(9 minute read)
Hi! I am Meg Hulme. I am 25 years old and currently a second seat Trainee at an International Law Firm in London. I graduated from the University of Lincoln in 2017 with First Class Honours LLB. I then went on to take the LPC full time while working part time as a Paralegal for three years. After four years of training contract applications, I secured my training contract in 2019.
Writing those last few sentences makes me incredibly proud! My journey to this point wasn’t the easiest (although certainly wasn’t the hardest) but I am very grateful for the experiences and perspectives I have gained. My journey has set me up with invaluable life lessons and I hope to explain a few of the best ones here.
So, where to start?!
At school, I didn’t take my GCSEs very seriously and I wasn’t very academic at all. I messed around a lot and enjoyed getting into trouble. This didn’t set me up well for A-Levels and I was very limited in my choices. However, as most things go, this worked out for the best.
I am sure you can tell already; I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life. To be honest, I had never really given it much thought! When I was younger, I was very sporty. Between the ages of 3 and 10, I was a gymnast – training 16-24 hours a week. By the time I was 10, I was a County Gymnast. At this point, my parents were considering home schooling me and training me for the Olympics but as most things go when you are younger, I just fell out of love with it and gave up (oh, how different my life would have been if I had pursued that angle). I then became a dancer, partaking in many competitions and classes, I then went on to do athletics, Taekwon-do, swimming – the list goes on.
At school, I was never interested in learning and felt that the only way to entertain myself was to argue with teachers. I got mediocre grades at GCSE and it wasn’t until my A-Levels that I realised I enjoyed subjects that focused on human behaviours and real-life application, such as: Psychology and Business Studies. My teacher at the time said that I would probably enjoy a career as a Lawyer, and something just clicked in me. Being limited in my options somehow set me up perfectly with all the requisite skills for pursuing a career in law.
At the end of 2014, I became focused on pursing a legal career and headed to the University of Lincoln (a non-Russell Group University) to study Law. It may sound cliché but I found this experience extremely fulfilling and rewarding. I met fantastic people, got involved with lots of fun activities, made some truly wonderful memories all alongside securing a First Class degree.
Securing the First Class Honours was tough, I spent countless nights in the library trying to prove that I was academic and committed to something. After becoming increasingly frustrated with my initial performance, I reached out to my university’s career services. My career services team referred me to do some testing and low and behold it turned out I was extremely dyslexic. It all started to make sense to me, as to why I couldn’t focus on school and why I was unable to do well in exams and assignments. I was very shocked to learn that I had been struggling all this time and, in reality, all I needed was the right help, extra time and some supportive software to help me excel. I also felt disappointed that through all the years of education, no one had been able to spot my dyslexia or provide me with the necessary tools but I guess that is what happens when you are labelled the ‘naughty kid’.
After a few months of using my new learning techniques and equipment, I started to see results and I was able to retain information better and focus more. However, I had to do this all while working part-time at Nando’s to fund my degree and living costs and applying for training contracts. This was all very overwhelming to juggle (especially with all the rejections I received) but through dedication and a strong routine I came out the other side fighting.
The application strategy I took while in second and third year was messy, aka non-existent. I applied to whatever firm I came across (infamously known as the scattergun approach) and certainly didn’t tailor each one or add unique perspectives. I just knew I wanted to be a lawyer in London and so that’s all the thought I gave to it. It was a copy and paste job and a poor one at that. I had no comprehension of the amount of time and effort each one should take and how each firm was very different but I put this down to how competitive the industry seemed to be and the lack of information available. At this time, I found a lot of people within the industry to be extremely unhelpful and unwilling to assist others (even after they had made it themselves). I felt alone and all the time was completely ignorant to what I was doing or how the application process worked. Nevertheless, I kept using the same approach and received rejection after rejection after rejection.
This was so disheartening. I had finally found my purpose and yet I was being struck down time after time again. There were many tears and tantrums and it felt like I would never get there. Yet, I was finally committed to proving that I could see something through. It seemed I had finally found some luck in my second year of university when I got through to the final interview stage at Slaughter and May. I was absolutely beside myself to finally have a win and see my application get through to the next stages (especially at a Magic Circle firm). However, I went into this interview embarrassingly underprepared and completely blew it for myself, which sent me spirally back to square one.
You can see from this journey so far that I really did find my feet and settle into my personality at university and despite the barriers and knock backs, all of these new life skills set me up perfectly with resilience and the drive to propel all my focus and determination into securing a training contract. I just had to pick myself up and keep moving forward.
In pursuing my aspirations to be in a City firm, in 2017, I made the brave decision to move to London and take the LPC at the University of Law (Moorgate) full-time without securing a training contract or any prospect of a vacation scheme, as I was certain a career in law was for me. Crazy right?! I knew that this was a steppingstone that had to be completed and I wasn’t going to wait. For most, this may seem illogical due to the student debt and finances involved but I was so sure that it would all work out for the best (and it really did… which I will come back to later).
