CityLawLIVE: worth getting out of bed for

There has to be a pretty good reason to go to work at 7:00am on a Saturday, but for me, Saturday 25 February provided just that reason - I was part of the team from LawCareers.Net attending the CityLawLIVE student conference. Hosted at the very grand One Great George Street (featuring an array of impressive portraits of eminent engineers and an awesome domed ceiling), there was an excited buzz as the day kicked off with tea and coffee, and some excellent cookies. (In fact, the cookies set the tone for the food for the rest of the day - delicious and plentiful.)

Spearheaded by the dynamic Anna Williams, the event aimed to bring together bright students with representatives from City law firms for a day of information and networking. There were some excellent sessions on, among other things, in-house lawyering, the law firm as a business, and life as a City lawyer. Workshops in the afternoon were hosted by five individual firms - SNR Denton, Herbert Smith, Baker & McKenzie, Lewis Silkin, and White & Case - and were a chance to have a more intimate encounter with the firm reps.

The final panel of the day, entitled "The Big Discussion", was chaired by our very own Matthew Broadbent, and also featured Gemma Baker (Kaplan Law School), Justine Thompson (Baker & McKenzie), John Stephens (Ashurst) and Amy Elderfield (Apply4Law). They tackled all kinds of thorny issues, such as when best to submit your application when the submission window is open for several months, how to impress in your application forms (and how you will find yourself firmly in the reject pile) and much more. There were some inspired questions from the audience, as there were in all the sessions. We were also trying our technical hand at something new - a twitterfall! It was fun to see what people were thinking during the sessions, and it threw up some lively topics of debate.

The LC.N editorial team was chiefly in charge of video interviewing the speakers, grad rec reps and students. Slightly out of our printed word comfort zone, we seized the challenge and ran with it - and had a pretty good time doing it! We got lots of interesting insight into what it means to be a City law, the particular benefits and challenges, and advice for aspiring lawyers aplenty. Keep an eye on our new YouTube channel where the footage will be appearing in the not too distant future. (Like the look of our slick studio? It was a stairwell.)

I was so impressed by the way the 160-odd student delegates used the opportunity to its fullest - they were chatting to the firms, each other and us. Hopefully most came away armed with info and a greater sense of what life in the City looks like. For some, it may have confirmed that it is exactly the professional environment they imagine themselves inhabiting. For others, it may have helped them realise that they're better suited elsewhere. Either way, they'll be better prepared for the next step of the process.

Anna will be writing something for LC.N in due course on her experiences of the day, and impressions of which elements were the most successful. It was certainly worth the early morning start for me, and I would encourage anyone with an eye on the City to think about applying to attend next year. It's a unique way to get some quality time with the firms you might hope to join, hear from knowledgeable members of the profession on what it's really like to work in the City, and meet some of your fellow aspirants. One fan tweeted on Sunday: "CityLawLIVE was such a good event; in my three years studying law I have never received such invaluable information." CityLawLIVE - be there.