3rd Year Law Student with no legal work experience - no hope for training contract?

[Cad Bane]

I'm going into my third year and I've not done any vacation schemes this summer. I'd like to become a solicitor in the fields of personal injury, medical negligence or anything surrounding insurance really. I'm wondering what my next step should be? Do I apply for vacations schemes or risk it with direct training contract applications? I've read that that vacation schemes are intended for penultimate year students (which I am no longer). I've also contemplated applying for paralegal positions before my degree ends next year and maybe getting a training contract through that route, yet I've heard that some firms want paralegals to have completed the LPC beforehand?

I did secure myself a part-time job waiting tables over the summer and have been in committee positions for numerous law-related societies (doing all sorts really, editing for a paper, events manager, organising moot courts etc). My second year degree average is 65% (which I'm guessing is average). I've also learnt German to a high-intermediate level. I don't know if any of this will ultimately help my situation, but I just thought it would be useful to give you a picture of any kind of 'experiences' I've acquired. I'd be very grateful for any advice, I'm really not sure what I should do next.

 

[Kubed]

I am a 30+ year old career changer and completed two vac schemes (which both led to TC offers) this summer so they are definitely not just for penultimate year students. There's no harm in doing both VS and direct TC applications - for me personally, I focused on VS applications because I wanted to experience firms a bit more before deciding. I would say your next steps should be to find the firms that are in the fields you have described, then attend some law fairs/open days etc and decide which firms you want to apply to and why.

 

[Cad Bane]

I am a 30+ year old career changer and completed two vac schemes (which both led to TC offers) this summer so they are definitely not just for penultimate year students. There's no harm in doing both VS and direct TC applications - for me personally, I focused on VS applications because I wanted to experience firms a bit more before deciding. I would say your next steps should be to find the firms that are in the fields you have described, then attend some law fairs/open days etc and decide which firms you want to apply to and why.

Thanks for your Answer Kubed. I think open days sound like a good idea to get my foot in the door, I'll check the dates.

 

[Andrew M]

Despite already having some legal work experience from previous years (including open days and a week long placement), I applied for vacation schemes in the third year of my law degree, rather than going for direct training contracts. The majority of the firms I applied to either hired predominantly from their schemes or split between that and direct applicants. It also gave me an opportunity to show off my strengths in a work environment, rather than just in the recruitment process.

Plus, it never hurts knowing more about the firm or the areas of law you're interested in. I see that you are interested in quite specific particular areas of law - how do you know that these are areas you'd want to work, if you have no actual legal experience? Because there's a difference between finding an area of law interesting and actually enjoying the work and making it your whole career.