Nearly Legal

Following on from my podcast with Charon QC, it struck me that most publicly available advice on getting a training contract is aimed at people following the degree (or degree straight to GDL) route looking for a commercial or ‘meejah’ or corporate sector training contract. Fine - their life is over if they haven’t got a contract by the end of their second year (or when starting the GDL). Let us leave them to it.

As anyone who is looking for a training contract with small firms, or in the legal aid sector, knows or will very shortly know, things are quite different outside the square mile, or whatever the provincial equivalents thereof (joke).

So, I offer the benefit of my painfully gained experience, in the hope that it might make a few people slightly less miserable and slightly more likely to get the traineeship. In no particular order:

Some firms, the larger and better known amongst them, do operate a two years ahead of start date recruitment scheme, others run 12 months ahead. Watch out for those. Remember that it is never too early to build up relevant experience (see below).

Other legal aid firms or law centres (not many of either) have the Legal Services Commission funded trainee packages. These are advertised somewhat irregularly and often at short notice, given that they need to take people on before the person starts the LPC. (Guess when these were introduced? Yes, after I started the LPC). Watch out for these inthe last year of your degree or when on the GDL. Look in particular at the legal aid sector journals and websites, e.g the Legal Aid Practioners Group site (nothing on there at the moment 30/4/07).

However, of those firms still looking for trainees, many small or legal aid firms advertise at short notice for someone to start straight away or within a couple of months. This means someone at the end of or post LPC.

It is also worth considering local authority traineeships - valuable experience and generally translatable into civil legal aid jobs. Jobsgopublic often has some, frequently shortly before the given start date, again, end of or post LPC

All this does mean that it is quite possible that you will be starting, and indeed may well be finishing, your LPC with no training contract. If so, it won’t be easy. Be realistic about this.

Don’t rely on advertised posts. Send off speculative applications to firms apparently not advertising. Yes it is horrible, but, I gather, surprisingly successful. A good speculative application can tip partners into thinking seriously about a traineeship where they were just toying with the idea and you will then be the first in mind.

But for heavens sake, think about what kind of training contract you want and research what you are applying for. At a couple of interviews, I was told with a weary sigh about how roughly half the several hundred applications (for one traineeship) could be discarded because the cover letter said, for instance, how keen the person was to work for a large criminal practice. Unfortunately, they were applying to a small civil practice. If you are going to be this lazy, save yourself the time and stamp. You need to show that you understand the work of the firm, at least broadly, and it is a good idea to brush up - or research for the first time - the areas of law involved.

It is also worth researching the firm as far as possible because some of them are frankly crap. I have had dealings with at least one firm with whom I would now not accept a traineeship even if it had been offered on a platter with a side helping of financial inducements, even at my most desperate. This another way in which knowing people in the sector helps (see below). They can warn you.

It is all too true that, even given the falling numbers of would-be legal aid trainees, firms can pick and choose. Every advertised post will usually attract at least a couple of hundred applications. What firms will by and large be looking for is someone with directly relevant experience or who can show that they already understand something of the work, because there will not be time to take a trainee through the ABCs of the area.

Experience of some kind - e.g pro bono with a CAB or law centre, or experience in a firm - is hugely important. Take the experience seriously, for the law involved, the experience with clients and the case management. A couple of weeks voluntary work somewhere will usually not be enough. Be thoughtful and dedicated about gaining experience.

Do not trust or believe ‘paralegal/trainee’ advertised posts, with a traineeship ‘along the line’. There is and likely will be, no traineeship. However, you may well end up paralegalling after the LPC and for quite some time (1 or 2 years is not at all exceptional, others for even longer. Take seriously the prospect of applications in the high double figures or three figures before success. You may be more fortunate. Don’t rely on it). If so…

Don’t give up - if you really want it, rather than just falling into law, it is worth persisting. It will be bad, you will go through periods of serious despair and frustration, but if you are paralegalling, you are in a fair position to…

Make contacts. I cannot over emphasise how important this is. Sadly, it IS who you know. On the plus side, this is not in the sense of having been once been thrown up over by the managing partner’s offspring at your college, but rather in knowing or getting to know people in the sector and in firms. It is a small world and having an entrée counts. Do you already know people with contacts in the sector? Can they help to get you experience or introduce you somehow? If you do, distasteful though it may be, work it.

My traineeship, when it eventually arrived, was not via the advert - application - interview route. It was because the relevant people knew me from my work, attending the field law association meetings, etc.. Take every opportunity to be visible - not necessarily schmoozing, I personally hate that, but not backing away from meeting people, contributing, and appearing competent and enthusiastic (but not puppyish, please).

And why put yourself through all this? Because you will possibly end up doing work that is more interesting, challenging and directly under your control than pretty much anything the corporate world can provide, and you will be doing it from a very early stage. You also get a certain glow of virtue, but, of course, not a lot of money, relatively speaking.

Feel free to ignore this - it took me 18 months to get a traineeship after my LPC after all - but if you find yourself starting your LPC without a training contract, I’d suggest it is worth considering. This is not just my experience drawn on, but that of a number of people I know.