What makes a perfect ‘cover letter’? If you look up “killer cover letters”, you’ll find a plethora of tips, mostly giving conflicting hyperbolic advice. In a sense, the perfect cover letter is like pornography – you can recognise what it is, but it’s much harder to define it actually.

Many law firms ask for a cover letter, and after a while it becomes clear to you what people screening these letters want. Firstly, they don’t want a cover letter which goes on for a page, in the same way you should be able to get your CV onto 2 pages.

You must make an effort to find out to whom you’re writing. Often with standard cvmailuk cover letter form, they’ll tell you who to write to, and what their position is. This will be sometimes different from the actual person reading it, but that doesn’t matter. Sometimes it won’t state who the respondent is, but there’s no harm in ringing up the graduate recruitment division to find out – this at least shows initiative, and you also show proactivity and an attention-to-detail if you can spell his or her name correctly. It is also very courteous to get the precise wording of their job title right.

There are certain points of etiquette essential in your cover letter, from what I’ve found.

• Make it interesting, professional, and concise.
• Do not become long-winded.
• Do not use “flowery” language.
• If you get time, allow someone to spell-check it, and check it for other mistakes? (Career advisors will offer be able to give impartial advice, as legal recruiters will often tell you if your application is rejected.)

The letter should be professional and indicate that you can write, but don’t show off by using words that you would never use in conversation.

You should try to be yourself in the cover letter, without being over-familiar. One law firm actually bothered telling me what they wanted. They told me that they want the letter roughly in thirds:

• a third on why law in general (legal education perspectives, why a solicitor? why law? why are you interested in pro bono? why are you interested in tweeting law or blogging?),
• a third on why their firm attracts you (I found the Lex100 and Chambers and Partners Guide extremely useful here – and here it’s essential to demonstrate that ‘you’ve done your research’);
• a third on what generic skills can you “bring to their table” (it’s useful to consider especially whether the firm has particular cultural values or programmes you associate with?)

Helpfully, when I’ve run this advice past two other law firms (their Grad Rec managers), the response I got was : “perfect”.