This past Wednesday, approximately fifteen other students and I ventured to the University of Exeter’s Streatham campus on a bus to attend the 2017 Law Fair. Along with us came a variation of books containing all the information we’d been previously too scared to research: how do I become a lawyer? When will I be ready to fulfill my aspirations?
The answer is still somewhat obscure, but I now feel that I at least know who to talk to a little better.
The next step after this course is a GDL. Do I know what a GDL is yet? No, or at least not really, but I’m am now prepared to look and do further research on it.
The stage after that is deciding whether I want to be a barrister, or a solicitor, or a legal executive, but that seems like just a little bit too much to be thinking about for now.
As it is, I think I will discuss the different stalls that were available to us at the law fair:
When I first arrived, I was immediately struck by the sheer quantity of stalls available for us to look at. Some were filled with goodies (free pens, notebooks, and bottles) and some were filled with leaflets and documents that would actually aid my venture into legal employment.
However, I must say, I was not impressed with some of the representatives running the stalls. One stall, representing Stephenson Harwood, was distinctly absent of its spokespeople; I merely picked up the canvas bag and the information about the firm and continued my search for information. I was really quite ruffled by this. I fully understand that many of the people there were friends, and thus wanted to reunite and mingle, but the fair had only been open for about an hour – and still had three left – so I was agitated by their empty stall.
Another stall was manned by a gentleman who’s immediate reaction to my enthusiasm was to say “are you very sure your interest in law is genuine?” This is clearly not what a budding barrister wants to hear.
Overall it was a great experience and has helped me greatly, both functionally and emotionally. I now have a clue where I’m going and what I’ll be doing for the next five years.
That being said, please, if you’re in charge of representing your establishment for whatever reason, stay at your stall and try not to shut down people who actually bothered to turn up.