recruitment process for a training contract. Find vacancies on the Careers & Employability Service jobs online, lawcareers.net , Dr Job - GTI Lawsite, The Student Law Centre, Chambers and Partners and the Government Legal Service.
• Contact small general practice firms for the summer with speculative applications using a CV and covering letter for unpaid work experience. Use The Solicitors Directory - a complete list of practicing certificate holders and includes inhouse/employed lawyers.
• Increase your work experience whilst abroad. Get a couple of day's work experience in an overses law firm or find summer paralegal work overseas.

April-August of your year abroad and beyond

• Apply for training contracts with closing dates two years in advance. Many application forms are now online. Find vacancies on the careers service website, prospects.ac.uk - Focus on Law, lawcareers.net , Dr Job - GTI Lawsite, The Student Law Centre, The Law Gazette, The Lawyer, Chambers and Partners, the Government Legal Service and the CPS.
• Most larger firms recruit two years in advance, but smaller, local firms may not recruit until the last months of your Legal Practice Course.
• Apply speculatively especially if you are restricted geographically or want to work in general practice. You can get a list of all firms by visiting the Law Society website or The Solicitors Directory.

• Don't leave it until the last minute to apply. Firms may bring closing dates forward by up to 6-weeks if they get enough early applications.

On your return home and by December of your final year

• Apply for a full time place on the Legal Practice Course. Closing date for applications is usually 1st December each year.

December - July of your final year

• Apply to the Local Government/Magistrate's Courts for training contracts. Check closing dates as they vary each year.

Potential Barrister Timetable

First year onwards......

• Visit a court in you haven't already done so.
• Join the Bar Society at university.
• Get work experience - typically called a mini-pupillage. You must get some experience before you apply for the Bar Vocational Course as it is a criteria of selection. Try to get a mini-pupillage in the summer before you go abroad and for the summer on your return from abroad. Find details of mini-pupillages on the OLPAS website.
• Get more advocacy and mooting experience from your course, student society, voluntary work etc
• Demonstrate your ability to act independently by travelling alone or undertaking another solo enterprise
• Work shadow a judge (this is known as marshalling). Arrange this through the Inns of Court - Middle Temple, Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn, Grays's Inn.

During your year abroad