Academic excellence for business and the professions
Law Careers Events Programme Guide 2015/16
Sponsored by
www.city.ac.uk/careers
CityCareers CAREERS, STUDENT DEVELOPMENT & OUTREACH
Welcome from
Sponsors of the Law Careers Events Programme Guide 2015/16 South Square is a leading set of commercial law barristers, widely acknowledged as the best at the bar for insolvency and restructuring work. Our reputation for excellence extends to our specialist expertise in related areas, including banking, financial services, company law, trusts and asset tracing and general commercial litigation. Our members have been at the forefront of many of the most high-profile commercial cases of the last decade, including: Lehman Brothers, MF Global, the Bernie Ecclestone litigation, the LIBOR litigation, Eurosail, Madoff Securities and Stanford International, Phones4U. A significant proportion of our work involves international elements and members regularly appear in cases overseas, including in Hong Kong, the Caribbean, Bermuda and Dubai. As a pupil at South Square you are welcomed into all areas of chambers life. In return for your commitment, we provide you with a carefully structured programme designed to train and equip you for successful practice in a dynamic, forward-thinking and challenging environment. Our pupils sit with a different supervisor every six weeks, exposing you to our varied practices and working styles and enabling you to get to know more of our members. We seek to recruit ambitious individuals with exceptional potential. Up to three 12-month pupillages are offered each year, each currently carrying an award of £60,000, from which we look to retain at least one tenant. South Square is delighted to be sponsoring City’s Law Careers Events Programme Guide 2015/16. Please do come and speak to us at the City Law Fair on 21st October 2015 where we can answer your questions about life at the bar and opportunities at South Square.
With best wishes, Martin Pascoe Head of Pupillage Committee, South Square
We are delighted to present the Law Careers Events Programme 2015/16. It has been designed to give you an insight into a range of career options and the skills you will need to successfully apply for work experience, training schemes and graduate jobs within the legal sector. You will have numerous opportunities to hear from and network with a range of professionals, legal practitioners, employers and alumni from The City Law School. This guide contains an overview of the central law careers events at City in the autumn term and a snapshot of what is coming up in the spring term. The programme has been designed in collaboration with The City Law School for both undergraduate and postgraduate Law students as well as students from other disciplines who are interested in pursuing a career in law. To view the full event details, including locations and speaker information, and to register your attendance, please log into City CareersHub, City’s central careers portal, using your City username and password. A link to City CareersHub is available at www.city.ac.uk/careers/for-students-and-recent-graduates.
Email enquiries careersevents@city.ac.uk
Telephone enquiries +44 (0)20 7040 8093
Follow us on facebook.com/ cityunicareers
Follow us on Twitter.com/ CityUniCareers
Find out more at www.city.ac.uk/careers
Please note that course-specific careers events and employability sessions are not included in this guide. 2|3
Events Programme 2015/16 Thursday 8th October 2015, 6 to 8pm Careers with a Law degree panel event Studying law, you develop a range of transferable skills highly valued by employers. It is an excellent degree to give you a choice of career options. This event aims to help you explore your career options inside and outside the legal sector and make informed career choices. You will have the opportunity to listen to high profile speakers, who studied law but have pursued very different careers, and find out how transferable skills, developed throughout a law degree or law conversion course, can be utilised in various jobs.
In addition to this programme, there are many other careers events taking place at City. These include: Employability Skills Tuesdays, industry-specific panel events, Careers Challenges series, mock assessment centres and Employer in Residence sessions.
Visit www.city.ac.uk/careers for further details.
Monday 19th October 2015, 1 to 2pm (Northampton Square) Tuesday 20th October 2015, 9.30 to 10.30am (Gray’s Inn) Preparation sessions – Making the most of the Law Fair These sessions will cover researching exhibiting organisations prior to the Fair, successful networking and how to make a good impression on the day, the Fair from an employer perspective, how attending the Fair can help you make your application stand out if you apply to one of the exhibiting organisations and what you can expect from the Fair depending on your year and level of study. Students who register and attend one of these sessions will be given a fast-track pass which will allow priority entry to the Law Fair during the first hour (1.30 to 2.30pm).
Wednesday 21st October 2015, 11am to 12pm Clifford Chance Insights Into Application Skills Clifford Chance Insights Into Application Skills is an engaging, interactive session that starts with the important question: Is a career at Clifford Chance right for you? We will prompt you to think about the commitment and motivation you need to become a successful lawyer here. We will help you to understand what we look for and how you can highlight your strengths. Ultimately, it is about making your application stand out from around 3,000 that we receive each year.
Wednesday 21st October 2015, 12 to 1pm Lawyer 2B Legal Landscape talk The legal landscape is changing rapidly. This talk will highlight the current developments, what the future might look like and what students can do to best position themselves. You will be given an overview of potential career paths and some options you might not have considered.
Wednesday 21st October 2015, 1.30 to 4.30pm
Have you heard of The City Law School’s Pupillage Advisory Service? The service provides advice, information and assistance to City’s BPTC students who are looking for or have already obtained a pupillage. Each year members of the service also organise careers events for aspiring pupil barristers which are open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students from The City Law School.
