Gaining industry work experience

lawnoob

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I'm currently gaining experience in a BD assistant role at a law firm, however it is only a temporary role and I would like to gain more industry experience- thinking of maybe going for a role at my ideal law firm's key client companies?

I've had a look at job boards for these key clients but many of them require 1-2 years experience and some even a degree requirement. I had a look at data analyst roles, assistant roles, etc.

Does anyone know any good positions fit for a LLB graduate in corporate environments? Doesn't have to be legal!
 

lawnoob

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Jan 15, 2021
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Hi @lawnoob, this is an excellent question! I have given this a Starred Thread Award for the coming week, which I hope will attract some useful suggestions from the TCLA community :)
Hey James! Thank you for bringing attention to this post - hopefully other aspiring solicitors like me can get ideas to enrich our work experience :)

I did some more research and found that positions in accountancy firms, management consultancy or auditing can be good places to get industry experience. What I'm struggling with is more specifically what roles in these companies would be suitable.

Do you think going for a 1 month internship would be a good eye opening experience? I'm also not too sure how to justify when, for example, a consulting firm asks why I want to work here (as I feel like I shouldn't say I'm here for experience so I have a better chance at securing a TC). I have reasons justifying why I want to do law, but none for why I want to try out consulting! Do you have any thoughts?
 
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j.s.cox

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    I'm currently gaining experience in a BD assistant role at a law firm, however it is only a temporary role and I would like to gain more industry experience- thinking of maybe going for a role at my ideal law firm's key client companies?

    I've had a look at job boards for these key clients but many of them require 1-2 years experience and some even a degree requirement. I had a look at data analyst roles, assistant roles, etc.

    Does anyone know any good positions fit for a LLB graduate in corporate environments? Doesn't have to be legal!
    I have a few thoughts on this.

    Why do you want industry experience?

    If it's just to be a more attractive TC candidate, you are probably better off asking to shadow someone within your target industry rather than gaining a role. Also, you could try to get work experience within a firm which works with similar clients. Personally, I gained a role as a legal intern/paralegal in a small boutique firm (literally just dropped the owner an email to ask if they would be willing to let me do some work experience). I ended up getting a lot of client contact and was able to ask clients directly if they would be willing to allow me to shadow them to understand their business better. For the most part, they were really happy to oblige, and I had always asked my supervisor whether this would be ok or appropriate beforehand.

    If you are genuinely interested in the roles that are available in these industries, you may have to take a different approach. You could look at working at a smaller client within the industry. In terms of experience, I genuinely believe you are able to understand how a business works better when you work at a smaller outfit, but getting work as a data analyst etc at a bigger place is also really good experience. I'm not sure it really matters what role you go for within these companies as you'll be able to get a good idea of how the company works no matter what you go for.

    One thing I know people are asked in TC interviews is 'why law and not x?' so make sure if you do manage to get some industry experience you have a convincing answer ready for this question.

    Hey James! Thank you for bringing attention to this post - hopefully other aspiring solicitors like me can get ideas to enrich our work experience :)

    I did some more research and found that positions in accountancy firms, management consultancy or auditing can be good places to get industry experience. What I'm struggling with is more specifically what roles in these companies would be suitable.

    Do you think going for a 1 month internship would be a good eye opening experience? I'm also not too sure how to justify when, for example, a consulting firm asks why I want to work here (as I feel like I shouldn't say I'm here for experience so I have a better chance at securing a TC). I have reasons justifying why I want to do law, but none for why I want to try out consulting! Do you have any thoughts?

    Is a 1 month internship good experience?

    In short, yes, but as I said above, make sure you want the experience because you are completely interested in roles within the industry. 1 month is a long time to do something, so being in a role you won't enjoy just to understand the business better may not be the best use of your time. If you are genuinely excited about that internship, however, it may be really eye opening and enjoyable. I would just reiterate that you shouldn't do it if you just want to be a more attractive TC candidate as there are many other ways to gain experience of the industry.

    How to answer 'why consulting?'

    I reckon if you have an answer to why law, you probably have a good idea about why you want to do commercial law specifically. Your answer for why consulting could probably just rework this answer.

    Also, if you know anyone who wants to do consulting or already works within a consultancy firm (LinkedIn is your friend) you could ask why they wanted to do consulting and see if you have any overlapping interests that you could use for this answer.


    Sorry for such a long response, and hopefully there's some things you find useful here!
     

    lawnoob

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    Jan 15, 2021
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    I have a few thoughts on this.

    Why do you want industry experience?

    If it's just to be a more attractive TC candidate, you are probably better off asking to shadow someone within your target industry rather than gaining a role. Also, you could try to get work experience within a firm which works with similar clients. Personally, I gained a role as a legal intern/paralegal in a small boutique firm (literally just dropped the owner an email to ask if they would be willing to let me do some work experience). I ended up getting a lot of client contact and was able to ask clients directly if they would be willing to allow me to shadow them to understand their business better. For the most part, they were really happy to oblige, and I had always asked my supervisor whether this would be ok or appropriate beforehand.

