CPS Legal Trainee Scheme 2017 now open

This blog post is more for information as far as undergraduate Law students are concerned, but it is definitely worth knowing about for possible future recruitment campaigns!

The Legal Trainee Scheme is offered to those who wish to complete their pupillage or period of recognised training (PRT) with the CPS. There are two different roles on offer in the scheme – a pupil barrister and a trainee solicitor. 

Academic Qualifications 

• Candidates must have a minimum of a 2:2 undergraduate degree – please note that this does not need to be a degree in Law. Candidates with a degree other than law must have completed a Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) or Common Professional Examination (CPE)

• Candidates must have successfully completed, or be due to complete the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) or the Legal Practice Course (LPC) to enable them to start within the CPS by November 2017


Please note the closing date for applications is midnight on Thursday 23rd February

Duration of the scheme - 

Pupillage - 1 year in duration 

PRT (formerly known as a training contract) - 2 years in duration 

Number of positions available on the scheme - Approximately 30 x Legal Trainee posts are available throughout England and Wales. 

Upon successful qualification Legal Trainees will be offered permanent posts as Crown Prosecutors, with the expectation that they will gain the necessary skills and competence to apply for Senior Crown Prosecutor posts through regular recruitment procedures. 

Legal Trainees are offered a starting salary of £23,276 per annum (more in London) with 25 days leave


For more information please go to Legal Trainee Scheme 2017

Open Day at Middle Temple for aspiring barristers

This event is ideal for all you aspiring barristers out there!

Open Day

Middle Temple Open Day for Schools and Universities

The Middle Temple organises an Open Day every year, usually in March, aimed at students at Sixth Form and undergraduate or GDL level with an interest in a career at the Bar. Experienced practitioners as well as students will be on hand to provide information on all aspects of training for and a career at the Bar.

The programme starts with registration from 9.30 am and is expected to conclude by 4.30 pm. A sandwich lunch will be provided.  Between sessions, there will be ample opportunity to look around the Inn and to speak to practitioners, judges and students currently undertaking the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC).  Visiting students are of course not obliged to attend all sessions.

The event is held in the historic Middle Temple Hall and is highly recommended to anyone who wants to find out more about the Bar in general and the Middle Temple in particular.

The next Open Day is scheduled for Saturday 25 March 2017.
 

Booking

Attendance is free, but you must book as places are limited.  To request a place you must complete the online booking form.  You will be notified separately by email if your application has been successful.  Due to the high numbers of students interested in the event we may have to cap numbers.  If this happens you will be placed on a waiting list and offered a place if we have any cancellations.

If you no longer plan to attend the Open Day please let us know.  There will be a waiting list so it is likely that someone can take your place, even at short notice.
 

Getting Here

Please click here for information on how to get to Middle Temple.  Please note that at weekends access is only availbale via Tudor Street, so do allow extra time, particularly if you are arriving at Temple station.

Law Commission now recruiting Research Assistants for September 2017

To start off the New Year, as always, the Law Commission is recruiting Research Assistants to work for approximately 51 weeks starting in September 2017 in London. Chambers, solicitors’ firms and universities regard time spent at the Law Commission extremely highly. The posts, for which there is a great deal of competition, will be available in the following areas:

1. Commercial and Common Law
2. Criminal Law
3. Property, Family and Trust Law
4. Public Law

The research assistant role involves a mix of legal research, policy analysis and administrative work. 

The Law Commission is a statutory body set up under the Law Commissions Act 1965 to keep the law of England and Wales under review and to recommend reform where it is needed. 


Its aims are: 

To ensure that the law is fair, modern, simple and as cost-effective as possible

To conduct research and consultations in order to make recommendations for reform for consideration by Parliament

To codify the law, eliminate anomalies, repeal obsolete and unnecessary enactments and reduce the number of separate statutes 

The Law Commission is an independent non-departmental body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. Further information about the Law Commission and its work can be obtained from its website at http://lawcommission.justice.gov.uk/. 


The posts are on a fixed term basis, up to 12 months. 

Applications are now open for final year Law students and close on 2 February 2017. Interviews will take place between 13 and 24 March 2017.

Qualifications

The minimum criteria are that by August 2017 you should have completed two years’ full-time substantive legal studies (or the equivalent in part-time study). The results must be at, or at the equivalent of, first class or good 2.1 standard, with at least some elements of first class work.

Details of the posts are available in a separate guide for applicants, which you must read before applying, at:
http://www.lawcom.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/RA_guide_2017_final.pdf

2017 - the year to get started with your Law career!

Happy New Year to you all!

No matter what year of your degree you are in there is plenty to occupy your time in 2017 if you want to get started with planning your legal career.  So, don't delay - start today.

First Year students  - now is the time to apply for Insight Days designed by Law firms specifically for you as first year students.  It gives you the opportunity to spend a day at a large commercial Law firm to see if that environment is right for you.

Go to Student Ladder and Employment 4 Students to find details of the Law firms involved.

Second Year students - you need to be aware that Work Placement or Vacation Scheme application deadlines are coming up fast at the end of January or February 2017.  Have a look at the list of closing dates on Lawcareers.net and decide which, if any, of the larger firms you'd like to apply to.

Work Placements in the larger commercial firms usually last for one or two weeks during Easter or Summer 2017 and they are paid! You can also apply for other work placements in smaller firms.  You probably won't get paid but the experience gained could be just as valuable and you will be adding useful contacts at the same time.

