Update:
I've been thinking about how to achieve some of the goals I set myself (added again below for reference).
- Pay forward the help I was given by sharing my experiences and offering advice to other aspiring solicitors.
- Continue to develop my commercial awareness.
- Stay on top of SQE work.
- Earn enough from my part-time jobs to go abroad after the SQE.
- Begin learning British Sign Language.
Paying forward help
So far, I have offered to help another member on the forum with their applications. I'm going to see how successful this is and what I can learn from the process. If it goes well, I'll try to help a few more individuals in this way. I am also keeping up to date with the forums on TCLA and answering questions I know the answer to or could shed some light on.
I noticed that a lot of people are put off by certain parts of the application process that some firms use. Some people are put off by the length of the written application, some hate video interviews, and some can't stand game-based assessments. It can be hard to choose which firms to apply to when some of them use assessment methods that do not play to your strengths. I decided I would make a table outlining the process for each firm to help people quickly decide which firms they did not want to apply to, or which firm application processes played to their strengths. I am not finished with it yet, but I thought I would keep posting it here on this thread until it is. I am also double checking with each firm to ensure that I am correct about their application process, asking any questions I may have, and asking if they would like me to change/clear anything up. Hopefully this can be a useful tool for people on this forum in the future.
Commercial awareness
I have not been quite as disciplined with this as before in terms of writing articles, but I am still keeping up habits of checking the news and thinking about the questions I usually outline in my articles (i.e. How can this be summarised? How does this affect businesses? How does this affect law firms?).
There are a few articles that have caught my eye, one of which explained the
Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) proposal to ban non-compete clauses in the US. This is a clause that prevents an employee from working for a competitor for a designated time period. By removing these clauses, workers would have more freedom and choice in where they work, thereby tightening an already
tight hiring economy also known as a
tight labour market. This is where vacant jobs are plentiful and available workers are scarce. The FTC predict that this could increase wages by $300 billion/year and impact 30 million Americans. There are arguments for whether or not this gives workers too much power.
As far as I can tell, non-compete clauses in the UK are far less restrictive than those in the US because only
"reasonable non-compete clauses" are enforceable. Furthermore, the UK had a
consultation in 2020 regarding "Measures to reform post-termination non-compete clauses in contracts of employment". I'm still looking into the steps resulting from this consultation.
Businesses will likely need legal advice about how this affects them as it could have a significant financial effect considering the predicted wage increases. It may also make their sector more competitive, which again requires legal advice. I think law firms will be looking closely at whether this proposal becomes a reality in the US and creating plans for if it does.
This is not as thorough as my usual articles, but this is my line of thinking and I have added links for where I found some of the information I was looking for.
Part-time work
At the moment, I am content with my job as a nanny, but I am looking for something else to do to fill up my days. I plan to walk to the businesses in my area this week to see if any require staff in the mornings. I'll print off a few CV's to hand around as well. I'll see what interesting things I can get up to. I'm not too keen to do any paralegal work as I have done this before and I want to focus on developing my skills beyond law.
British Sign Language
I have a few options for where I could study this. I'm looking for the best options at the moment in terms of price and flexibility with timings. This is more a goal for me to help develop myself, but I'm hoping it could come in handy in the future. I also believe that each language you learn opens up a whole new world!
SQE Work
I won't start this until September this year, but I am going to try and follow people who have already undertaken these exams and see if I can find any strategies I think might work for myself when I do start.
Thanks for following my journey!