Of course you can!
The team at Yegal has years of experience working with law students. We of course value academic standing but we have helped many students with less impressive grades. The information to help you design a career that you want and applies to all law students regardless of the number on their transcript
Don’t get Caught Up on Clerkships and/ or Graduate Roles
The reality is this. Around 9000 law students are admitted to practise each year and our research indicates that 1560 were hired by mid and top tier firms in 2022.
So 1 in 9 law graduates secure a position at higher profile firms. The rest can and do go on to have successful careers. Here’s what they tend to do:
Target Boutique Firm Roles
Working at a smaller suburban law firm or boutique firm has many benefits. Lawyers at smaller firms tend to report better mentoring and a more diverse experience during the early years of practice. At a smaller firm, there’s less staff performing specialised support roles so its more likely you’ll need to be a jack of all trades.
Lock In Some Type of Corporate Experience (even if its not Legal!)
We’ll cut to the chase here. If you have poor marks and you have never worked anywhere in a paid role (as in don’t even have a tax file number), you really will struggle to land a job.
You can overcome lower academic standing by securing paid employment in a related industry, particularly sectors where academics are not a crucial focus for the employer.
Few law students understand that around 40% of all litigation matters before an Australian court involve a question of insurance. Insurance companies love to hire law graduates to work in claims roles, underwriting, and as in-house legal.
Apply For Government Roles
Government jobs (covering State/ Territory or Federal) tend to have a recruitment process that is quite different to law firms or other corporations. The application process can be quite onerous and hiring can take time.
If you are prepared to take the time to prepare an application and you get in early, the rewards will come. Government roles tend to have generous pay and conditions for those seeking a flexible lifestyle.
Don’t Wait Until Graduation to Start Your Job Search
We often hear students say ‘I will start looking for law jobs once I get admitted. I’ll have better prospects then.”
This is not true. Every law student should be considering industry or at least corporate employment in their third year of law school. The sooner you start building up your experience the more bargaining power you have upon graduation.
Don’t Rely on Job Boards
A seriously high number of people apply for jobs on Seek and Indeed. Law firms tell us that applicants come in from all over the world and it takes them a great deal of time to sort through applications.
Start by drawing up a spreadsheet of people that either you, your mum, dad, brother, sister, aunt, uncle etc might know who can help you land a job. If you don’t know anyone make sure you have submitted your application to Yegal so we can help you get your foot in the door
Download our FREE Personal Contacts Template Spreadsheet to help you:
- Work out who you can leverage in your immediate network;
- Craft Messages to those people to ensure they are motivated to help you
- Use future meetups to with personal contacts to convert into paid employment