Careers advice and information

Many of our students go on to practise law, whether in a professional or voluntary capacity. We provide a range of support to help our students achieve their ambitions:

Specialist Institutions Careers Service

• As a Birkbeck student, you will be able to take advantage of the services offered by The Specialist Institutions’ Careers Service [SICS], part of The Careers Group, University of London.

School of Law careers evenings

• Every year, we run careers evenings for our current students, where we invite relevant law colleges and graduates of our courses to give you more information on potential law careers.

Summer vacation schemes at law firms

• Candidates who make it onto a summer vacation scheme at a law firm are significantly more likely to obtain a training contract. Even those who are unsuccessful gain valuable experience in researching and making applications. It means they can make their mistakes and learn lessons in time for the actual training contract application deadlines of late July onwards. These deadlines should be on the radar of any penultimate or final-year law student or interested final-year non-law student.
• We provide details of these deadlines for our students, as well as support for those who wish to apply for these.

Relevant publications and job ads

• We receive various publications which we distribute to students, such as The Training Contract Handbook and Lex Magazine.
  
• When we receive job advertisements from firms, we always notify our students of these opportunities.

Useful links for careers information

• LawCareers.Net offers the most comprehensive list of deadlines for both summer schemes and for training contracts. You are also encouraged to sign up to LC.N Weekly, the email newsletter from LawCareers.Net http://www.lawcareers.net/LCNWeekly.aspx
• Work placement schemes: http://www.lawcareers.net/Solicitors/VacationSchemeDeadlines.aspx.
• WikiJob.co.uk is a website that students and graduates can use to find information about recruitment processes and interviews at top law firms, such as Slaugter and May, Linklaters and Clifford Chance. It is free to use.
• Legal Job Spot Recruitment is a job listings website specialising in law jobs. Includes vacancies within law firms and other legal organisations for solicitors, legal secretaries, and legal support staff.
• Lawyer2B.com is an exciting new website from The Lawyer's student and trainee magazine Lawyer 2B. Together the two products provide a complete resource for any students who are considering a career in law. Both products offer students unbiased careers advice as well as keep them up to date with all the latest developments in the legal market.
• Training contracts: http://www.lawcareers.net/Solicitors/TrainingContractDeadlines.aspx.
• Employability are working with leading law firms including Herbert Smith and Mayer Brown to offer students/graduates with disabilities the opportunity to gain valuable work experience. For more information download the Herbert Smith and Mayer Brown flyers.
• http://www.traineesolicitor.co.uk/
• http://doctorjob.com/
• http://www.timesonline.co.uk/law

Vocational course information: information on the Legal Practice course (LPC) and Bar Vocational Course (BVC):

• General information about legal careers
• Bar Council education and training website
• Central Applications Board for the LPC
• Information about training to be a solicitor

Websites recommended by our graduates

• http://www.lawcareers.net/Solicitors/TrainingContractDeadlines.aspx
• http://www.rollonfriday.co.uk
• http://www.cvmailuk.comhttp://www.totallylegal.com/content/
• http://www.thelawyer.com/careerreport
• http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/psychotests.htm