Importance of Contacts

Arktos.as.l

Hi everybody. I'm currently studying law and just had a few questions for people working in the professions or anybody who has some insights.

(1) How important is it to know someone who is either a solicitor or barrister when starting out?
(2) Do firms tend to measure your worth to them by the number of regular clients you have?
(3) Would it be a good idea to get involved in a political party?

While I know contacts certainly would be a help it would be great if ye could let me know just how vital they are all the way throughout your career. Thanks.

Tom Young

(1) Useful of course, importance you can rate yourself;
(2) Not necessarily, you could be a specialist; and
(3) Support whoever is in power .

servicecharge

1) No importance. Many get work through contacts but many don't, in fact none of the solicitors or trainees in my shop have a contact in law;
2) Very important. If you can show you will bring clients to the firm they will be very interested, rainmakers don't get fired!!!!;
3) Membership of anything is good, sports clubs, voluntary organisations, charities, whatever. Anywhere you can source contacts and work.

McCrack

I'm zoning in on the contacts part here, if youre going down the Bar route knwing solicitors will be useful to get some work off as well as recommending you to a potential Master, if youre going down the solicitor route obviously knowing one in a position to give you a training contract is gold but neither is necessary if you have the wits and balls to succeed.

The key is to get practical experience and you will build up contacts that way regardless.

Arktos.as.l

Thanks for the replys. Just on the issue of practical experience, I was wondering if a solicitor would be likely to take me on for the summer if I offered to work for free. Normally i'd be against slave labour, but since I didn't manage to get a job this summer(and the way things are looking probably won't next year either) it would probably be worth it in the long run.

servicecharge

Well my shop was offering an internship, with a decent stipend. We offered it to 5 people, all tried to negotiate up despite the fact that none had experience.

I still wonder how hungry some people are for law.

Arktos.as.l

servicecharge wrote: »

Well my shop was offering an internship, with a decent stipend. We offered it to 5 people, all tried to negotiate up despite the fact that none had experience.

I still wonder how hungry some people are for law.

Had they all finished their degrees? I'm only half way through mine so i wouldn't expect to be paid much when i didn't have much to offer. Even so, if I had graduated I'd be happy with whatever I got. Asking for more money sounds pretty crazy in times like these.

servicecharge

They were all finished their degrees and FE-1s. I was astounded by their attitude. They weren't exactly top of their classes either, and none had any legal experience!!! Which is exactly why we felt they would jump at a decent internship.

One said "I'm too busy applying for training contracts to take an internship".

Arktos.as.l

Did you give any of them a place in the end or did you tell them to get lost? In fairness when I started studying I thought it was only a matter of time before I was on the money train. It took me awhile to realise how bad things are on the job front and the amount of work that i'm going to have to put in to get anywhere.