If you are a second year opting for Work Based Learning in May 2017, why not look for opportunities at home to carry out your 5 week placement?  You can search for local firms at Find a Solicitor

Final Year students  - you can still apply for Work Placements as well as Training Contracts.  Check training contract deadlines on Lawcareers.net

You can also apply for the Legal Practice Course (LPC) at any time on the Lawcabs website.

The Pupillage Gateway is now open for applications until Tuesday 7 February.  You can apply for up to 12 pupillages through the Gateway plus those which you apply for directly to Chambers. If you are hoping to start the BPTC in September 2017, this applies to you!

Using the Christmas break to start those Work Placement applications

The Christmas break is a great time to unwind with family and friends and have fun.  You've worked hard all term so why not relax a bit? It might be a good idea, however, to give some thought to getting some legal work experience in 2017, particularly if you are a second or final year Law student.

You can leave it until after New Year but you do need to be aware that Work Placement or Vacation Scheme application deadlines will be coming up fast at the end of January or February 2017.  The holiday might give you time to look at the list of closing dates on Lawcareers.net and decide which, if any, of the larger firms you'd like to apply to.

Work Placements in the larger commercial firms usually last for one or two weeks during Easter or Summer 2017 and they are paid! You can also apply for other work placements in smaller firms.  You probably won't get paid but the experience gained could be just as valuable and you will be adding useful contacts at the same time.

If you are a second year opting for Work Based Learning in May 2017, why not look for opportunities at home to carry out your 5 week placement?  You can search for local firms at Find a Solicitor

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us in Careers and Employability!

Applications for the BPTC open on Monday 12 December 2016

If you are an aspiring barrister in your final year of university, Monday 12 December 2016 should already be imprinted on your memory.  In case it isn't, this is the date from which you can apply for the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) on the BARSAS website.

There is a very useful guide on the website which is worth reading before you start your application.

I have summarised the key points below:

Students can apply for up to 6 programmes across the 8 Providers of the BPTC.
The 8 providers are:

1. BPP University Law School - London , Leeds, Manchester Birmingham
2. University of Law - London, Birmingham, Leeds
3. The City Law School (formerly Inns of Court School of Law)
4. Manchester Metropolitan University
5. Nottingham Law School
6. The University of Northumbria at Newcastle
7. University of the West of England at Bristol
8. Cardiff Law School

Most providers offer full time (1 year) and part-time (2 years) options.  

Funding

The costs of the BPTC vary from £14,500 to over £18,000 depending on the provider and its location.  You may be fortunate to receive a Scholarship for at least part of the cost from one of the Inns of Court if you applied in November.

If not, you may be eligible for a postgraduate loan from the Student Loans Company for up to £10,000 if you choose to study the BPTC with a Masters option.  Check with providers to see if they offer this.

Other options include:

• Future Finance Loans
• Professional and Career Development Loans
• High Street Bank loans

Applicants are not required to be a member of an Inn of Court upon submission of their application but must be a member by 31 May 2017.

The closing date for BPTC applications is Wednesday 11 Jan 2017 at 12 noon.

 Applicants pass an aptitude test, known as ‘BCAT’. It is a multiple choice computer based test which assesses applicant’s critical thinking and reasoning. Applicants will not be able to enrol on the BPTC without passing it. For further guidance on the BCAT click here

Some dos and don'ts for training contract and vac scheme applications

I copy below a really useful list of dos and don'ts for training contract and vacation scheme applications written by Sinead Dineen of Lawcareers.net.

Dos:

• Do check the application form for spelling and grammatical errors multiple times before submitting. Remember lawyers are expected to have excellent attention to detail.

• Do spell the name of the firm you are applying to correctly – this is so basic, yet it still amazes me how many applicants get this wrong.

• Do explain your pre-university academic grades if you were not educated in the United Kingdom (eg, write the score as 18/20 or as a percentage). If you are unsure about what to include, contact the recruiter who will be able to advise you. Do not leave this section blank.

• Do detail the skills you have developed from your work experience. Don’t just say you worked as a waiter – expand on this by telling us how you developed your team working skills and learnt how to handle difficult customers.

• Do read the long-answer questions and make sure you understand what you are being asked. For example, we asked, “Why do you believe you possess the skills and attributes to become a successful commercial lawyer?”. Therefore we expect to see details of skills and how they are relevant to being a lawyer. We did not ask what are your reasons for wanting to become a lawyer.

• Do check the whole application form when you have finished, but before submitting. The AllHires Graduate (formerly Apply4Law) application forms offer you the chance to preview the entire form. Make sure that each section that should be completed is.

Don’ts:

• Don’t write the whole application in lower case or upper case (including your name). Recruiters want to see that you can write/type properly and carefully.

• Don’t type ‘I’ as a lower case ‘i’. This shows a lack of attention and is not appropriate in a professional environment.

• Don’t refer to yourself in the third person (eg, Sinead has excellent communication skills).

• Don’t leave your university degree grades blank. We ask these for a reason (to see your progress from A level or equivalent to degree level) and if they are not completed we suspect you are trying to hide something.

• Don’t include mitigating circumstances unless they are genuine mitigating circumstances. You should be able to back this up with a school, university or medical report and preferably email this to the recruiter.

• Don’t miss out any of the long-answer questions. Their inclusion in the form is twofold: to get a better understanding of you, the applicant, and to check that you can write in clear, comprehensible and structured sentences.

• Don’t write in a colloquial or humorous way. Consider your application to be an important business document and take a professional tone.

Good luck with your  applications!