Welcome to The Training Contract & Pupillage Handbook 2012. This is the 15th edition of the
handbook and is thus the product of a decade and a half of experience helping you would-be lawyers
out there. And this year, we’ve really honed our craft – expanding sections, adding information and
checking facts – all in an effort to make sure that you have every morsel of relevant information
right at your fingertips.
So let’s start at the very beginning, as Julie Andrews once sang. “Solicitor v Barrister” examines the difference
between the two main strands of the profession, and is swiftly followed by “Getting the best careers advice” and
“Choosing where to apply” – both useful guides to clarifying your search. Then it’s down to the nuts and bolts of
applying, with twin chapters on application and interview techniques, after which we take a look at how things work
in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and indulge in a spot of schadenfreude with the amusing “Where did it all go wrong?”.
You’ll want to check out the bumper work experience section, which includes first-hand accounts from work placement
veterans in the “Insider reports” chapter. For the first year ever, we bring you a chapter on that work experience staple,
pro bono, written by industry leader LawWorks. The postgraduate phase is explained in full, with more acronyms than you can
shake a VBS (very big stick) at. There’s also helpful advice on how to fund your studies - in these straitened economic times,
this has never been more relevant!
We’ve also got all manner of professional bodies involved – the Law Society, Bar Council, Solicitors Regulation Authority, Bar
Standards Board, Junior Lawyers Division and Young Barristers’ Committee – to write about what they do and how they can help
you at this crucial stage of your fledgling career.
And don’t miss the Solicitors’ and Barristers “practice area” sections. We’ve mercilessly grilled dozens of practitioners, from
trainees and pupils to partners and QCs, to form a detailed picture of their areas of expertise and what it really means to be a
lawyer. And to help you visualise this cross-section of professionals, we’ve this year included flattering headshots. A feast
for the eyes!
Of course, it’s not just hard-copy help we offer – we also urge you to make full use of the handbook’s online sister,
www.LawCareers.Net. The very embodiment of online satisfaction,
the site gives you access to blogs, deadlines, legal news and so much more. And with the
new, customisable MyLC.N, you can really make the site your own!
Finally, June 2011 saw the eighth annual LawCareers.Net Training & Recruitment Awards take place. The awards identify and reward
those firms whose training and recruitment procedures are the best in the country. In holding the awards, LawCareers.Net hopes to
inspire the entire profession to strive towards offering new entrants a challenging and rewarding career. You can read about the
winning firms and so much more in Best in Law, available online here.
As ever, we wish you all the very best with your legal career and hope that the
handbook can help you along the way. Happy reading!