Believe it or not — law firms in London are not purely looking for a 1st or academic excellence, but whether or not you’re an all-rounded person. We’ll kick things off by introducing the three pillars of profile building. We’ll let you understand what law firms are looking for in their future trainee solicitors.

We’ll then discuss the importance of Open Days and networking events to shape your narrative in your applications. Very often, candidates (especially the international ones) don’t realise how important these events are on their CV — in fact, they’re the low hanging fruits that can completely change your application game. And that’s not all — you’ll also learn how to effectively pitch Open days and events you attended in an application form to grab the recruiters’ attention.

We’ll also delve into the power of leveraging various legal and non-legal work experience in your application form. You don’t need vacation schemes, internships or paralegal experiencesat BigLaw firm in order to stand out. What matters most is how you link all your past experiences to the role of a solicitor.

For those who are lacking work experiences or feel like their profile is not as strong compared to other candidates, you’ll learn 3 unorthodox ways for you to get more diverse experiences ASAP, including things you can do right now that can completely change how law firms will perceive your CV.

By the end of this session, you’ll be equipped with the necessary skills to craft your own unique story, especially how to answer the “why commercial law” and other motivational questions effectively. You’ll also have a much clearer idea on how to sell yourself after completing the Week 1 tutorial worksheet 📊

The session begins with understanding how your academic excellence really affects your chance of success in your training contract applications. In fact, whether you’re from a Russell group or non-Russell group university, you still have a decent chance of getting a training contract if you follow the strategies and techniques I used. We’ll also discuss your law firm selection strategy if grade is one of your biggest concerns — there are certain firms you should prioritise applying instead.

Next, we’ll discuss the alternative ways of demonstrating your academic excellence apart from grades and learn how to punch above your GPA. We’ll go through a comprehensive list of activities and things you can do to significantly improve your profile. We’ll also elaborate on the important note-taking and exam techniques that can help you transform your grades in any future law school exams or solicitors’ examinations (e.g. SQE, New York Bar).

Lastly, we’ll delve into the most influential extra-curricular activities that can best showcase your transferrable skills, and understand what qualities law firms care about the most. We’ll also understand what law firms are actually looking for when they ask you about your hobbies — many candidates simply put what they’re genuinely interested in, but lack the ability to pitch their hobbies in an effective way to sell themselves on paper.

At the end of the Week 2 session, you’ll learn how to create your own unique selling points that help you stand out from the crowd. You’ll also learn how to turn your achievements and hobbies into ”a wow factor” that impresses recruiters in your applications.

We'll kick off by telling you what factors you need to consider before picking the right law firms to apply to. One common mistake made by aspiring lawyers is that they have a strong bias for certain law firms (regardless of objectively how likely they will get an offer there), and sometimes such biased approach may actually lower their chance of success.

We’ll then delve into the techniques of researching law firms effectively. Most people focus too much on the practice area strengths of a law firm and ignore other value-driven factors that can potentially make their applications stand out more. We’ll further learn the “internal commercial awareness” and how law firms operate as a business, including their international strategy (which is something that most candidates don’t understand!)

Next, we’ll set up a personalised application strategy for you in the coming cycle, highlighting the key considerations and my recommended list of law firms that you should apply to. We’ll further go through a step-by-step approach to preparing your coming applications. We’ll also understand the pros and cons of a vacation scheme application and a training contract application, assessing which one is the best option for you at this stage.

At the end of the Week 3 session, you’ll be provided with a comprehensive “application tracker” to set up your own application strategy and know exactly which law firms you should apply to going forward to maximise your chance of success.

One of the key factors affecting your chance of getting past the application stage is how well your cover letter is drafted. What distinguishes a good cover letter from a bad one is how detailed and tailored it is to the specific law firm you’re applying to.

We’ll kick off by understanding what a bad cover letter usually looks like (with an example). We’ll then guide you through a four-step approach, helping you identify areas which you can make improvements in your cover letter.

First of all, we’ll go through the best ways to structure your cover letter and how to answer the “why commercial law” question effectively. We’ll also study sample answers together to understand the quality law firms are actually looking for and how to make your response inherently personal.

Second, we’ll learn the best way to tailor your application to the specific law firm you’re applying to. By highlighting both the achievements and value-driven factors of a law firm, your “why this firm” answer will have the substance it needs to appeal to recruiters. We’ll also show you exactly how you can “link” aspects of a firm to your personal experiences to demonstrate the “linkage” required, which can help you get past the application stage more easily.

Next, we’ll go through the “skill matching” process, helping you to identify the key personal qualities each law firm is looking for and how you can pick you best experience to prove that you’re the most suitable candidate out there.

