A decision made...

So I guess I haven’t done well in keeping by blawg up-to-date recently. For that, I apologise. Basically I have had a lot on my plate. Big decisions to make; different legal experiences to complete; and, of course, lots of enjoyable summer reading to do.

Regular readers of my blog will recall that I was a late applicant for a place on the BVC. For a long time, I simply believed that I wanted to be a commercial solicitor and blindly went about trying to secure a training contract. This Summer I did a vacation scheme at an international commercial law firm. I also completed my first mini-pupillage. I finally decided to take a year out. My intention is to commence the BVC in September 2009. I am not completely sure what I will do in the meantime. I will endeavour to complete more mini-pupillages. I should probably find some gainful employment somewhere which could either be a useful addition to my C.V. or, more likely, helpful in paying the BVC fees.

This was one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make. Looking back now, I feel there was a period whilst at university where I should have been more forward-thinking like many of my peers. When you consider how much law students at the same institution talk amongst themselves about their future career plans, it is quite shocking how I have been able to delay giving even a small amount of thought to what I want to do after university. I ask you to forget though, dearest blogreader, how late I came to the party and instead to rejoice in the fact that I turned up at all.

I should add a note of appreciation for some of the other bloggers whose blogs have been useful in helping me come to this decision. Through reading your blogs and understanding the difficult journey to becoming a barrister has been very, very helpful. Its not just the particular details of what it is you are doing and how you feel about it that has been helpful, it’s the fact that you chose to pursue a career in a profession that is notoriously difficult to enter into. As someone who blindly accepted a potential legal career as a commercial solicitor because of the obvious perks and supposedly glamorous lifestyle, I do value the determination and passion that someone who is looking for a career as a barrister needs. Beyond any other means, it has been through reading many of your blogs (especially those listed down the side of this blog) that I begun to understand this.

Actual experience of the different sides of the profession has been very helpful too. In short, I absolutely hated the two week vacation placement that I did at a commercial law firm. In contrast, I wholeheartedly enjoyed the time that I spent on a mini-pupillage. I loved every minute of the time I spent at chambers and in different courts I visited. At the end of the vacation scheme I was on, a fellow student asked me:

“So, Lackie, what was your favourite part of the scheme?”
I thought about some of the fantastic individuals I had met at the firm: the partners and associates who did their best to involve me in the deals they were working on and the trainee solicitors who went out of their way to ensure that I enjoyed the two weeks I spent at the firm.
After thinking for a while, I replied:
“Well, I thought visiting a Court on Monday to observe that commercial case and have a chat with a Judge in his chambers was the highlight. How about yourself?”

What can I say? I told the truth and really that was when I realised that I’d finally found something I felt good pursuing. A career as a barrister, that is.

Apologies....

...for not posting on this blog for a while. I have been kept busy with my vacation placement at a commercial law firm which finishes at the end of this week. Readers of my blawg will be aware that this was my summer of reckoning - when I would finally decide whether to do the BVC or not. I do believe that I found my mini-pupillage infinitely better than the vacation scheme I am currently doing. My experience of the latter has not been that different to Android's experience at her new job.

I still haven't finished blawging about the final two days of the mini-pupillage I did earlier this Summer. I shall get round to that soon. In addition I will probably blawg about my experiences of working at an international commercial law firm; so you have all that to look forward to.

In terms of what I will be going next i.e. in September. I still don't know. I am still in touch with different BVC providers to see if they have any places that they can offer through clearing ('clearing', incidentally, is what it is actually called - its not something I just made up and just assumed to have always been there; I mention this because more prepared folk are unlikely to have heard of such a thing being available). Anyway, I am keeping my fingers crossed that something will come up.

What else? Well I have continued to maintain my interest in the American Presidential elections and in particular, the Democratic National Convention happening now in Denver. I absolutely love these Conventions - I think they are absolutely fantastic; really great to watch and Democracy in action. I enjoy the hair-raising speeches, the nomination process involving all the different States of the USA which are brought together. I have watched all of the first night speeches and thought it was great. Especially Michelle Obama; but also Ted Kennedy.

