University of Manchester Careers Blog

Written by Bernadette Lyons, Careers Consultant at the Careers Service

Hello and welcome to the second blogpost in a new series of updates aimed at law (LL.B) and non-law students who are interested in pursuing a career in the legal sector.

All sectors are experiencing challenges due to the global pandemic, but the legal sector has the double whammy of also bracing itself for the new system of legal education to qualify as a Solicitor and as a Barrister. These blogs will be blissfully brief, and offer 3 things:

One Overview

Two Tips

Three Resources

One Overview

Virtual Work Experiences are cropping up now, and organisations have created some brilliant online resources for you to practice on and be involved with – and no obligation or assessment. I’ve listed places you can find them for free – and don’t limit your sessions to the law firms, there are many different organisations offering different approaches.

It was concerning when the spring work experiences were cancelled or withdrawn or postponed, and then this carried on into the summer ones, but it seems that legal sector recruitment continues, and graduate recruitment has adapted, not stopped.

Two Tips

Explore online work experiences this summer – see below.

Then make a note of exactly what you did and what you learned, and map this against the skills and competencies that employers need – employability skills – and use it for your CV, applications and interviews. For a generic list of transferrable skills have a look at the Careers Service website here  

Three Resources

www.insidesherpa.com  – you must look at this site! Brilliant chance to explore what a lawyer would actually do, and practice your online skills – a definite 5-stars from me.

A good article by a future Trainee Solicitor on it via Law Careers.Net

Very informative piece from The Lawyer Portal