The 5 Mistakes International Students Make When Applying to London Law Firms
When I graduated from my LLM and looked for a job in London as an international student, I had no connections and absolutely no idea how the UK legal market worked. I literally had to navigate the entire law firm application process on my own — and that was brutal: I wasted almost an entire year figuring out what went wrong with my applications and interview strategies. When my student visa expired, my heart was filled with regret, "Am I just not good enough...?"
Eventually, it took me roughly 100+ applications, 5+ Assessment Centres and countless rejections to finally land my dream job at one of the elite law firms in London. I secured a Training Contract, qualified at Baker McKenzie as an M&A lawyer, and built a legal career in London. But over the past years, I've seen thousands of international students making the exact same mistakes I made.
The truth is if you're an international student or foreign lawyer applying for a Training Contract, Vacation Scheme or paralegal role in the UK, you're playing the same game as domestic candidates, but on "HARD" mode. Here are the five most common mistakes you need to stop making immediately, if you want to get your first AC or job offer.
Mistake 1: Treating Your Internationality as a Weakness Instead of a Unique Selling Point (USP)
Many international students downplay their diverse background in applications, or they simply don't know how they can "sell" their international experiences more effectively on paper. Many of them think that since they didn't grow up in the UK, they are automatically at a disadvantage compared to domestic candidates.
This is fundamentally the wrong mindset. Lawyers working in London are essentially in the driving seat of some of the biggest global deals, and they often have to liaise with local counsel across the world to deliver a comprehensive solution for their global clients. Many of those top law firms are advising on cross-border transactions involving multiple jurisdictions on a daily basis. Hence, your international background is not a liability — it is your USP. Here are a few ideas for you to "sell" yourself more effectively when applying to global firms:
Whenever you mention any cross-jurisdictional deal of a firm, draw from your previous work experiences where you interacted with local counsel across Asia, Europe or the US.
Whenever you mention any D&I initiative of a firm, draw from your diverse background, language skills or experiences where you're part of an international organisation or society.
Whenever you mention the internationality of a firm, draw from your past experiences where you worked in an international team, joined an international society or even played a sport involving teammates from an ethnically diverse background.
Whenever you mention the small trainee intake size of a firm, draw from your past experiences where you interned at a small team of 4, or led a small student society to achieve certain growth strategies.
When I applied, I didn't try to sound like a local student. I highlighted my experiences involving different law career paths (e.g. barristers, high street firms, global law firms, legal researchers), my language skills (e.g. Mandarin, Cantonese, English), my innovative thinking and ability to adapt to new environments (e.g. joining entrepreneurship competitions and global sustainability projects). If you have a diverse range of experiences (both legal and non-legal) or understand how businesses operate in a different region/industry, that is a commercial asset. Frame it that way, don't feel ashamed of your own experiences and sell yourself well.
Mistake 2: Failing to Prove Commitment to a Foreign Legal Market
While your international background is an asset, law firms still need to know you are genuinely committed to working in the UK specifically (not just because you want that fat paycheck here).
Law firms are genuinely curious about your motivation, so if they look at your CV and there is literally nothing there suggesting that you have made any conscious efforts to understand a foreign legal market, they will not bother progressing your application to the next stage. As an international student, you must proactively address this gap in your applications. Do not wait for them to ask you in the interview. Instead, show the amount of efforts you've made in order to understand UK as your next career destination — whether through:
attending as many in-person open days as possible while you're still a student.
doing all the virtual internships you can find online.
speaking to as many future trainees or lawyers at those global law firms at networking events.
interning at small high-street law firms in the UK (some students think there is no point doing an internship if it's not a big or global law firm, which is wrong).
volunteering at legal clinics or literally any organisations that are hiring legal volunteers.
The truth is international students need these evidence on their CV more than any other domestic candidates, and ideally you need to start exploring these from Day 1 of your UK legal study.
Mistake 3: Underestimating the Importance of "Commercial Awareness"
In many jurisdictions (especially those in Asia), securing a top legal job is largely about your university and grades. Yet, in the UK grades are just the baseline. What will also help you get the offer is "commercial awareness."
International students often struggle here because for the majority of the time when they studied law, they were only told to focus on getting good grades and learning all those legal theories and case law. Most of them have no idea how businesses actually operate or how understanding that can help them get a job offer at BigLaw firms. Whenever you read any news articles or deals done by certain law firms, ask yourself some of these questions:
What are the commercial drivers behind a particular deal?
Why is a client acquiring this company and what are the considerations involved?