I must add that I am a little uncertain about Obama's choice of running-mate: Joe Biden. Admittedly, I am still learning a lot about him. My main problem is that I don't see how he can usefully help Obama win the Presidency in November. Recent polls back me up on this claim.

I have not been surprised at all that the race is becoming increasingly closer with Obama and McCain virtually neck-and-neck. McCain has benefited a lot through his negative T.V. adds against Obama. I think this just shows that he is running out of ideas. I think the closer we get to November, the less he is going to have to be negative about that he hasn't used already. Also, I am expecting that Obama's numbers are going to go through the roof when the Denver Convention is concluded and he emerges officially as the party's nominee. I don't believe that McCain will get a similar boost following his party's convention. And, if he picks Romney as his running-mate, I think he will have handed the race to Obama & Biden there and then. On the other hand, if he picks a very different kind of running-mate - the female kind - I think we could see something very different happening. I think that there are a lot of female voters that will turn to the Republicans and away from Obama and the Democrats. This will undoubtedly be costly to the Democrats in November. There are two groups of people without which any Democrat in the U.S. would not get elected to office without: Women voters and African-American voters.

I should add that I entirely understand why Obama didn't opt for a female running-mate. If he wins, his administration will already be ground-breaking: the first Black President. You can't staff a new administration or the Democratic ticket like an arc.

The Race against Time

As is to be expected in the final week of my Easter holidays, I am steadily labouring away at revision of various topics and subjects and working to complete my dissertation on time.

The dissertation is worth quite a substantial part of this year's marks but I'm really trying to ensure that I am adequately prepared for my exams too. It is difficult; but this will all be made easier when the dissertation deadline passes, I've recovered from celebrating what will be a short-lived achievement and I'll be able to give exam preparation the attention it deserves.

Having decided to apply for the BVC, I am having to fill in all sorts of forms at considerable speed. This, whilst simultaneously having to perform all sorts of calculations of risk, benefits and money that come with such an important decision. To give you a taster:

- Now that any opportunity of securing a scholarship has passed, do I feel comfortable funding the BVC myself?
- How sure am I that I will enjoy the BVC?
- Which BVC provider and location is my first choice? What are its ratings and reputation like? (Can't seem to find this information anywhere)
- How sure am I that I will do well on the BVC?
- What are my chances of securing pupillage?
- How many pupillage application cycles before I say 'enough is enough'?
- Just how old will I be before I start working? Do I feel comfortable with that?
- What if, after doing well on the Vacation schemes in the Summer, I find myself comforted by the job security that becoming a solicitor involves and accept a training contract offer instead? As I will have two years before the training contract commences will I be able to: (i) complete the BVC (ii) have a shot at securing pupillage (iii) realise that its not going to happen and quickly do the QLTT before commencing a training contract?

I'm planning on submitting my BVC application as soon as possible really - this week I intended. In addition to answering these questions, I will also, as I mentioned in a previous post, have to consider my final degree classification and my mini-pupillage experience. So really I'm not having to make the final decision as soon as I think but its hard not thinking these things anyway!

Feedback

Well I have received some feedback for the vacation scheme interview and assessments I recently did at a city law firm. I was unsuccessful in getting onto the summer scheme.

Most of the points that I raised in a previous blog-entry, regarding my performance, were reflected in the feedback that I received. It was two things that really let me down. Firstly, the pre-prepared presentation that I delivered that drastically didn't adhere to the time constraints; and, secondly, the group exercise in which I didn't contribute enough. On the positive side: the verbal reasoning test that I sat was fine as were most of my answers during the interview. The polite graduate recruitment officer who provided me with the feedback informed me that I wasn't the only lacklustre performer in the group exercise, which was nice to know. On reflection though, I should have participated more within the group and tried to change things as they were going wrong. Even if this meant interrupting other members and trying to bring more structure to our discussion, it still, I feel, would have been a worthwhile contribution.

