Law fairs: make the most of your chance to network with lawyers and recruiters

It's law fair season, which means that throughout October and November solicitors' firms, barristers' chambers, legal executives, law schools, pro bono organisations and legal advice centres are coming to your campus or one near you. LCN will also be at universities up and down the country, along with other providers of useful career resources - making law fairs a one-stop shop for meeting potential employers, picking up essential resources and signing up to the vital (but free) online careers information, updates and advice that you will need on your road to law.

Employers - that is, mainly law firms and barristers' chambers - attend law fairs because they want to meet and impress students, many of whom they hope will go on to apply for work experience or a training position. The legal profession comprises a vast range of organisations, so many firms and chambers see law fairs as an important way to spread brand awareness and differentiate themselves from the competition so that they attract top talent.

However, hiring organisations also turn up in the hope of being impressed themselves by people who stand out from the crowd as potential future trainee solicitors or pupil barristers. These folk are easily identifiable by the fact that they have clearly made an effort to come prepared and switched on. This means doing some research before (or even on the morning of) the fair so that you arrive armed with the ability to ask better questions and have more interesting conversations than if you turn up without knowing anything about the firms in attendance.

There will generally be two types of conversation happening between employers and students - the practical and the more interesting. Practical conversations consist of students asking what a firm's practice areas are, where its offices are located, when work experience placements take place, how to apply and so on. This is OK - and the recruiters and lawyers present will usually be happy to provide you this information - but it is not the best use of your time, considering that all of this is likely to be easily accessible online before you attend. Interesting conversations happen when students have already done some basic research into the firm and use the opportunity to meet its people to learn what you can't find out by reading a firm's website or brochure. This could be asking about what the firm's office culture is really like, how the seat progression and qualification processes work, about a trainee's experiences of different departments, how a partner's practice could be affected by Brexit and lots more besides. If you start a conversation on the practical side, that's completely fine - but do make sure that you move it on to the latter kind of subject matter too. Not only will this ensure that you make a good impression and give you some impressive knowledge to use when filling out an application; it will actually provide you with the in-depth information you need to make informed choices about where you want to work.

If you want more detailed advice, LCN's Matt Broadbent has some great tips on how to ask questions at law fairs, while our Feature also provides a comprehensive guide to these autumnal opportunities. And don't forget to stop by the LCN stand to ask for friendly advice if you need it and pick up our very useful (and free) resources - including your copy of this year's Training Contract & Pupillage Handbook, which has within its pages the details of more employers than any other comparable publication (over 1,000), plus exhaustive information on postgraduate courses, different practice areas and every other facet of the legal profession. Fair well!