Jake Watkins

Many universities run legal advice clinics or offer advice in partnership with charities and law firms, giving students the chance to gain hands-on experience before qualifying. In this interview, Jake shares more about his experience volunteering at his university’s law clinic.

Q: Thanks for chatting to us today, Jake, and congratulations on your training contract with Irwin Mitchell. Could you tell us a little about what your work for Liverpool’s Family Law Clinic involved?

A: When I started off, I sat in on advice appointments alongside another volunteer, and we had to take an accurate recording of everything that was said between the client and the solicitor. It was very important to remain sharp in these meetings as they could last for a long time, and you had to ensure that no single detail was missed. Afterwards, we would draft an advice letter to send to the solicitor, which consisted of an overview of the meeting, covering the key details of what was said in the meeting regarding the client’s case and recommended next steps.

Once I had completed 3 advice appointments, I moved onto conducting triage calls which was my favourite! I would be tasked to call the client and speak with them regarding their case and whether the Law Clinic would be able to help them. I followed a script essentially, outlining all the key things I had to ask the client. Getting to speak with real clients over the phone was really enjoyable, and it definitely developed my communication skills and confidence!

Q: How did you find juggling your volunteer work, applying for legal opportunities and studying?

A: I definitely found it manageable! In my final year I would volunteer once a week typically and I would pick time slots that worked around my lectures and extracurriculars. Balancing applications around university could be quite tough at times especially when deadlines were approaching. However, if I had an application I needed to do, I would always go into university a bit earlier in the morning to spend time preparing for my applications so that after my lecture, I had time to then spend on doing university work. Also, if I ever had a day off from university, then that would be spent doing applications as well.

I like to do all my work in the day rather than at night so just waking up that extra bit earlier to get some time in for my applications allowed me to do that. I think it’s easy to end up prioritising applications over university work, but I would advise anyone not to do this. It is definitely manageable, but it is not worth letting your grades slip for the sake of an application (we 100% agree with this)!

Q: Do you think your volunteer work helped you secure your training contract and will help you in your future career?

A: Yes, absolutely. I applied for the Legal Services for Individuals Training Contract at Irwin Mitchell, so the seats I complete will mostly be in sensitive areas of law such as medical negligence and even family law.

Volunteering in the Family Law Clinic of course involves quite sensitive matters, so it definitely equipped me with the skills necessary for these different areas of law. It taught me the importance of empathy when working on these cases, which I emphasised throughout each stage of the application process. Other skills it taught me was using a legal software system, which also taught me the importance of workplace confidentiality as well. So many of these skills I highlighted at my assessment centre and final interview. Additionally, in law you need to be able to build a rapport with clients and nurture that client relationship, which is especially important in sensitive areas of law like medical negligence and family where the client will be going through or have gone through a life-altering event. Therefore, I would explain how when I would sit in on client meetings, I really enjoyed witnessing the client-solicitor relationship develop first hand, and that it taught me how I would build a rapport with clients and how this requires an empathetic approach.

However, I think the Law Clinic was only a part of what helped me get my training contract. I utilised non-legal experiences as well such as volunteering, playing for the law football team at university and performing in musical theatre growing up. This displayed how I was an actual person with real interests, which I think the interviewers appreciated. So I would say although volunteering tremendously helped, my other experiences helped just as much.

Q: Do you have any final insight for those aspiring legal professionals applying for training contracts soon?

A: Before the next application cycle starts, I would have a look at what firms you want to apply for and really research them in depth. Factors that I considered were location, practice areas, trainee cohort and seat choices. This helped me because by the time application season came around, I didn’t have to spend as much time researching as I had already done this, so I could allocate more of my time to writing a good application answer or preparing for online interviews.

Go out your way to meet the firm at open days and careers fairs, you learn so much about the firm and it really shows motivation and dedication! I consistently mentioned in applications that I attended a firm talk on X, or I spoke to a trainee about X, which I think really helped me.

Lastly, I know it is easier said than done, but have confidence! Believe in yourself! It is so hard to when training contracts are so competitive, but having faith in yourself and your abilities will get you far. If you don’t feel confident because you don’t have as much legal experience as your peers, this does not matter. Draw on other experiences that make you interesting, even if they are completely unrelated to law, the skills you gain from these experiences are mostly transferrable, so make use of them. I would use so many weird and quirky examples in competency-based questions, so I would recommend this because it makes people remember you and stand out.

Huge thanks to Jake for sharing his experience with us! If you're looking to build similar experience, it's well worth checking whether your university runs a law clinic like Liverpool's Family Law Clinic, or has partnerships with local law centres offering something similar.