An introduction to legal work
The most obvious types of legal professionals are barristers and solicitors. But these jobs require you to have successfully completed various stages of training and qualification before you can start. For those who have finished the LLB, GDL, LPC or BPTC but are either still yet to finish all of the mandatory stages of training to be a fully-fledged lawyer or are simply not interested in becoming one, there are still a range of legal roles that you are suitably qualified for.
The most popular roles are paralegals and legal assistants who assist qualified lawyers with their work. This includes tasks like document review, preparing witness statements and other documents for court bundles, proofing documents and more mundane tasks like copying and filing. You also can find other roles such as caseworkers, advisors in legal clinics and county court advocates. There are a range of jobs that you can do when you are not-quite-qualified and the great thing is that each role can really be helpful to your future career prospects.
LawCareers.Net Jobs
LCN are a great resource for law students and graduates and their jobs section gives you an up to date overview of current vacancies. They list vacancies for recruiters looking at law students and graduates so this is a great place to start. If you sign up to the LCN newsletter you get notified of new vacancies regularly.
Click here to head to the site.
Guardian Jobs
Guardian Jobs list some of the more low-key roles that you won’t necessarily find in many other places. These includes roles with the likes of the BBC, Local Authorities, the Bar Council and Shelter. Not all roles are specifically targeted towards law students/graduates so be aware that you may be competing against people with years of experience for some of these roles. That said, the most interesting roles tend to be advertised here so it is worth signing up for daily job email alerts.
Click here to head to the site.
Ryder Reid
Ryder Reid primarily work with London law firms so if you want to get work inside a city firm, this is the place to go. They have all sorts of paralegal and administrative work available and this includes things like legal receptionists and HR. Be aware that the job listings do not always specify the name of the firm and refer to them in broad terms such as “this magic circle firm is recruiting for a paralegal to join their busy intellectual property team…” which can be a bit difficult to navigate. But if you read the descriptions and requirements of the roles carefully you should be able to easily sift out the places that most suit your profile and interests. The roles typically advertise for “experienced” paralegals so be ready for competion when applying for jobs here.
Click here to visit the site.
Ministry of Justice
Have you ever wondered where legal clerks and court ushers find their roles? The Ministry of Justice has a dedicated job listing site that lists all available vacancies across the country. These external roles are a great way to put yourself in the machinery of our justice system and see how things work from an administrative standpoint. You can also develop skills that will be invaluable should you choose to later pursue a career as a lawyer. You can sign up for job alerts to find out when new roles have been posted.
Click here to visit the site.
Reed and Indeed
These two have pretty much the same job listings on them and there is a lot to sift through. Everyone posts listings on here so the massive volume of jobs can be a bit intimidating! The good thing is that both of these recruitment sites allow you to apply directly from the site. You can also upload your CV and allow other legal recruiters to find you and connect you to jobs that fit your profile. These are the sites to visit if you want to shoot off lots of applications. You can also sign up for job alerts via email but they are usually clog up your inbox so I recommend you just browse.
To find to Reed click here and to find Indeed click here.
Happy job hunting!
I hope these are helpful and help you land yourself a legal job. It usually takes multiple attempts to be successful, especially when searching for jobs in London. Good luck!
Until next time,
Ps, Don’t forget to watch the BATB GDL and BPTC VLOG with LawCareers.Net on Youtube! Link here: (http://bit.ly/BATBYT) and follow BATB on Twitter! (@batthebar)