(1.30 to 2.30pm: priority entry with a fast-track pass)
The City Law Fair This annual event is a fantastic opportunity for you to meet numerous representatives from law firms, barristers’ chambers and other organisations. Pick up a copy of the University’s Law Fair guide from CityCareers in Drysdale Building or your School Office to read exhibitors’ profiles and prepare for the day. Exhibitors: 11 Stone Buildings, Accutrainee, Army Legal Services, Aspiring Solicitors, Blackstone Chambers, Blake Morgan, Bond Dickinson, Clifford Chance, DLA Piper, DWF, Financial Conduct Authority, Free Representation Unit, Freshfields, Government Legal Service, Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, JUSTICE, Landmark Chambers, LawCareers. Net, Lawyer 2B, Legal Cheek, LPC Law, Macfarlanes LLP, Monckton Chambers, MW Solicitors, Police Now, PwC Legal LLP, RPC, SEO London, South Square, The Bar Council, The Chambers Student Guide, The City Law School, The Lex 100, Travers Smith and Weightmans.
To find out more, visit www.city.ac.uk/law/careers/ career-support/pupillageadvisory-service-pas/events. Follow the Pupillage Advisory Service @CLSPupillageAdvice
Off Campus Careers Events Each term there are open days and presentations held at law firms and barristers’ chambers. Find out more on the off campus careers events listing on City CareersHub. 2|3
Saturday 17th October 2015 and Saturday 14th November 2015 10am to 4pm The Graduate Group – Legal Head Start Workshops A group of successful graduates, who have secured training contracts at a number of top city law firms, will host two practical workshops for City students. The first session will include how to research the right firm for you, make a successful application and how to stand out at legal events. During the second session, the current and future trainee solicitors will assist students to edit and improve their applications. Students will also be assigned to a trainee for more one-to-one support in the future. So if you need advice on how to beat the odds and get ahead, these workshops are for you!
Thursday 5th November 2015, 6 to 8pm Commercial awareness at all stages of a legal career This event will consist of a series of presentations from a range of high profile legal practitioners, followed by the opportunity to ask questions and network. Attend this event to gain an in-depth understanding of what commercial awareness is, how you can show that you have it and find out why commercial awareness is so important in the legal sector at all stages of a legal career.
Thursday 19th November 2015, 6.30 to 8.30pm Eversheds LLP – Interactive litigation event International law firm Eversheds LLP will provide guidance on negotiation techniques for lawyers. This is an important legal skill used daily by commercial lawyers in both resolving disputes and agreeing legal documents. As part of the evening, trainee solicitors from Eversheds will run a short competition enabling you to see how you would fare in the heat of a contested negotiation.
Become an Aspiring Solicitors member Aspiring Solicitors is the leading dedicated legal diversity platform in the UK. It is committed to increasing diversity in the legal profession by (i) providing free access, opportunity and assistance to students from underrepresented backgrounds, (ii) educating and informing the next generation of the legal profession about the importance of diversity and (iii) promoting and encouraging diversity from within the profession. To date, Aspiring Solicitors has offered its members over 1,500 legal opportunities and helped students secure over 450 vacation schemes and training contracts. Find out more at www.aspiringsolicitors.co.uk
Future Events – spring term Tuesday 1st March 2016, 6 to 8pm
Wednesday 3rd February 2016, 3 to 5.30pm
The City Law School networking reception – alumni and current students
Interactive Merger and Acquisition (M&A) workshop for City students at Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP
This is a fantastic opportunity to meet your predecessors who have embarked on successful careers in law or outside the legal sector.
The objectives of this workshop are to familiarise you with the basic issues arising out of merger and acquisition processes, to explore how the commercial objectives of the client can affect these issues and to outline the processes involved.
This event aims to help you: • Explore a range of career options • Make more informed career choices • Build career and skills development plans • Develop your networking skills.
The interactive workshop will be based on prereading and a case study which will see you complete a bid sheet and work in teams, acting in the role of the client instructing that team.
Thursday 11th February 2016 6 to 8pm
Spring 2016, 6 to 8pm
Non-commercial lawyers panel event
Following a successful pilot last year, the Pupillage Advisory Service (PAS) and City’s careers service will be running a careers clinic at Gray’s Inn campus focused on pupillage applications. This is an opportunity to have your pupillage application form reviewed by a barrister in a one-to-one appointment.
This event is ideal for students intending to work in non-commercial law as well as those considering their career options. It will consist of a series of presentations, followed by the opportunity to ask questions and network. Speakers will share their personal experiences of how they approached employers and the recruitment and selection process. They will provide advice on how you can get to where they are today and tell you about their work and the skills they needed to succeed in their chosen fields.
Pupillage Applications 1:1 Review Clinic
More events will be confirmed throughout the year. Keep an eye on City CareersHub for updates.
www.city.ac.uk/careers 4|5
“An unrivalled collection of the best talents currently at the Bar� Legal 500
Pupils are drawn to South Square for our reputation as a top commercial set and the opportunity to learn from leading lights at the Bar. Our barristers advise on a wide range of commercial disputes and have acted in many of the most high-profile insolvency, restructuring, banking, company and fraud-related cases of recent times. We are looking to meet exceptionally talented and ambitious candidates for our various pupillage programmes. Visit us at the City Law Fair to find out more.
pupillage@southsquare.com
www.southsquare.com