On 8 June 170 guests from 72 law firms attended the eighth annual LawCareers.Net Training & Recruitment Awards (the TARAs).

As a recent graduate, I feel as though I’m in a good position to talk about some of the common tropes of a law degree.

With my law degree now behind me, I am preparing to start the next stage of my legal career – the Legal Practice Course. Just as a law degree is an academic study of the law, the LPC is its practical counterpart. I will be learning all the practical skills and knowledge needed to prepare myself for the start of my training contract the following year. So, how have I been preparing for this next step?

Increasingly, there is a movement among law firms to concentrate on first-year students and provide them with the opportunity to learn more about their organisations.

Law students and aspiring lawyers' life paths can easily become overcomplicated throughout the year, as you tackle applications and exams (among other things). It's important for individuals dealing with such workloads to slow down and take stock to stay confident, motivated and avoid burnout. 

Law itself is a broad and extensive subject, which it can be hard to fit even into a three-year degree at university. However, coming towards the end of my first term of third year, I’ve set out the three modules I’ve completed that have personally taught me the most about law.

Why is violence bad for business?

Following on from fellow blogger Indiya Kainth’s piece on how working from home might be affecting the individual, I was inspired to write the following piece on how working from home might affect law firms. 

How can borrowers in finance transactions best protect themselves?

The Race Fairness Commitment has been adopted by 17 top law firms in partnership with Rare Recruitment as part of their long-term strategies to help recruit, retain and develop black, Asian and minority ethnic talent within the legal profession.

Giant textbooks are an inevitable aspect of any law student’s life – because it’s required to build our understanding of complex rules and exceptions on a legal topic.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been more prevalent in our lives than ever before - self-driving cars, automated clinical diagnosis and credit card application approval all incorporate a significant degree of AI.

What are the impacts of the rise and fall of crypto currencies on banking law and practice?

The AI Act (the act) was first proposed by the European Commission in 2021 due to the risk posed by the technology. Although the act hasn’t yet come into force in Europe, it’s likely to do so sometime within the coming months.

What does the abolition of the Operating and Financial Review (OFR) mean for companies?

If your law degree is like mine was, you will be examined using a mixture of problem questions and essays.

I'm thinking of doing a master’s – could this help me to stand out when applying for a training contract?

#MeToo in the financial services sector – what can employers do to eradicate sexual misconduct in the workplace and ensure they remain compliant with their regulator?

In this LCN blog post I will introduce to you a novel AI architecture capable of accurately predicting the convictions and penalties of real-life criminal cases given only the facts.

Completing life as a student should lead to a sigh of relaxation, but often it’s an incredibly stressful time of job hunting in a very saturated market. Having just gone through the process myself, here are my most vital tips that helped me to land a job.