Commercial awareness for 'smaller' law firms

[KS94]

Hi everyone,

One of the key things with the commercial awareness updates on here is that students get an idea of what to look out for, how to analyse news stories and then how this may affect firms. However, a lot of the content on this site seems (I may be wrong) geared towards magic/silver circle firm applicants.

For various reasons, I'm targeting city/national firms for vacation schemes/TCs.

Does anyone have any tips for using this content in helping gain commercial awareness about issues which are more likely to affect the firms I am targeting? Or would I need to look at different issues altogether?

If this doesn't make sense then apologies in advance!

 

[Jaysen]

Hi everyone,

One of the key things with the commercial awareness updates on here is that students get an idea of what to look out for, how to analyse news stories and then how this may affect firms. However, a lot of the content on this site seems (I may be wrong) geared towards magic/silver circle firm applicants.

For various reasons, I'm targeting city/national firms for vacation schemes/TCs.

Does anyone have any tips for using this content in helping gain commercial awareness about issues which are more likely to affect the firms I am targeting? Or would I need to look at different issues altogether?

If this doesn't make sense then apologies in advance!

Hey, KS94.

You're certainly right that some of the guides and posts are steered towards particular law firms. For example, the private equity guide would only be relevant if you were applying to a firm that does a lot of private equity work (like Weil or Clifford Chance), or if you mentioned the area of law in your application form. The same applies to the M&A guide.

The general commercial topics are more likely to come up at City law firms. Usually, firms will ask you to discuss a commercial story at an interview. They may let you choose one or give you a topic to discuss. That said, I can't say I'm as familiar with national firms or City firms with a different specialism - like private client or shipping. When I discuss the impact on law firms it's usually with international commercial law firms in mind, so if this is the part that feels irrelevant I definitely understand.

Did you have any particular issues in mind? I'd be very happy to take suggestions if there were any areas that you wanted to know more about. Or let me know if I've misunderstood your post altogether!

Otherwise, I would suggest ignoring the commercial topics that aren't relevant to the firm you're applying to. We aim to cover what's going on in the news, so hopefully, we'll get to some topics that are more useful. For example, Brexit rather than US tariffs.

 

[KS94]

Hey, KS94.

You're certainly right that some of the guides and posts are steered towards particular law firms. For example, the private equity guide would only be relevant if you were applying to a firm that does a lot of private equity work (like Weil or Clifford Chance), or if you mentioned the area of law in your application form. The same applies to the M&A guide.

The general commercial topics are more likely to come up at City law firms. Usually, firms will ask you to discuss a commercial story at an interview. They may let you choose one or give you a topic to discuss. That said, I can't say I'm as familiar with national firms or City firms with a different specialism - like private client or shipping. When I discuss the impact on law firms it's usually with international commercial law firms in mind, so if this is the part that feels irrelevant I definitely understand.

Did you have any particular issues in mind? I'd be very happy to take suggestions if there were any areas that you wanted to know more about. Or let me know if I've misunderstood your post altogether!

Otherwise, I would suggest ignoring the commercial topics that aren't relevant to the firm you're applying to. We aim to cover what's going on in the news, so hopefully, we'll get to some topics that are more useful. For example, Brexit rather than US tariffs.

I can understand that the main target audience of this site is primarily those interested in international corporate law. Naturally the but I feel that seems to automatically pretty much exclude firms outside London.

I guess that is what I'm after then - the issues/commercial news which affects law firms who don't operate on the international stage. Of course a lot of issues like Brexit etc. can affect most firms but US trade deals, interaction with Russia and Facebook's scandal don't really affect these firms.

Also, the above is just from observation and not necessarily something that need be addressed, I just thought it could broaden the scope of applicants this site could help.

 

[Jaysen]

I can understand that the main target audience of this site is primarily those interested in international corporate law. Naturally the but I feel that seems to automatically pretty much exclude firms outside London.

I guess that is what I'm after then - the issues/commercial news which affects law firms who don't operate on the international stage. Of course a lot of issues like Brexit etc. can affect most firms but US trade deals, interaction with Russia and Facebook's scandal don't really affect these firms.

Also, the above is just from observation and not necessarily something that need be addressed, I just thought it could broaden the scope of applicants this site could help.

No problem, it’s good feedback. In time we hope to broaden our reach, but yes you’re right, for now the site will be more useful for students applying to City law firms.

 

[JoshMason]

Not sure if this is of any use but I was reading this (have to do some legal research for uni) and there's some good info on the differences between city law firms and non city law firms/more national firms: http://www.legalservicesboard.org.u...nchmarking_city_law_firms_final_report_v3.pdf e.g. p31.

 

[JoshMason]

And this for comparing City firms: