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What's in a cover letter? A practical guide for law training contract and vacation scheme placements.
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”.
The BPP LegalAware Situational Judgement Test
This situational judgement test is not a product of BPP. It is an entirely original test made by members of the BPP student society, ‘the BPP Legal Awareness Society’ [link here], which is independent and separate from BPP.
Legal recruiters often use the ‘situational judgment test’ to determine whether you might be suitable for their culture, or not, despite (or in addition to) your formal qualifications. Often doing the test can be a useful learning exercise for both the candidate and the law firm, to help to decide whether a candidate is really suitable for that firm or not. Current advice is that candidates should do the test honestly and in peace (e.g. in a quiet room); that they should try not to second-guess what the employer wants, but answer the questions directly. It might be useful to be aware of the law firm’s core competencies, but often legal advisors say that a candidate’s “best asset” in such applications is their common sense.
Please have a go at answering these ten scenarios. We’ll be able to build up a bank of results of what most people would do in these circumstances. Whereas law firms will probably get their senior people to do the test to cultivate the results, our results are most likely to represent a mixed sample.
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.
Law careers: How to write a good training contract application form
I must admit that I am taking a temporary break from writing any applications for training contracts. However, I went to a workshop at the Holborn site at BPP last week, which I feel I really benefited from. Here are some points I gleaned about writing the application form, which I’ve already had quite a bit of practice in, before pressing this dreaded button close to July 31st!
The vast majority of this blogpost is based exactly on the contents of the presentation given by Eric Migliaccio from the BPP Careers Service at Holborn. The substantive points are reproduced with Eric’s permission, however please be aware that this presentation does not offer any official advice by BPP University College to BPP students, nor any other students who read this information. However, it is reproduced with the aim of being of genuine help to all candidates submitting training contracts to law firms, and candidates should use any of the information at their own risk. The presentation formed the basis of an interactive discussion, and some of the points discussed are not covered in this blogpost. Finally, please be aware that this blogpost is not endorsed by any of the parties mentioned, including BPP or any of the named law firms.
Before writing the form, we were advised to research and identify appropriate target firms accurately. This could be through a number of sources, like the Careers Service of your local law school, or through well-known established websites such as the Lex100, The Lawyer, or AllAboutLaw (all extremely highly recommended), and individual firms. The firm’s website and promotional material can be a good source information; however, it is important to research law firms further than their website. A special mention here is made to Lawyer2B, which offers exceptional breadth and depth of information, including law firms and the Bar, “law in practice“, careers, and a graduate trainee recruitment guide.
Furthermore, we were advised to formulate answers in our head to the following questions:
What does a lawyer actually do?
Why am I interested in becoming a lawyer?
How do my strengths, skills ane experiences march the requirements of the firm?
What evidence do I have to demonstrate that I have the necessary strengths or skills?
How can I convey that I am well rounded? Consider academic societieis, work experience, sporting activities, societies and travel.
For example, a question might be:
Please give an example of a time when you have studied or worked in circumstances that (for you) were unusual, or different.
The corresponding market criteria might suggest that – for a good answer – the candidate demonstrates adaptability, strong sense of attitudes e.g. through developing support networks, resilience, and confidence in new surroundings.
We then discussed other common questions.
Firms tend to have a very clear idea what sort of people are likely to succeed in their training contracts, to succeed ultimately in their organisation. Common competencies include:
- Team
- Communication
- Motivation
- Time management
- Commercial thinking
When preparing examples of competencies, it’s a good idea to have have a variety of examples ready from all areas of your life; structure your thoughts and responses. It’s really important to be prepared to substantiate your points.
Example: Give an example of a situation in which you worked with a group of people to achieve a specific objective. What did you learn from this experience?
Teamwork skills competency-based question
Demonstrate ability to work with others towards achieving a goal
Skills – co-operation, initiative, ability to motivate/encouraging others, achievement-focused and ability to compensate
Examples: university clubs and societies, sports teams, voluntary work, employment-related, organising an event, leadership/captaincy/student representative role.
Why do you wish to become a commercial solicitor?
Interest in commerce/business/finance: Understanding of business issues gained through various contexts, such as part-time work, university programme, or electives at law school; time spent in industry.
Helping businesses to achieve commercial objectives; client contact; matches own skills/strengths (that suit the environment), high pressure corporate environment.
Why do you wish to work at this law firm?
Give specific reasons – avoid being too value/general.
Research the firm: look at the firm’s website, brochure and the press: http://www.rollonfriday.com/, http://thelawyer.com/, http://www.lex100.com, http://chambersandpartners.com/, and http://www.legal500.com. It’s particularly useful to highlight the vision of the firm (very often a global vision in an international market), the firms’ values and other aspects of firm’s wider organisational culture. Firms are not expecting you to know everything about law and business, but these websites will help you identify how everything fits together, such as what deals are current and topical. What deals are the firm currently working on? What could you expect from your role as a trainee? Keep an eye out for recent news of relevance – not just about the firm you’re applying to, but also their clients, main competitors and the areas in which they work. Very often firms are too small as to guarantee you a particular seat such as intellectual property; you will therefore have to be flexible about which practice seats you’re assigned to in due course.
Often interesting press releases appear on Twitter (often re-tweeted by LegalAware). Professional legal services firms are making increasing use of Twitter in marketing themselves as law firms and in marketing their actual work especially, and lawyers are increasingly learning to use networks such as LinkedIn wisely (see, for example, the post by @vicmoffatt here). Some firms are on LinkedIn. Bear in mind the graduate recruitment websites can be different to the main corporate websites, and both are worth a careful look.
