Reality check - commerciality

The legal profession is part of the business world. If you harbour any ambitions to work for a commercial law firm then it will be essential to develop a good understanding of the issues and events affecting businesses. Read the Financial Times and The Economist and try to appreciate the appropriate legal issues thrown up by your studies from a commercial perspective. The elusive quality of commercial awareness, so important to many law firm recruiters, does not require you to be able to write a thesis on the merits of Keynesian economics over Adam Smith’s free market, but to appreciate the business interests and objectives of the client, tailoring your legal advice accordingly. Some firms run commercial awareness workshops which can help bring you up to speed but, frankly, if have no interest in commercial matters and don’t follow the business press, we would advise that you are not suitable for a career at a commercial law firm.

And so concludes our week-long series of tough talking. We hope it hasn’t scared you off entirely, but if it has, perhaps this was never the right career for you. And for the rest of you, they say that to be forewarned is to be forearmed, so proceed with your armour of knowledge and be successful!