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The first step requires you to identify the different types of law firms and the work they perform, the types of solutions provided to clients, skills required to work in a law firm and the expectations from an associate.
You cannot prepare for all of them, but we train our students to learn the work and skillset of an associate with 2 years of experience. At the entry level, if you have that much skill, you will easily stand out and law firms will find you to be an excellent hire.
You need to identify the gap between where you need to be and where you stand currently. This is the starting point.
The next step is to start learning the skills which you need to acquire, one at a time.
For instance, if you want to work in a law firm in the M&A and investment team, you need to learn about deal structuring, due diligence, drafting of SHA and SSA and other relevant agreements, learn how negotiations take place, deal compliance, and various regulations that govern these deals. Out of these things, you can specifically learn the things that junior lawyers are expected to do, such as filing specific forms with the RBI, managing data room, preparing due diligence questionnaires and requisition lists, writing due diligence reports and so on.
On the other hand, if you want to get a role in an arbitration or disputes team, you have to learn very different skills. For instance, you should learn how to draft litigation and arbitration related documents, and have a great grasp on procedural laws.
To succeed in this stage, you have to proceed in a highly focussed direction, in comparison to your peers who will probably do more general things based on wisdom of the masses - such as read pink newspapers, or read text books on company law! None of that is bad, but probably not enough to see them through to their end goals.
You are free to acquire these essential skills on your own or take up a course with us to accelerate your journey.
At this stage, you will see that the world is flat for all young lawyers, and that every law firm opportunity is accessible and within your reach, provided you can demonstrate that you will be a highly productive young associate once hired, and not spend a lot of time trying to learn the basics.
After you have acquired the skills necessary to work in a law firm in the sector in which you are interested, it is time to demonstrate what you know in the public. You need to have people who know about your interest and commitment to learn more about the area of work you have chosen, and the effort you have put into that direction through consistent pursuit.
How can you demonstrate all these things?
There are plenty of methods to accomplish this. Writing blog posts and articles, attending or organizing events or webinars, creating youtube videos or podcasts, doing internships, helping startups or other entities in need of help and pro bono legal support, running helplines - there are a lot of things one can do in order to build up such track record.
You may choose what works best for you based on your talents and proclivities.
You can publish practice-area specific articles, create explainer videos of the problems faced by clients in these areas and even perform real work for startups and people who need legal help. You can file PILs or work with NGOs and voluntary organizations or even business associations to help them with their legal needs.
This is the best way to build up a stellar CV, and even a professional network that you can count on.
Let’s say that I want to land a competition law job. What should I be doing here?
I should try to go for competition law events and moots, even as a volunteer if not as a participant, go for competition law specific internships, work as research assistant for competition lawyers and professors who specialise in this area of law, organize or volunteer in an event related to competition law, present papers in the subject, write articles and blogposts about it, or even start a podcast where you invite competition lawyers and interview them!
What if you just write an analysis on 50 most important competition law judgments by COMPAT? How many competition lawyers will probably read it?
There is a whole lot you can do to create a track record and demonstrate sustained interest in the area, and it goes a long way to bag you amazing opportunities.
This is the part where you create deep and meaningful relationships in the legal industry that will help you to bag jobs, internships and even client opportunities.
While most young lawyers are dependent on one senior to mentor and train them, you will have the opportunity of reaching out to hundreds of seniors and selecting your mentors.
Most junior lawyers have one-way communication with seniors, where they are asking for a job or internship, and following up on this communication after not receiving a response.
In comparison, you can share your work for feedback, actively interact with lawyers on social media and start richer, deeper and more long-term relationships and add value.
Your interactions will be rich and covering a wide range of topics. You may receive insights about industry in informal conversations that your peers will have no idea about.
You can also learn to use tools like informational interviews to learn more about various areas of practice and find mentors who can help you.
Networking and having people who will vouch for you and who refer you to opportunities increases your chances by manifold.
Most young lawyers perform this step, without any of the prior steps. This leads to their preparation being very superficial. Most are in fact thinking that they will go and learn from the internship itself and they do not prepare themselves for these internships prior to joining the internship.
This results in their inability to create any significant opportunity out of the internship.
While they know that they must be confident, they often end up nervous in internships or interviews, wait passively for work to be delegated or questions to be asked by the interviewer. This is primarily because they do not know what to expect next. This is not how top performers function.