    If you are genuinely interested in the roles that are available in these industries, you may have to take a different approach. You could look at working at a smaller client within the industry. In terms of experience, I genuinely believe you are able to understand how a business works better when you work at a smaller outfit, but getting work as a data analyst etc at a bigger place is also really good experience. I'm not sure it really matters what role you go for within these companies as you'll be able to get a good idea of how the company works no matter what you go for.

    One thing I know people are asked in TC interviews is 'why law and not x?' so make sure if you do manage to get some industry experience you have a convincing answer ready for this question.



    Is a 1 month internship good experience?

    In short, yes, but as I said above, make sure you want the experience because you are completely interested in roles within the industry. 1 month is a long time to do something, so being in a role you won't enjoy just to understand the business better may not be the best use of your time. If you are genuinely excited about that internship, however, it may be really eye opening and enjoyable. I would just reiterate that you shouldn't do it if you just want to be a more attractive TC candidate as there are many other ways to gain experience of the industry.

    How to answer 'why consulting?'

    I reckon if you have an answer to why law, you probably have a good idea about why you want to do commercial law specifically. Your answer for why consulting could probably just rework this answer.

    Also, if you know anyone who wants to do consulting or already works within a consultancy firm (LinkedIn is your friend) you could ask why they wanted to do consulting and see if you have any overlapping interests that you could use for this answer.


    Sorry for such a long response, and hopefully there's some things you find useful here!
    Hi @j.s.cox, I really appreciate you taking your time to answer this thread.

    I actually never knew you could just ask to shadow someone to gain work experience. I think this is a fantastic way to get more experience that I hadn't thought about before. I would love to know more about doing this, if you're happy to elaborate a little bit about it here or maybe I can shoot you a message? Such as length of time you spent shadowing one client, kind of how you approached them, and what the shadowing entailed? Did they give you any work or was it more so kind of following around?

    I wanted to explore consulting as I know consulting firms operate quite similarly in terms of working with clients and meeting demands but more focused on the business concept. I'm looking to read some consulting books before I set my mind in whether I want to gain some experience at a consulting firm. And I do think even if I don't enjoy consulting, it can make me a better lawyer by gaining hands-on commercial awareness.

    Though now that you mention, I think shadowing might be a better alternative rather than a month long internship. Would love to hear more about your experience shadowing :)
     

    j.s.cox

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    Hi @j.s.cox, I really appreciate you taking your time to answer this thread.

    I actually never knew you could just ask to shadow someone to gain work experience. I think this is a fantastic way to get more experience that I hadn't thought about before. I would love to know more about doing this, if you're happy to elaborate a little bit about it here or maybe I can shoot you a message? Such as length of time you spent shadowing one client, kind of how you approached them, and what the shadowing entailed? Did they give you any work or was it more so kind of following around?

    I wanted to explore consulting as I know consulting firms operate quite similarly in terms of working with clients and meeting demands but more focused on the business concept. I'm looking to read some consulting books before I set my mind in whether I want to gain some experience at a consulting firm. And I do think even if I don't enjoy consulting, it can make me a better lawyer by gaining hands-on commercial awareness.

    Though now that you mention, I think shadowing might be a better alternative rather than a month long internship. Would love to hear more about your experience shadowing :)

    In terms of the shadowing itself, it depended on the individuals who agreed to let me shadow. For some people, I literally followed them like a shadow for one day to understand their typical day in more detail. For others, I took some admin tasks off their hands for 1-2 weeks whilst sitting in on meetings/calls. It was mainly about observing, but often I was shown some work they were doing and asked if I wanted help with simpler aspects of the work. The people I met were then inclined to introduce me to some of their colleagues allowing me to gain more experience elsewhere.

    The way I went about this depended on how I knew the client. Generally, I had networked with the clients before going near the topic of shadowing. I tried to develop a professional relationship through email/zoom/LinkedIn to ask a few questions about their industry and specific role within it. After I had developed a relationship with people within the industry, I asked if it would be possible to shadow them for as long as they were able to let me. I said that I was happy to help with tasks or simply observe and I emphasised my interest in the industry as a whole rather than specific roles within it (I'm personally really interested in energy, so I was able to go to energy company HQ's as well as some petrol stations).

    Hope this helps, and feel free to shoot me a message for any more details.
     
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    James Carrabino

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    Hey James! Thank you for bringing attention to this post - hopefully other aspiring solicitors like me can get ideas to enrich our work experience :)

    I did some more research and found that positions in accountancy firms, management consultancy or auditing can be good places to get industry experience. What I'm struggling with is more specifically what roles in these companies would be suitable.

