Legal apprenticeship: any tips on trying to find a trainee solicitor job

sheena1 said:

Ya I would have had to pay fees also. (everyone is entitled to free fees for one undergraduate and one postgraduate course in Ireland)

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No they're not - everyone is entitled to one free undergraduate course only. You most certainly have to pay for the vast majority of postgraduate courses, and pay through the nose at that.

Diploma in Employment Law in UCD..... My choice was based on my own interest & time commitment required for the course. Working fulltime & pretty tired out from Fe-1's & finals so I thought the Diploma was a good middle ground. Trying to get some balance back into my life.... and commiting to a 2 year part time Masters was not the way to achieve that !

Finding it quite a good course so far.

Hi, ive signed up to do the Law Soc Dip in Employmenbt Law starting in October. I am sitting EU , my final FE1 in oct and then intend applying for an apprenticeship in Nov for Blackhall 2007 admission. Do u have an apprenticeship & o u think teh dip helped u get it?

would the commerical property or financial law diplomas not be more beneficial for getting an apprenticeship? more relevant to commerical law for any of the bigger places?

would anyone who's FINISHED one of these recommend them? or will it make much difference when seeking an apprenticeship?

vv

going for an interview for trainee solicitor with a mid sized commercial firm next week...any tips or advice as to what type of questions to expect.

bor said:

going for an interview for trainee solicitor with a mid sized commercial firm next week...any tips or advice as to what type of questions to expect.

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Have a look at their website. See what kind of firm they market themselves as. Then try to find examples of how you have those same qualities. Research the partners - why do you want to work there specifically? What kind of training environment do you expect?

As someone who has just secured an apprenticeship I thaught I would give my 2 cents worth. As dats-right mentioned, having your C.V. on their desk when they are recruiting is important obviously. From now until December is critical because the results will be out and a deluge will follow.
I attended 4 interviews and got one. If you have specialist degrees,masters,experience or training in certain areas and want to concentrate on matching these with specific firms go right ahead but I went the en masse route.
I would disagree with dats-right on the emailing. I emailed my C.V. and cover letter to every firm with an email address, which was most of them, and got most of my interviews this way. Its quicker to send them, you get a prompt reply and its a hell of a lot cheaper.
Try the advertised vacancies but be aware you are a 200-1 shot. Interviews with larger firms may be more formal, competency based affairs with questions like "What is your greatest achievement?". Smaller firms tend to be less formal and try to see will you fit in. Both may ask you why you want to be a solicitor so have that one ready.
OK I am off to get my suit pressed so good luck to all of you.

ps: Everyone gets one in the end so don't worry too much.

vv

I sent out loads of CV's to get an apprenticeship. I did a lot of
interviews with large and medium sized firms and no joy. Finally, a Solicitors firm saw my CV posted on the Law Society website and called me for interview and thats the one I got. I think its a matter of a Solicitor deciding that they need an apprentice on a particularly stressful day and your CV just matching their requirements. Most are looking for the least stressful, quickest way of finding someone reliable to reduce their workload.
In my interview and cover letter I put it across that that I understood that my purpose was to reduce their workload (Sounds cringy but who cares if it gets you the job?) I also followed up the interview with a letter saying that I was really impressed with their firm and very interested and hoped that they would consider me for the position.
Hope this helps.

Hi all,

Just wanted to add that I put my CV on the Law Soc website a couple of weeks ago and I have an interview with a firm next week! Originally I thought that it would be a bit of a waste of time and that I was more likely to get an interview by sending out cvs myself but I was pleasantly suprised! Would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a contract!

I have 6 FE-1s and am waiting for the results of the last 2. I work as a para-legal in-house in a large bank in the IFSC. The company have been unable to committ to me as yet whether they can give me an apprenticeship, so much so that I am keeping my options open and applying to firms. I live in the midlands so ideally would like not to have to commute. However, should my company offer me an apprenticeship (which they have done with other staff in the past so it's not beyond the realms of possibility), I fear that I will qualify with a very narrow CV. In the future then if I wished to work in a firm in the midlands, my large amount of banking experience might stand against me. Would you agree? Would a general practice be a better place to train, bearing in mind I don't see my future in banking (albeit because I want to cut down the commute)? On the other hand, if I am offered a place here my salary remains the same, plus all my perks. My fees will be paid and all in all it will be much better financially for me. I have a mortgage to think about! What would be the better option? Accept a place here if offered, or accept one in the midlands in general practice, if offered?