In case of LawSikho students, 90 percent of your job preparation is actually complete by the time you arrive at this stage.
If you prepare as per the method explained above, your CV will stand out, your job and internship emails will be compelling and opened by the recruiter, your follow-up efforts will be effective and you will get responses. You will also have good lawyers willing to put in a word or even vouch for you with their friends and colleagues.
Your interview will also give a very different impression to the recruiter in comparison to other young lawyers.
In order to ensure that you are fully prepared, you should practice a few mock interviews.
Getting a job is just the start. Next comes the hard part, performing every day so you can actually succeed as a lawyer. Law firms are notorious for firing people who do not manage to perform within the first 3-6 months.
You may have heard of the legendary work pressure, long hours and stress.
This happens because most law graduates who join law firms are very underprepared for the work they have to do.
What do they end up doing?
You need to learn several skills to avoid this situation. There are hard legal skills you should know, but there are many soft skills you need as well.
Research, communication, time management, how to handle multiple deadlines, how to organise your work, how to take feedback from seniors, how to find out the gap between what you want and what your boss wants - there is a lot to learn.
If you perform well on the other hand, which we teach our students to do, you can in fact get a higher bonus than your peers, and get promoted within the firm much faster.
It will take a while if you want to learn and implement the solutions to all these problems. I assure you that we cannot teach all these in a 5 hour workshop, rather it takes about a year of hard work from your side and ours, in most cases.
We have been training lawyers and law students to get through law firms and not only that but excel in their work for many years now.
We have helped hundreds of lawyers to build stable law firm careers.
Want to know how we can help?
To introduce you to the methodology and get you started on this journey, we are introducing a 5 hour workshop, for the first time.
We are offering a full money-back guarantee if you don’t find the workshop beneficial to you, subject to all of the following conditions being satisfied:
You must attend the session live for the entire duration. If you watch a recording or attend the session for, say, 90 minutes out of 3 hours, you will not be eligible to get the refund.
You must perform the exercise within the due date specified. If you submit after the due date (i.e. 48 hours), you will not be eligible for a refund. The exercise must be completed properly. It must not be incomplete or submitted merely with the intention to claim the refund.
You must claim the refund within 2 days of submission of the exercise.
Access to study materials with templates through our online learning management system (LMS), Android and iOS app (access will remain active for 12 months)
One 3-hour live class will be held (recordings available to those who miss the class)
Class will be held from 7-10 pm
You can ask questions, share your screen, get personal feedback in class
Practical exercises that directly related to your CV and interview preparation
Group feedback in classroom and in-line evaluator feedback
You can ask questions, get your doubts cleared live as well as through the discussion board on our learning management system
Feedback will be provided within 7 days of submission of your assignment, only for designated assignments. Feedback for all assignments that we may share with you will not be available given that this is only an introductory course, and an opportunity to experience a premium experience of LawSikho courses but over a very short duration.
Model CV Format
Video CV preparation script
Sample cover letter format (with model CV, video CV and work portfolio)
Sample follow-up email
Interview preparation checklist
Questionnaire for informational interviews
Sample videos on article-writing
Social content for young lawyers and law students
Examples of well-structured articles for reference
Above prices are inclusive of all applicable taxes and charges.
Standard
It is not a full blown LawSikho course. It is only a workshop, intended to introduce you to the processes and study materials that will get you started on the path. While some advanced level students may get enough material and training in this workshop alone to crack law firm jobs, most others will likely need far more help.
Please do not think that this workshop will certainly get you through a big law firm next week, because that is not what we promise. This is a workshop to provide you a pathway and an action plan, along with tools that will give you an immediate boost in your journey.
If nothing else, you will be able to quantify and understand the gap between where you are and where you need to go, and you will know what you will have to do in order to get there
ADDICTIVE LEARNING TECHNOLOGY LIMITED
Hi! Get the Free Course Study Materials in your email inbox!
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We will let you know when we take more enrollments.
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17th - 19th December, 6 - 9pm IST
Co-Founder,
LawSikho
COO & Co-Founder,
LawSikho
Thank you for registering for the workshop.
Check your mailbox for the joining link. (From Bhawna Agarwal: [email protected]).
Don't forget to 'star' that email, so it doesn't get misplaced.