Oh well; you can't win them all.

Vacation Scheme Interview & Assessment

Today I was in London for an interview & assessment for a vacation scheme with a major city law firm.

By the way, 'today' is Monday; not Saturday as my blog actually suggests. I am having some problems with the date & time settings on my blog.

As is typically involved with such things there were various parts to the selection procedure - I had an interview; gave a pre-prepared presentation; sat a verbal reasoning test and took part in a group exercise with 7 other candidates.

Having undertaken similar forms of assessment in the past, I felt that I was better prepared to perform well on the day. Its amazing though how once you get into an interview or assessment situation that you forget about all the things that had calmed you down previously. Rather than being calmed and relaxed, I felt rushed.

The presentation that I delivered was not done so well unfortunately. I fear that I came across as being unclear and confused at times. The points that I was making did answer the questions I was set quite well at least that is the impression I got from the interviewer. There were a couple of times when I had to provide additional examples and explain things further because they were unclear. I felt though that I was able to think well on my feet. So, no problem there.

The problem with my presentation was in its organisation and the fact that it exceeded the allocated time. I didn't immediately begin by getting to the question and answering it. Instead, I set the scene for too long and this was easy to detect because I didn't say any of the key words in the questions until about 60% of the way through the presentation. All this was a direct result of having only finished preparing the presentation in the morning though.

Nothing much to say about the verbal reasoning test. I had sat similar tests in the past and had done pretty well on them. Hopefully the same was the case this time.

I very much enjoyed the the company of the other candidates. They were all talented individuals: interesting, experienced and a pleasure to speak to. They were also high-achievers in the courses they were studying on. There was less of the: 'Oh, yeah, I am behind with my dissertation too - its such a drag, isn't it?' and more of the 'I'm not too pleased with my 65% in Company Law; its out of place with respect to my results; Contract Law, for instance, I got 77% and won the academic prize for the highest-scorer in my year'.

The group exercise was solely based on a commercial issue with no legal analysis required. We performed really bad as a group though. We didn't approach our task in an organised manner and our conclusions were questionable. Fundamentally though, we didn't work well as a group which was what was being tested. We didn't try to listen to each other and compromise; instead, we enjoyed opportunities to pick holes in each other's ideas.

Still, in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Speaking to current trainees at the firm afterwards helped confirms some of the things that I do and don't like about the nature of their work. The trainees seemed to enjoy the fact that they were able to drag themselves through their law degrees (mostly at top-10 universities) and found comfort in the fact that they didn't have to employ their legal knowledge as part of their work. Instead, because of the client-centred approach (which they seem to make far too much of a deal about) they can hide what they don't know about the law (a direct result of never having to maintain it after studying law through trips to the law library) with the defence that they don't want to use too much legal jargon so that the client doesn't understand them.

I'd really relish the opportunity to have to research difficult areas of the law and understand them before I could discharge the obligations due to whomever. If I have gotten things wrong as part of my work - I'd like to know that I was the one who made the slip-up so that I could take responsibility and learn for the future. I get the feeling that in working on large commercial transactions as part of a huge team (and often around the globe) there is very little that you can say you contributed by yourself. As a result, solicitors, I feel, don't get that feeling of satisfaction of having achieved something substantive.

Accordingly, the day was useful in giving me food-for-thought as regards my future career. I do not feel that I would be comfortable working at the firm that I was assessed at and like I say, I think that for many reasons.

Afterwards on my journey back home, I was thinking about how to approach my Trusts law revision. Its actually something I have been thinking about for a while now. The problem that I am having is that I literally do not know where to start! Its not that I don't understand particular parts; I am just trying to find a nice area to begin my revision. I have looked at past exam papers - especially last year's - and I feel that I could tackle them with equal success. Of course, revision is about raising my knowledge and thoughtfulness; but that still doesn't answer my question! After much though, I have decided though that I am going to start half-way through the syllabus as that is an area that I feel least comfortable with - the 'Beneficiary principle' and non-charitable purpose trusts it is then!