Any thoughts and advice welcome.

Your banking connections- properly cultivated - will stand to you in later years as a source of referral business. I would stay put and get the varied practical work experience after qualifying. As part of your apprenticeship, your employer might allow you spend time on secondment to one of the firms of solicitors who work for the bank; this would be a good move for you also. If you want to PM me, I would certainly consider taking a banking apprentice on a six-month secondment, but so (I rather imagine) would many other firms.

In order to get an in house apprenticeship does there have to be a certain amount of solicitors , irish qualified etc in the dept ?

Are all in house training roles really made open to internal employees only ?

I currently work in house but the solicitors are all English qualified.

Yes, the same rules apply for the master with regards years PQ, and also the number of people in the dept. per irish lawyer capable of being a master. I don't think in-house apprenticeships exists per se, rather that if you work in-house already you may be lucky to have someone who will sign your indentures. As the work in-house is usually quite specific too you would have to be seconded out to a firm to get more varied experience, so the master would need to call in a favour for you in that regard.

I interview for trainees in my firm. I received 250 applications this year and we hadn't advertised a position. We decided to take one trainee in our office which is a small relatively specialist practice in the city centre. I weeded the applications down to about 15 - i threw out any with spelling mistakes (lack of attention to detail), or that were generally bad (you'd be surprised how many). Priority was given to people who had some experience in a law firm (even as a general dogsbody) as it showed they would have some sense of how a firm worked and to those whose letter showed they had done some research into the firm. I carried out a preliminary interview, sat in on the second interview and then the managing partner had to approve (a long process but we find it necessary). At interview what we want are enthusiasm, a willingness to work hard, cop on, an ability to get on with people. You want a trainee who you can leave alone with a client and they won't embarass you!!!

To be honest you expect good results and well groomed experience - you need to bring something else to the table.

I have no difficulty with email applications and in fact the majority of our applications are by email. If you do get a goodbye letter you should consider reapplying 6 months later as circumstances can change.

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Hello,
Just wanted to add my experience on trying to get an apprenticeship, in case it may help someone. I got all the fe1's in June and the Irish exam and it was still difficult to find an apprentsihip. I got out the Law Society Directory and I sent out exactly 250 CV’s, starting with the firms nearest to my house and working my way from there. I am also from down the country and sent CV’s to my home town as well and I was prepared to move down temporarily if I needed to.
I had four interviews. One of them did not even get back to me, to tell me that I had been unsuccessful, one told me on the spot that I was "not suitable". That interview was a total waste of time and I don’t know why the solicitor bothered to interview me as it was obvious in the course of the interview that he had not even read my CV. The third interview that I got was by answering an advert in the Law Society Gazette and I was told that I was just piped to the post for it, at the time I was just grateful that they got back to me. I was finally successful at my fourth interview I had.
My advice is to keep trying. I am the last of my friends to get an apprenticeship, I had no contacts in the legal profession and I suppose I am proof that you don’t need contacts to get an apprenticeship, it just takes a bit longer. I was anxious to get an apprenticeship before the December FE1 results came out and another few hundred more with 8 FE1’s were on the market.
I know that the Law Society keeping saying it, but if you can get any legal experience at all it really helps. I had loads of office experience but not in a law office so I got a job as a legal secretary to a sole practitioner. Every interview that I went to, they commented on the fact that I was working as a legal sec. One of them said that it shows that you are dedicated and want to gain experience, but also it shows that you were not sitting on your ass waiting for an apprenticeship and you are gaining some legal experience.
The problem with trying to get legal experience is the fact that most of the interviewers see through you and know that you are looking for an apprenticeship and therefore wont be there for long. I was up front with the solicitor I was working for and he was good about it. But if you do get a job, who knows what contacts you could make.

Hang in there. I know that it is easy for me to say that, but you will get one. I was the last of my friends to get an appr. Some of them did not even have to do interviews, you just have to keep trying. There will be more and more of us coming up the ranks soon with no family contacts so they will just have to like it, won't they?