Building Networks to Define your Ideal Legal Career
This episode explores how you can understand possible routes into the legal sector, from secondary school and through university. It gives tips on what skills firms seek, and how you can see if a firm's culture will be right for you.
Show notes
Building networks to explore which pathway into the legal sector might best suit you can be daunting, especially if you have few existing contacts or people to contact. In this episode Sabrina Polito (Associate in the Energy & Climate Change group at City firm CMS UK) looks back on how she explored law as a career at school, and where she turned to for advice. She reflects on the methods she found successful to build networks and create job opportunities. Peter Arnold (Early Talent Development Manager at CMS UK) also explains the skills his firm seeks, and both guests then suggest ways to build these capabilities.
This episode encourage listeners to undertake some practical actions after listening to the episode.
Be aware: Look widely for tips on what different legal roles are really like - use social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn, bloggers, and 'follow' lawyers on these platforms to hear their views they post on their day-to-day experiences, projects and successes.
Be client-centric: Put yourself in the shoes of a client of the firm you are interested in, choosing a client in a specific industry sector where that firm focuses. To be ready to impress people at the firm when you speak with them, carry out some research on that sector and create 3-4 bullet points to answer "what are key commercial issues in this industry sector where you would need a law firm's help?"
Be reflective: To be ready for interview questions consider, "when did I face a very tricky problem, what was it, and how did I solve it?" Can you build some great personal stories and examples, bringing in your work and study experiences?
Useful resources:
Using and finding industry groups on LinkedIn so you can find more about your chosen sector
Putting yourself in a client's shoes, what clients really want from their law firms
Problem-solving ideas considering the 'how'
What do you really want from your career / working environment?