Upon qualifying, solicitors tend to specialise in one area of law or ‘practice area’. In many other lines of work individuals are expected to choose a specialism or niche. Particularly if they want to progress their career.
Typically as you progress through your career, you are likely to find yourself specialising more and more in one area or even a subsection of one area. This can because of luck/chance, opportunities that present themselves during your career and/or economic factors.
But let’s go back to the beginning…. getting your foot in the door!
Have a think about what you might want to specialise in
Using the example of law have a think about what type of law you might want to practice and draw up a short list. As this will influence the type of law firm you apply for – and you will need to know why you have applied for a particular law firm.
Graduate recruiters will expect you to have researched the different practice areas within their firm before applying for a training contract or vacation scheme.You should have some idea of the type of law you might wish to practice – as this will influence the firms you choose to apply for.
Graduate recruiters won’t expect you to know exactly what you want to practice as the reality of the job is very different to academic study and this is why you are undergoing work experience and a training contract – to help you decide which practice areas suit you best.
This is one of the advantages of a training contract or graduate scheme – you gain experience around different areas of a firm to help you make your choice. Each practice area has different clients, personalities, priorities and soft skills required. By the end of your training contract you will have sat in a number of seats getting practical experience of working in a variety of practice areas and (hopefully) a broad understanding of the firm’s business model.
At the outset it is important to have knowledge of the firm you have applied to, the type of legal work it undertakes and the clients the practice advises. Graduate Recruiters will expect you to show this awareness at application and interview stage, so make sure you have done your research.
There is a lot of information online about different practice areas and what each of these practice areas involves – read it!! Talk to people you know who currently practice in different areas of law – network! Get yourself out there!
This will not be your final list (as it should be a work in progress) and ‘practices areas’ is only one of your considerations when choosing the right law firms to apply for – but it is a process to help get you started and/or find other firms you might not have considered applying for before. Use these lists to undertake further research.