    Do you think going for a 1 month internship would be a good eye opening experience? I'm also not too sure how to justify when, for example, a consulting firm asks why I want to work here (as I feel like I shouldn't say I'm here for experience so I have a better chance at securing a TC). I have reasons justifying why I want to do law, but none for why I want to try out consulting! Do you have any thoughts?
    Of course @lawnoob I am happy to help with an excellent question such as this one, and I am thrilled to see that you have already been getting some extremely helpful responses!

    I see no reason why a 1-month internship would not be great experience :) And on the issue of justifying 'why consulting', I would essentially lift the commercial/business interest component of your 'Why commercial law' answer and focus on that.

    I once heard someone refer to lawyers as 'glorified consultants' because they 'help improve companies but bring actual expertise to the table' 🤣 This was amusing (and clearly a lawyer said it!) but there is some truth to the fact that in both professions you have to have an interest in facilitating business by solving the client's problem. There is a lot of possible crossover in your motivations and these are both professional services careers, so if you lean on this aspect of consulting then you should have a good justification!
     
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    lawnoob

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    Of course @lawnoob I am happy to help with an excellent question such as this one, and I am thrilled to see that you have already been getting some extremely helpful responses!

    I see no reason why a 1-month internship would not be great experience :) And on the issue of justifying 'why consulting', I would essentially lift the commercial/business interest component of your 'Why commercial law' answer and focus on that.

    I once heard someone refer to lawyers as 'glorified consultants' because they 'help improve companies but bring actual expertise to the table' 🤣 This was amusing (and clearly a lawyer said it!) but there is some truth to the fact that in both professions you have to have an interest in facilitating business by solving the client's problem. There is a lot of possible crossover in your motivations and these are both professional services careers, so if you lean on this aspect of consulting then you should have a good justification!
    Thats a good idea, I think you're right that I can integrate and work my 'why commercial law' to answer.

    I've realised that the way consulting works is quite similar - may I ask personally why you wouldn't go down the consulting path instead? I don't know too much about the ins and outs of consulting yet, so I'd love to know what the diverging reason really is for some people between the two professions. Is it just the aspect of being a lawyer you deal with... the law? Whereas consultants are more general? Please correct me if I'm wrong!
     

    James Carrabino

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    Thats a good idea, I think you're right that I can integrate and work my 'why commercial law' to answer.

    I've realised that the way consulting works is quite similar - may I ask personally why you wouldn't go down the consulting path instead? I don't know too much about the ins and outs of consulting yet, so I'd love to know what the diverging reason really is for some people between the two professions. Is it just the aspect of being a lawyer you deal with... the law? Whereas consultants are more general? Please correct me if I'm wrong!
    @lawnoob in short, I think that the person's comment about lawyers being 'glorified consultants' was more relevant to why one might be motivated to pursue both professions (and simply for amusement 😆) than to actually offer an illuminating assessment of the work lawyers and consultants both do! Lawyers advise clients in a very different way to consultants and certain aspects of commercial law which are very interesting to me, such as dispute resolution, would not really make themselves into the everyday work of a consultant.

    Also, bear in mind that the big-name consulting firms are often management consultancies, which advise clients on how to structure/manage their organisations from within in order to operate as efficiently as possible. Many areas of commercial law are looking more broadly at deals or disputes between different parties and perhaps only more specific areas of focus such as tax or employment consider the internal structure of an organisation to the same extent. There are of course many exceptions but that is how I perceive commercial law vs management consulting in general.

    That said, not all consultants are management consultants! The way I understand it is that there is a broad variety of consulting, differentiated by industry (e.g. biotech or telecoms specialist consulting firms) and by 'type', including management consulting, strategy consulting or political consulting. Top accounting firms like Deloitte and advertising firms like Ogilvy now have major consulting wings which are naturally geared towards their general area of work as a firm - for example, Ogilvy Consulting focuses on the big-picture marketing strategy for a company, as opposed to the specific advertising campaigns that Ogilvy traditionally creates for its clients.

    There are definitely a wide variety of interesting areas to consult on and it is not so much that I decided against consulting specifically, as I did not feel that I had a specific enough area of expertise to make an informed choice about the area of consulting which would have been most interesting to me.

    I do know, however, that areas of commercial law such as white collar crime, international arbitration and competition are of particular interest to me at this moment in time and a training contract will offer en exceptional environment in which to explore these, without having to commit to one area or another for the first two years of my employment. I enjoy the logical, problem-solving aspect of the law and I really appreciate the way that the law is constantly changing to reflect what we value as a society during different times.

    Finally, I think that being a lawyer will give me an excellent insight into business because I will learn to understand the constraints that businesses have to work within from a variety of different perspectives! In this way, I do not need to worry too much about how much I enjoy my legal career (although right now I am confident that I will, one can never know for sure), because the expertise it will provide me with will be incredibly useful across a whole range of fields.

    I hope that this insight is useful, and please do let me know if you have any further queries on this topic 😊
     

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