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legal careers guide What is StEP?

Our specialist legal Student Employability Programme (StEP) includes careers advice and practical activities that are designed to help you take the first steps towards a successful career in the law.

Click on the Steps below to get started.

If you are interested in a career as a lawyer but don’t know where to start, our Legal Careers Guide will help you get all the essential information you need. In this guide, you will find information about everything you need to know about the legal market, your skills assessment, how to plan, research and gain legal experience. Then we will help you with your cover letter, CVs and completing application forms. After that, we will get you ready for the interviews and prepare you for your assessment. The last step will help you look at your options and what you can do to achieve your ambitions.

There are also some key questions that you might have, and we can help to answer them. Among other things, our Legal Careers Guide will help you to find out what you have to offer and how to sell your skills and personality to employers.

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employability servicesEmployability

Find out about the range of support and opportunities we offer at the University of Law to help get your career off to the best start possible.

Useful links

Looking for help with your future career? The links below are here to make your career decisions a little easier.

Careers

BCL Legal Recruitment

Government Legal Profession - The central recruitment site for trainee solicitors and pupils into government departments.

Job Search - The University of Law’s vacancy database (available to access for accepted and current students and alumni only).

LawCareers.Net – Contains advice, guidance and news (including a newsletter), as well as details of courses and information on law firms, chambers and vacancies.

Local Government Jobs - Information and a searchable vacancy database for training contracts and legal assistant positions in local government.

Michael Page Legal Recruitment

Prospects - Law Graduate Careers – Has information on employers, training contracts and how to get a graduate career in law.

Solicitors in Local Government - Information for those interested in a legal career within local government.

Target Law – Graduate careers advice and information about graduate recruitment with a focus on law.

The Pupillage Gateway - The official site for advertising all pupillages and the site for online pupillage applications.

The Training Contract & Pupillage Handbook – Lists details of chambers offering pupillages and over 1,000 firms that offer training contracts.

Totally Legal Job Platform

UCAS - The central application website for entry to higher education which includes information for prospective students and advice on qualifications.

UK NARIC - The National Recognition Information Centre (NARIC) for the UK provides the only official source of comparison information on international education and qualifications.

Assessments and practical tests

Assessment Day – Provides a range of practice tests.

Hogan Lovells – This law firm’s website provides a sample of the Watson-Glaser critical thinking test.

Prospects - Interviews and Assessments

Prospects – Psychometric Tests

SHL - SHL is one of the leading providers of psychometric tests. The site contains advice and practice tests.

Sonru - Select Candidate Guide with information about automated online interviewing, from one of the providers of video interviewing technology. See in particular the candidate information sheet.

Associations, Boards and Societies

Bar Standards Board (BSB)

Barristers Association for Local Government and Public Service

Barristers Association for Local Government and Public Service  - Information for barristers working in local government and those interested in this sector.

Central Applications Board - Central applications for full-time LPC and GDL courses.

Chancery Bar Association

Commerce & Industry Group - Run by and for practitioners working in-house.

Commercial Bar Association

Criminal Bar Association

Crown Prosecution Service 

Find a Solicitor - The Law Society’s Directory of Solicitors.

GOV.UK – UK government website including information on education funding.

Intellectual Property Bar Association

Junior Lawyers Division - There are a range of local groups, information and events run by students for students, trainees and junior solicitors.

Legal Action Group - A national charity which campaigns for equal justice and supports activity in publicly funded legal work. The Legal Action magazine is available on subscription.

Legal Aid Agency - This agency commissions and procures legal aid services from providers like solicitors, barristers and the not-for-profit sector.

Legal Aid Practitioners Group - Represents solicitors working in legal aid as a support and lobbying organisation. The site has useful news and information on what is happening in the legal field.

Personal Injuries Bar Association

Private Client Section of the Law Society - Covers the practice areas of wills, probate, financial planning and tax, trusts, Court of Protection and estate administration.

Professional Negligence Bar Association (PNBA)

Revenue Bar Association

Sole Practitioners’ Group - Magazine and website for sole practitioners.

Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) - The regulatory body for the solicitor profession responsible for legal training.

The Association of Women Barristers

The Bar Council - The Bar’s representative body. Specialist Bar Associations.

Juriosity - The Bar Council’s Bar Directory

The Bar Standards Board – The Bar’s regulatory body which oversees training, qualification and entry to the profession.

The Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA)

The Law Society - The representative body for the solicitors’ profession. This includes links to a range of membership groups, information on practice areas and legal developments, and the ‘Find a Solicitor’ database.

Publications

Chambers and Partners  - Access to a range of publications including the Chambers UK client guide and Chambers Student Guide.

Counsel Magazine - The monthly Journal of the Bar of England and Wales.

Law Society Gazette - Weekly magazine published by the Law Society with legal news, views and vacancies.

Lawyer2B – News and information for students planning a career in Law.

Legal 500 – A business-to-business guide for solicitors and barristers, which organises the leading law firms by region for the UK and overseas.

Legal Business - The journal most used by senior members of the profession to gauge the effectiveness of their firm and their rivals within the legal marketplace.

Legal Week Magazine

Resolution - Provides details of family law solicitors by region and a useful list of fact sheets on key issues such as divorce and mediation.

The Economist Magazine

The Financial Times (FT)

The Guardian Newspaper

The Lawyer – One of the main weekly legal magazines which also provides daily email alerts.

Organisations you can volunteer with

Amnesty International is a global human rights group. Their website is useful for information and voluntary or paid opportunities.

Bail for Immigration Detainees

Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB) – Includes information about on the CAB network and voluntary or paid opportunities.

The Free Representation Unit (FRU)

Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) – Information about becoming an independent custody visitor, who is a person that checks on the welfare of people in police custody.

Independent Monitoring Boards – Find out about opportunities to become a member of your local Inspection and Monitoring Board, which is responsible for monitoring prisons and immigration removal centres.

JUSTICE – Information about JUSTICE, law reform and human rights. This organisation has a number of annual internship opportunities.