With the world today being more globalised than ever, the job market in the legal field has been saturated with tens of thousands of well-rounded individuals that possess a unique intersectional experience. The competition to even land an open-day at a law firm exemplifies the cut-throat nature of this field. This mass competition demands and necessitates applicants to possess a unique and distinctive character to set them apart from the rest of their batch. Going up against candidates which have had plenty more exposure, experience, rejections, and intersectionalities under their belt, leads many budding aspiring solicitors to be reluctant towards even beginning an application form for a top law firm.
This pressure is exacerbated by the suffocating “inspiration porn” on LinkedIn and other forums, where those who have landed vacation schemes or training contracts would talk about their extreme journeys to get to where they are today. While there is nothing wrong with being high-achieving and exposed to a great level of diversity, some students may feel as though their own experience can never compare to the well-seasoned experiences of the applicants they are up against each year. Luckily, there are a plethora of ways to gain a competitive international edge, and even out the playing field without needing to have travelled the world, have a particularly mesmerising backstory, or even rack up tens of internships. Below is a list of ways you can broaden your horizons and gain all the benefits of an internationally habituated competitor, without currently being one yourself.
Model United Nations
My first suggestion is to get yourself involved in the Model United Nations (MUN) club at your sixth form or university. Not only would this massively increase your presentation, public speaking, teamwork, research, and leadership skills, it will also give you massive global insight and the ability to connect with a range of students. Ensure that you apply to all MUN multi-school (and internationally if that is financially viable) conferences to really broaden the number of perspectives and personalities that you meet. In an environment that nurtures negotiation, global knowledge, and collaboration, you would be directly accessing the skill set of internationally rounded candidates. You will learn to research important and recent global topics and engage in fruitful negotiations and discussions, giving access to the unique perspectives of students that come from distinct backgrounds.
Expand your Commercial Awareness Research
Only keeping up with the news within your current environment narrows your perspective on important, globally charged discussions. While the law firm branch you want to apply to may be in your current region, remember that most law firms, especially top firms, operate on international cases and work directly with a diverse base of clients. You can expand your insight by simply enrolling onto the e-mailing lists of legal and general newsletters with a global focus to engage with other perspectives and diversify your commercial awareness. Down the line, this habit will come in handy during interviews as it will allow you to bring up interesting cases the firm has worked on abroad, and accurately expand on extremely important details such as the context of the deal/case, and why this matters. Simply regurgitating a global headline could lead to your interview answer to lack structure, strength, and authenticity.
Broadening your Friendship Circles
Going into law school can be extremely intimidating, and I see students making the mistake of restricting their social interactions by leaning towards students from the same background as themselves. Your legal skill set aside, having a diverse friend group is a vital step towards self development as it widens your cultural awareness, allows you to gain new perspectives, and improves your social skills. With UK universities increasing their international student intake yearly, it is a great opportunity to access backgrounds and perspectives you may have not come across outside of the university environment. Having developed your diverse social skills, you would be able to easily immerse yourself when joining a multi-national team of lawyers at an international law firm. The emphasis on diversity and inclusion in a law firm necessitates lawyers to be able to play an active role in nurturing and upholding these values and culture throughout their legal careers.
Cultural Societies
An extension of the above is to involve yourself in events held by the cultural societies at your university. Partaking in culturally diverse events will not only be extremely fun and informative but will give you many talking points when trying to build relationships among the diverse range of employees at your firm of interest.
Exchange Programmes
Many universities offer the opportunity to spend a term or year abroad. Joining these programmes demonstrates great adaptability, independence, and willingness to engage with other cultures and environments. To take this experience a step further, consider taking a local language course as well, as this will add another interesting edge to set you apart from other candidates. Even if you are not fluent in the foreign language by the time you are back, taking such a step illustrates a great level of initiative that could later be applied in the working environment. While the financial demands of taking on such a programme may differ across universities, always take a look at the financial support options available before totally discounting the idea.
With the pressure imposed by the increasing expectation of multinational employers to confidently navigate worldwide operations, opportunities, and challenges, the need to expand your awareness, open-mindedness, and empathy towards all kinds of people and environments will propel your application further. It is important to not only engage in the mentioned international opportunities, but also to show law firms how these experiences strengthened and enhanced the transferable skills you would need for the role you are applying for.
Taima Wahbeh is an international second year LLB student at the University of Leeds. "As someone who comes from an extremely diverse background, I realise how much impact my experiences have had on my character and skills. Therefore, I have compiled my top tips on how to make the most of the resources you have available at University to give you the tools to gain that competitive international edge."
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