Finished the LPC, but no training contract yet?

If you have graduated from the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and still don’t have a training contract, you're not alone. Including those who finished studying a year or longer ago, thousands of LPC graduates find themselves in this situation due to the intense competition that exists for a limited number of available training positions. However, there are still things you can do if you remain serious about your ambition to become a solicitor, although it is important to be realistic about the competition you face and honest about your strengths and weaknesses.

Legal work experience

Getting some experience at a law firm is probably the first thing that an LPC graduate without a training contract should look to do. If firms have passed over your applications thus far, it is likely to be because of some weakness in comparison with other applicants, such as a lack of work experience or a less-than-perfect academic record (eg, a 2.2 degree or average A levels). Although for many, a 2.2 often proves an impassable barrier to a training contract, gaining some real-world legal and/or commercial experience can help to mitigate this. With at least several months of valuable paralegal experience added to your CV, your applications for vacation schemes and training contracts will be stronger. And this will be more the case if you throw everything into your role by getting involved in the firm’s pro bono activities and volunteering yourself whenever the opportunity arises, bringing you into contact with more lawyers than you would otherwise get to know and will give you much more to talk about in your applications and interviews.

Some firms also advertise paralegal vacancies with a view to the candidate progressing onto a training contract. This is an increasingly common method by which employers see how their prospective trainees fare in the law firm environment before committing to train them. This kind of vacancy is advertised on the LawCareers.Net jobs board quite regularly, so be sure to check that and other sites listing legal openings.

Qualify as a solicitor through the equivalent means route

Provided that you complete the LPC, it is also possible to qualify as a solicitor while working as a paralegal. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has dropped the (still widely used) term 'training contract' and replaced it with 'period of recognised training', which gives firms and aspiring lawyers more flexibility about how they fulfil the requirements to qualify. This means that it is possible to apply to be granted qualification without completing a formal training contract, as long as you can demonstrate that you have all the necessary skills and experience stipulated by the SRA.

The equivalent means route has already seen some paralegals qualify as solicitors. However, the process is not easy and many paralegal roles are too limited in scope to enable the breadth of experience needed for the SRA to grant qualification. If you find yourself in a narrowly defined, administrative paralegal role (and even if you are still hoping to qualify by gaining a formal training contract), it might be a good idea, after building up your experience for at least six months, to apply for better paralegal roles elsewhere.

Reconsider which firms you’re targeting

It is essential to have a strong academic record and good work experience to get a training contract, but finding the right firm (ie, with the right culture) for you is also crucial. Before applying, it is so important to research firms thoroughly and identify those at which you think you will get on. As recruiters have told me time and again, applications need to demonstrate specific interest in the firm in question or they will not be successful - and that interest has to be genuine. If you hadn’t previously thought about the kind of office you want to work in (eg, large-scale corporate, or small and collegiate), do so now. Likewise, research firms operating in practice areas which really interest you, while keeping an open mind about exactly where you will end up.

Competition for training vacancies is tough everywhere, but it is most intense among the prestigious commercial and international firms of the City. These firms select from those candidates with the strongest academic records and work experience, often automatically filtering out applicants with less than the minimum 2.1 requirement. If you’re passionate about the law, but your academics don’t match up to these inflexible criteria, it is definitely worth looking for firms which prioritise other qualities over grades. Of course, you will have to demonstrate those qualities through work experience, networking and volunteering.

Related work experience

If applying for paralegal roles yields no success and you need to start earning without delay, getting some commercial work experience in an area that is relevant to the firms you wish to target will be a huge boost to your credentials. For example, working at a tech organisation or a telecommunications company could reap beneficial knowledge and contacts later if you want to be an IT lawyer. You could consider working in one of the areas immediately surrounding the legal profession for a spell while you prepare your next move. Big organisations which publish legal directories, such as Thomson Reuters, fall into this bracket, as do smaller publishers and the legal press. Obviously, if you want to be a solicitor, none of these options are ideal and a role at a law firm is much more preferable. However, such roles - which are often nine to five and on fixed-term contracts - do offer a way to pay your rent/bills while staying in touch with the legal profession; gaining some useful professional experience; and still having the time to apply for vacation schemes, paralegal roles, volunteering opportunities and other legal work experience.

Companies’ in-house legal departments provide even better scope for experience and opportunity, if you can work your way into one. However, a role providing administrative support to an in-house legal team or a situation whereby you can convince your employers to sit in with the legal department for a few days/weeks is likely to be gained informally, so these opportunities can be very difficult to find and are more dependent on soft skills, such as networking and the ability to seize opportunities if and when they present themselves.