How to Land Your First Legal Job as A Law Graduate

Did you know there are over 60,000 practising lawyers in Australia?

With 39 law schools producing more than 7500 Australian law graduates per year opportunities for junior lawyers looks bleak and the number of students graduating far outweighs any limited positions.

But what if I said there was a way to tip the scales in your favour?

In recent years technology has ripped through the legal sector like wildfire which has negatively impacted job opportunities for graduates.

Some of the big firms even have dedicated legal tech departments.

Although at first, it caused havoc and dismay, practices warmed to the idea and started to embrace it. Just as lawyers and legal practices have welcomed this change, so must you.

These days law firms want more than a junior lawyer when they employ a graduate.

So how can you distinguish yourself from the other seven thousand or so graduates?

Simple! Bring more to the table than you and your law degree.

Upskilling yourself is what I’m talking about here.

Some of the most in-demand skills of 2018 will make you irresistible to prospective employers. However, not just any of this year sought-after skills will suffice. Law firms are desperately seeking people with coding, programming and online marketing skills.

There is a serious shortage of people with these capabilities in Australia at the moment, so use them to your advantage.

Now you might be thinking how on earth am I going to fit that in with all my current legal studies?

Well, that’s easy! The best place to learn coding, programming and online marketing is… You guessed it, online.

You don’t need to go to university to learn any of the above-mentioned skill sets. In fact, the majority of people in these industries are self-taught, and there’s an array of information and learning material on the web.

So what can you do to support your law degree?

#1 Start your own blog!

If you don’t already know, blogs are one of the pillars when it comes to online marketing. If you managed to start a successful blog, especially a law themed blog, you would have requests on a daily basis from law firms asking if they can write a guest article for your site.

Imagine turning up for an interview with a firm that contacted you to post on your site…

#2 Start blogging on other peoples websites.

Now, to contribute an article or post to someone else’s blog you need to be a pretty good writer. Assuming everyone that’s reading this is a law student, I doubt there will be any issues. Guest posting is a major part of search engine optimisation and is a cornerstone of any law firms marketing strategy.

A successful blogger is an asset to any consumer firms that specialise in things personal injury, never mind one with a law degree.

#3Learn to code/program

This probably sounds like the most daunting of the three things I mentioned, but it’s not as complicated as it looks.

I have been quite involved with one of our latest development projects and was surprised by the simplicity of it once I understood the basics.

There are places online where you can learn code or program for free and in your own time.

If you have a good imagination, the possibilities are endless when it comes to development.

The legal sector has changed tremendously over the past decade, and it won’t stop changing anytime soon. Technology is going to continue to grow and drive change in the legal sector, but it’s not all doom and gloom.

Stay confident, open-minded and eager to learn.

Have you heard about our new law student competition?

Contact us

Millner and knight is a national personal injury claims company specialising in no win no fee compensation. Our goal is to provide claimants with the best possible service through our panel of independent lawyers.

For help and assistance please call 1800 106 107 or contact us online. We have offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and throughout each state.

• Education