What are the regulatory risks in question?
How does inflation, geopolitical tension or a change in government policy affect the firm's clients?
What are clients looking for when choosing their legal advisors nowadays?
If you cannot hold at least a 3-minute conversation about any of the above topics or current commercial issues (e.g. use of AI and legal tech) and its impact on a law firm's practice areas, your case study or partner interview will inevitably fail, regardless of how good your grades are.
Mistake 4: Applying Too Late in an Application Cycle
Domestic students often know about the Vacation Scheme and Training Contract process years in advance. In contrast, international students often only realise how early those application deadlines are and appreciate how intense the application process is when they almost finish their Master's Degree, or when they're already in their final year of LLB.
This knowledge gap is significant, and I made this exact same mistake back then — it was until almost 3 months before I graduated from my LLM, that I had decided to look for a job in the UK (while a lot of other aspiring lawyers were already announcing on LinkedIn that they have secured a vacation scheme or training contract somewhere...)
The truth is I didn't even bother looking into the UK application process when I first started my LLM: I mainly focused on getting decent grades, meeting new friends and enjoying my first time living abroad — not that there is anything wrong with enjoying your life and focusing on studies, but if getting a job offer is your ultimate goal, you need to start as early as possible.
One of the most common excuses aspiring lawyers use is, "I don't know where to start" or "I don't feel like I'm ready to apply now." Yet, in my opinion, readiness is overrated because very often by the time when you feel "ready" to apply, most global law firms have already filled half their assessment centre spots on a rolling basis. More importantly, it actually takes time for you to know how to draft a compelling written application and do well at those online tests, pre-recorded video interviews and assessment centres. The earlier you start, the faster you're going to close that knowledge gap you have compared to other domestic candidates.
All in all, you must treat law firm applications like one of the most important modules of your law degree. Start researching law firms and doing some virtual internships before you even start your degree in the UK. Attend open days and law fairs early in September or October. Submit applications weeks before the deadline and don't wait until the very last minute.
99 percent of the aspiring lawyers think about getting an offer at their dream firm one day, but only 1 percent of them actually take consistent actions to get there. Be that 1% percent.
Mistake 5: Copying Generic Templates Instead of Telling Your Own Story
Since international students often lack a network of older peers to ask for advice, they rely heavily on generic templates they find online. The result? An application that reads exactly like 500 other applications. I know this because I've personally shared loads of free resources and templates online for the past 7 years. Sometimes I read an application and realise that it looks kinda similar to what I wrote years ago...
The truth is a lot of people hate the application drafting process and are lazy. They just want a quick fix. They want to submit many high-quality applications as quickly as possible. Therefore, many of them simply copy and paste sentences from successful templates or use AI to prepare for their applications — but recruiters can spot a copied template or AI-generated answer from a mile away.
As a first-generation lawyer and an international student, I had to learn how to tell my own story — the niche details of each of my work experience and the unique path that brought me to the UK. Your story is your strongest asset. When answering "Why this firm?" or "Tell me about yourself," you must build a bridge between your specific, unique experiences and the firm's specific strengths. The specific details are what truly distinguish you from another candidate, but templates or AIs are designed to strip off those specific details to make them universally applicable to anyone using them.
Back when I applied for training contracts, there weren't that many templates or resources available. Nowadays, there are loads of free/paid templates you can find online, but in fact a lot of people are still not getting any job offers, why?
When there are so many resources out there, it is if there are no resources out there — we simply don't know what to follow anymore. The truth is you don't need any more templates, you just need to learn the skills of how to effectively sell yourself.
Conclusion: You Don't Have to Play the Application Game on "HARD" Mode
Applying to global law firms as an international student is indeed harder. There is no denying that. You have visa pressures, cultural nuances to learn, and often a completely different job application process to navigate. But it is entirely possible. I did it. Many of my coachees from places like Hong Kong, Dubai, China, Nigeria, Malaysia and Singapore have done it too.
If you're an international student struggling to break into a foreign legal market, stop relying on generic advice. Start leveraging your unique background, prove your commitment to the that country, and learn how to write applications that actually sound like you. As an international student or foreign lawyer, you really don't have much time to waste.
Do you want to land a BigLaw Offer that can completely change your life?
P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are 2 ways I can help you secure your dream legal roles: 1. Take my Free Application Templates & Interview Master Sheet [Get it here]. 2. Join the Part-Time BigLaw Academy [Join the Academy today].
Hope you all have a good rest of the day!
Gordon Chung