Also, representations of the firms often appear as channels on YouTube. For example, LegalAware has its own LegalAware YouTube channel which it is hoping to populate with videos focused on interesting business/legal topics, such as cloud computing, or core competencies, such as teamwork.
Use contacts/speakers at presentations to back up what you say
Aspects to consider: practice areas, recent deals, cases or clients, training programme, the firm’s culture
Other common questions include: academic awards and prizes, positions of responsibility, important achievement, a difficult challenge, or solving a problem with a creative solution. You could use a technique such as ‘STAR’, Situation 10%, Task 10%, Action 70%, Result 10%. Other common questions include: persuading people of your viewpoint, commercial issue, work experience, additional information, extra-curricular activities, “how did you hear about us?” The Linklaters Graduate Recruitment Team give a very helpful account of the use of STAR in their assessment process here.
General tips
- Telephone the firm’s recruitment department, if you have any questions
- Double-check for any spelling/grammatical errors
- Avoid Americanisms, e.g. “organize”
- Remember your answers can be under the limits
- Be specific – avoid vague/general statements
- Avoid cutting and pasting
- Answer the question – are there two parts to it?
- Don’t try to be funny – avoid exclamation marks
- Avoid casual language, abbreviations and e-mail/text talk
- Focus on skills/qualities demonstrated
- Provide all information requested – don’t miss anything out
- Check that all your sentences read well
- Remember to keep a copy of the final version
Tips for success
- Decide on your criteria, and make a list of firms that you are applying to
- Find out their deadlines and recruitment process
- Start your research
- Draft your applications one-by-one
- Proofread your application – at least twice
- Use the Careers Service
- Submit well before the deadline
Possible useful words
- The firm: leading, foremost, strong reputation, global, friendly, approachable, quality of work, high-profile clients
- Achievements: initiated, implemented, succeeded, overcame, developed, devised, launched, established, accomplished, proposed, coordinated, attained
- Strengths: committed, motivated, initiative, attention-to-detail, proactive, commercially aware
- Skills: communication, time management, prioritisation, organisation, interpersonal, analytical, teamworking
Best of luck from all of us!
The user of Twitter by the law twitterati : lessons for @legalaware
This is the @legalaware twitter profile page:
The Intendance report published in December 2010 gives an overview of how law firms should use Twitter.
http://www.intendance.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Intendance-Twitter-Report.pdf
It is interesting to see whether the LegalAware profile page lives up to the suggestions of Intendance. Indeed, Intendance recommends that simple changes like having a bespoke background, firm logo, and a suitable account name all help to make the page look professional. Apparently, such features make Twitter output an authentic identity, helping to attract followers and giving your tweets greater “credibility”.
We have a picture logo to represent the BPP Legal Awareness Society, although we haven’t undergone any formal branding process. The website link is to our website (http://legal-aware.org), and our background is a simple one in keeping with our new found ‘corporate identity’.
I use Twitter as a channel for promoting legal blogs, podcasts, press releases, newsletters, videos and any other legal content. Some of the blogs I would like to feature include:
http://copyright4education.blogspot.com/ (this is, as such, not a legal blog, but contains an excellent range of in-depth copyright issues, particularly relevant to education)
http://charonqc.wordpress.com/
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green
http://legalbizzle.wordpress.com/
http://www.clerkingwell.co.uk/
http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/ (Adam Wagner)
http://nipclaw.wordpress.com’ (Jane Lambert; useful advice for start-ups)
http://www.shireensmith.com/ (this is a lovely blog by Shireen which has a focus on copyright, trade marks and brand management)
I like to follow relevant people in the legal industry such as journalists, ‘blawgers’, in-house counsel, solicitors, recruiters, legal commentators, to raise the profile of our initiative at BPP (the Legal Awareness Society), and to encourage an interesting conversation between people of very different backgrounds. However, in the case of the BPP Legal Awareness Society, whilst we hope to cover all practice seats of large corporate law firms fairly, there tends to be a bias towards social media, cloud computing, human rights and reputation management tweets, because of the nature of population actively tweeting at the moment.
On our new blog (about to be launched), there is a Twitter button on our LegalAware blog, connecting to Twitter, and a Facebook one, connecting to our new page on Facebook. The Intendance survey of the top 50 UK law firms found that Twitter use can generally be split into three key areas:
- No Twitter account found for the firm
- Incomplete Twitter account – unclear if owned by the firm
- Complete Twitter account with varying levels of interaction
Remarkably, it appears that number of firms lack a clear, branded presence, which confuses potential followers – and Intendance considers that this reflects badly on the firm. Quality of tweets is another area of contention, and worryingly analysis of the output across these firms shows that a majority post updates that fail to spark debate. Instead, tweets tend to be summaries of press releases or news articles with links straight to the news page on the main website. Intendance advises that “this sort of content lacks the social element thatwill attract more followers.”
Finally, there is no doubt that Intendance considers that the social element is crucial:
“Social content helps to cement relationships – the human empathy and shared interest factor – but valuable information is what will ultimately make or break Twitter in the B2B sector, not meaningless gossip. .. The ultimate aim, in a similar way to a website, is to achieve a reputation as a credible source of legal knowhow, both on a personal level and a firm-wide level.”