Lastly, we’ll also learn how to articulate your transferrable skills effectively in your cover letter to constantly remind recruiters that you satisfy every key skill they’re looking for in a future trainee. We’ll further dissect the different cover letter formats you may encounter in training contract applications and the answering techniques for each one.

At the end of the Week 4 session, you’ll be equipped with all the knowledge and techniques to write a high-quality cover letter. You’ll also gain access to a “Cover Letter Master Sheet”, guiding you how to perfect your cover letter writing with my annotated comments.

This is your last skill session relating to application drafting. We’ll delve into the answering techniques that distinguish great applicants from good applicants.

We’ll kick off by understanding how you can present your academic background in a positive light in your applications. We’ll also discuss how you can use the “additional information” section effectively to highlight your achievements and motivation (especially for someone with an international background).

Next, we’ll discuss the most commonly asked questions in written applications (and also at interviews), including the “Proudest Achievement” Questions, “Situational Judgement” Questions, “Firm’s Competitors” Questions, “Commercial Awareness” Questions and many more. We’ll provide you with sample answers and walk you through the techniques and examples I used for answering each question.

We’ll end this session by discussing how you can best tackle the closing questions of your application forms. You’ll be provided with a comprehensive “Application Master Sheet” showing detailed answers and my annotated notes to help you formulate your answers.

The 6th session covers the first stage of assessment, including online tests and pre-recorded video interviews.

We’ll start with understanding the important techniques and approach to answering the 5 types of Watson-Glaser Test Questions, including Inference, Recognising Assumptions, Deduction, Interpretation and Evaluation of Arguments. We’ll demonstrate the logic behind each question type and flag the common mistakes candidates make when answering each of them, using a number of mock questions.

We’ll then delve into the rationale behind a pre-recorded video interview. You’ll learn all the tips I used to pass the video interview. Many candidates are under impression that the substance of their answer matters the most when it comes to video interviews, but that’s not the case. We’ll also reveal the most commonly asked questions and learn how to tackle other trick questions using a “skill” element.

At the end of this session, you’ll acquire the presentation skills and answering techniques required to pass the first stage of the assessment. You’ll be provided with a “Video Interview Cheatsheet” to help you nail you next video interview. You’ll also be given a list of premium resources to practice your online tests.

In the 7th session, we’ll navigate the most effective way in tackling case studies, written and group exercises at the assessment centre, including the specific techniques I used to get a high score.

First of all, we’ll start with dissecting the types of questions you will encounter in a group exercise, and delve into the 8 different techniques I’ve discovered to tick all the boxes recruiters are looking for in such assessment. We’ll also go through a sample group exercise scenario together to understand the typical issues and how to effectively apply the techniques you just learned.

We’ll then discuss the strategies and techniques I used to do well in the written exercise and case study. We’ll demonstrate how you can apply an umbrella framework to every case study you encounter and then gradually feed in additional factors and sub-points using 3 critical business and legal frameworks. This will help you deliver a highly structured answer at assessment centre.

We’ll end this session by doing a mock case study together. You’re advised to review the articles provided in the Tutorial Worksheet and then answer a few questions I raised during the session. We’ll then explain to you step-by-step the most effective analytical framework to use when presenting your answers to the partners to impress them, and how you can acquire commercial awareness you need by training your brain to think commercially.

This is one of the most important sessions for your assessment centre preparation, i.e. partner interviews, and we’ll go through the strategies and techniques I used to answer the most critical questions.

For those who don’t know, one of the most commonly cited reasons for law firms to reject a candidate post-interview is that their motivation isn’t strong enough.

We’ll start this session with the tricks to answer the key motivational questions in a way that grabs partners’ attention. We’ll teach you how to prepare answers that prompt the interviewers to ask follow-up questions you want them to ask you and thus perceive you in a positive light.

We’ll then explore the importance of demonstrating your passion in a hobby-related question, as most law firms want to hire someone with an interesting personality (and there are enough mechanical lawyers out there).

Next, we’ll discuss how you can answer the “competency-based”, “situational judgement” and “commercial awareness” questions structurally using different frameworks. We’ll then delve into how you should deal with curveballs or wacky questions — note that interviewers are not trying to trick you and all they want is to test you whether you can think on your own feet. We’ll demonstrate how you can do well even when facing such unexpected questions.

We’ll end this session by teaching you the two types of questions you must ask the law firm partners at the end of your interviews to leave a lasting impression! You’ll also be provided with a comprehensive “Partner Interview Cheatsheet” to hone your interview skills and get a training contract offer!