The best things in life are free: law fair freebies that delighted and disappointed in 2014

Another law fair season has come and gone, and another cohort of law students grasped their way to endless supplies of sticky tabs and sugar-laden treats courtesy of law firm giveaways. Not one to miss out, the LC.N team joined to deliver our verdict on the tech-tastic gizmos and the best of the rest.

The well-seasoned LawCareers.Net team enjoyed another successful year of law fairs in 2014; visiting almost 25 campuses, we were delighted to meet and greet many students pondering a career in law, as well as give away our own valuable freebies – The Training Contract & Pupillage Handbook 2015 and Best in Law 2014. However, like magpies distracted by the mere hint of a shiny prize, we couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to nab ourselves some firm loot with the best of you.

Bags full of swag were lugged back to LC.N HQ via all manner of trains, planes and automobiles; once unpacked and neatly lined up ready for inspection, the LC.N team promptly tore open packaging, exclaimed notes of (dis)approval and prepared to battle for ownership of the most highly favoured freebies. Read on for our expert panel’s judicious conclusions.

Tech in the City

This year, the team was immediately taken by the presence of smart powerbanks offered up by a trinity of firms. Fuelling students on the move, these nifty gadgets ensure that you never need worry about your phone’s flashing siren of a low battery; you can carelessly leave apps running in the background, while playing jazzy beats, safe in the knowledge that an emergency surge can conveniently be retrieved from your bag. Kudos to Shoosmiths, Walker Morris and Davis Polk for their “inspired” offering that won the hearts and minds of all testers. “Looks proper smart”, quipped Sinead Dineen on inspecting the Walker Morris powerbank, although one eagle-eyed tester did question the choice of purple over the firm’s usual brand green and white.

Simmons & Simmons gave away an iPhone speaker, which was affectionately termed ‘the phone egg’. It worked well enough (sending the sound of 6Music’s Lauren Laverne through our office) but seemed to divide opinion: Matthew Broadbent tenuously pushed the parameters of the pun as he declared “It’s cooking!”, while others wondered why you would bother with a mediocre measure for speakers.

Headphones were enthusiastically dished out by the marketing teams at Browne Jacobson and White & Case, but they received a less animated reception with our testers. While we appreciated the retractable function of the White & Case pair, the highest praise someone could muster was to admit they might just survive as a spare pair. Weightmans handed out a phone stand and speaker that deceived some of the less technically-minded present until Antonio Ignatius, LC.N’s very own “genius”, demonstrated that sticking the stand to the back of your phone made for cinematic viewing. “Ideal for the Test match”, murmured Matthew and Josh Richman to each other.

Keeping stationery

At the decidedly pragmatic end of law firm freebies, fairs were awash with the usual suspects of pens, notepads and sticky tabs. Some marketing gurus have taken clear instruction from the adage:  “If you want to make enemies, try to change something”. And in some cases, doing so meant that recruitment teams remained firm favourites with the testing committee. Slaughter and May’s pen continues to be a prized commodity in the LC.N office: its exquisite smoothness has been voted as unparalleled – certain members had an almost religious moment on discovering its reappearance. Mills & Reeve took “tab love to a new level”, with its flipchart of sticks tab being a good example of the breed – Isla Grant noted its pleasingly “eco feel”. A giveaway from the same story, although perhaps less ingenious design, was Arnold & Porter’s sticky tabs with mini-pen.

Law students are famous for their enthusiastic note-taking and they were well-catered for with notebooks on offer from Ashurst, Addleshaw Goddard and Simmons & Simmons. The latter was praised for its good size and handy inclusion of a pen, while Matthew felt the Addleshaw’s moleskin-inspired pad was “classy”. In addition, the firm matched this with a bookmark-come-ruler; Josh felt that this demonstrated some decent multi-functionality branding – the “Batman utility belt of branded corporate stationery”, if you will. Others enthused that it was “fine”.

Irwin Mitchell and Paul Hastings both produced a vast array of writing implements and accessories, but the general consensus was that while variety should be applauded, one quality item might have been more memorable. On the other hand, Paul Hastings did offer a torch that was welcomed with an unexpectedly warm reaction from some – one day, someone will invent torchlight on your phone that shines forth with the tap of a button.

While not necessarily falling into the stationery category, Trowers & Hamlins also decided stick with its tried and tested Rubik’s cube from 2012-13, adorned with motivational buzzwords. Rather deflated, Matthew sighed: “No one knows how to do the cube, no one wants to.”

The mug house

The firm mug – a constant companion to the legal publisher everywhere. Some firms had not successfully entered a break clause into long-term contracts with suppliers it would seem – Ince & Co and Travers Smith repeated the mugs of last year, which although totally serviceable did generate a response of “dull” in unison from the team.

Osborne Clarke presented a trio of distinctly branded mugs – “a lovely design” said an excited Matthew but it was to be short-lived as it appears unable to cope with the strain of a daily trip into the LC.N dishwasher. Isla found the Bristows elegant blue mug design so pleasing that she whisked hers home immediately from the fair, keeping it safe from the sticky mitts of fellow editors.

Hogan Lovells and Shoosmiths offered a drinking vessel more suitable to the busy lives of trainees on the move – with travel mugs ready for an early morning commute and a necessary injection of caffeine. Antonio felt that extra points ought to be awarded to Hogan Lovells for their inclusion of a luxury Lindt Chocolate spoon – others felt that it might be more of a one-hit wonder.

If you were worried about your builders’ brew cooling, the Vinson & Elkin ‘koozie’ could be a solution. Unfortunately though, this didn’t win points from many of the team – one felt that it looked decidedly orthopaedic, perhaps more suited to the recovery of a strained ankle.

Dentons remained strongly on-brand with a glass in the firm’s distinctive purple hue; while we strongly suspect a staff member from one postgraduate provider may now have enough to cater for a 10-person dinner party (judging from their swiping technique across weeks of fairs), the LC.N team were rather less enamoured. Stronger feelings were stirred for Sidley Austin’s water bottle – “dull, dull, dull” ranted one frazzled LC.Ner, although this author feels there is certainly a place in the Bikram studio for this pitcher of rehydration.

Sweets and sweet nothings

Ever popular with students and fellow recruiters, sweets and chocolate remain a saviour on long, tiresome train journeys after law fairs. As a branding exercise though, it can be hard to come up with a concept that lingers longer than the melting of a lonely jelly baby. This year, we liked Kirkland & Ellis’s nod to the year of the bus with a monographed miniature bus filled with jelly beans. One captain transport present doubted whether the 321 route did actually take you into the heart of the City, but generally there was a lot of love for this “cute” tin. Ashurst’s dairy milk (“always a crowd pleaser”) didn’t last the length of our meeting and Dentons’ smarties have made the LC.N team popular with the rest of the office.

Honourable mention too for Watson, Farley & Williams and its leather passport covers: Josh gave a thumb’s up for the “noice” quality and there was agreement that the freebie represented a strong message about the firm’s commitment to overseas secondments during a training contract. Elsewhere, Thomas Eggar gave away a beach ball which we imagine could prove distracting to a lazy student in the summer but for the LC.N team meant only a stocking filler for someone’s nephew. Finally, we heartily agreed that a commendable way to spend a budget was Berwin Leighton Paisner’s fair freebie – actually a donation to three charities supported by the firm. Throughout the milkround period, students were asked to vote for their preferred cause with all three organisations receiving a proportion of the money.

That is all the freebie excitement we can muster for another year – but we’d encourage you to comment below the line if we’ve missed any fab (or feeble) giveaways that you managed to discover.