To help with the initial cost, I transferred my role at Nando’s to the Canary Wharf branch and worked as many hours as I could over the summer to save up some money. I used this experience to start networking, as luckily, this Nando’s was located directly under Clifford Chance… this set me up with the perfect opportunity to subtly try out my networking skills with those lawyers that would come down on their lunch breaks. Everyone I met was very supportive and I even got a couple of email addresses to send some questions to. I am a big believer of creating your own opportunities and this experience showcases that you do not need to have legal work experience to gain skills, it’s all about outlook and perspective. You can turn anything into a springboard if you think about it carefully enough (my gymnastics skills also taught me that). I then applied for a couple of summer placements and was lucky enough to find a three-month temporary contract at an investment bank in St Paul’s. This was the perfect taster of what working in the city was like.
In September 2017, I gained my first paralegal role through LinkedIn. After many applications, speculative emails and job searching I found myself ranting about the disparities in the recruitment processes and asking for advice on what industry professionals thought I was missing. Luckily, someone reached out to me in the comments and asked me to come to an interview. A huge lesson was learnt; LinkedIn is a very powerful tool and shouldn’t be underestimated. I was over the moon to have secured this role, in a Private Client Firm in Stoke Newington and this really kick started the next chapter of my journey. I bet you are wondering how did I find that? Well, all I can say is that I did really underestimate the intensity of completing the LPC full-time alongside working as a Paralegal. This year was extremely hard for me and, in hindsight, even I am not quite sure how I managed to see it through.
Following the completion of my LPC in June 2018, I finessed my CV and signed up to some recruitment agencies, as I wanted to find a commercial firm closer to the city. I was not prepared for the fight I had to have with the representatives of these agencies. Many would say they would keep me updated with any roles that came up but would then ignore my emails and forget about me along with the endless other applicants. It took various phone calls to prove my worth, demonstrating my experience and being confident in my own work ethic for any of them to start considering me. Once I had drilled down into why I deserved the opportunity, I soon started getting notified of exciting opportunities.
One that piqued my interest was a Tax Litigation Paralegal at Mishcon de Reya. I certainly wasn’t interested in Tax (nor was I interested in Private Client at the previous firm) but I recognised the importance of getting your foot in the door and Mishcon was an upcoming household name. This seemed like a very smart career move and boy was I right! I absolutely loved my time at Mishcon. I spent two and a half years moving around the departments and being exposed to brilliant lawyers, exciting clients and high value matters. The skills and experiences I learnt at this stage were truly invaluable and I am so grateful for the time I spent there.
Having the routine of working as a paralegal helped me to really concentrate on my training contract applications. I had been unsuccessful for many years prior to this but all because I hadn’t really applied myself. As mentioned before, I was going through the motions without much direction and becoming a paralegal helped me to develop that direction. I was lucky enough to be supported by my team and given unofficial mentoring by some of my colleagues.
Throughout 2018, I attended lots of open days, networking events and started working on my personal branding through LinkedIn. I researched many, many firms and started to draw up a criteria of what I wanted in a law firm. I started to think carefully about my skills and experiences and how I could showcase these effectively on my applications and importantly how they linked to my chosen firm. I started to sell myself and present key facts as to why I stood out from the other applicants. I demonstrated in-depth research covering areas that were unique and personal to me. I started to land some interviews and then assessment centres and then vacation schemes. My new improved tactics were working and I was developing a greater understanding of the process as time went on; all making me a more refined applicant. Each stage I got through to made me a better and more refined candidate.
However, the rejections didn’t stop. Some firms would like me and progress me to the second and third stages and some firms would reject me at the first stage. It was confusing and irritating but I soon learnt that it was a two-way street. I had to like the firm and the firm had to like me and when it was a match was when I was successful. It was a bitter pill to swallow that some of my favourite firms didn’t like me but that is just the way things work and you can’t always get what you want. It becomes a bit of a compromise but things do work out well and sometimes better than you ordinarily thought because how do you really know what firms you like if you haven’t worked there? The other angle is that training contracts are not the end of your career and when you are qualified, you become an asset to the market, therefore, if you work hard, you can have the ability to move to whatever firm you want – there are always other options!
During the summer of 2019, I landed two vacation schemes, one of them being at the firm I am at now. I had two two-week placements back-to-back and the experience was deeply tiring and intense. I felt like this was my last shot to get a training contract and had set myself an ultimatum of securing one this cycle or choosing a different career path.
I waited nearly two months for a decision on both vacation schemes and I was at the end of my tether one day, ranting to my poor boyfriend about the anxiety and despair I was feeling being left in the dark this long. It was at that very moment; I received THE phone call that confirmed all the tears had been worth it. I had finally bagged myself a training contract and at a great firm. It was all worth it! The relief and sheer happiness I felt in this moment cannot be put into words. I finally did it!
Now, coming back to the point I raised earlier about taking my LPC without securing a training contract (I bet you had forgotten just like I nearly had), this huge risk was about to be cashed in some two years later. Not only had I secured a training contract but I had also been bumped up the list to start a year earlier than I had originally applied for; all because I was ready to go. I no longer had to wait an agonising two years to start my next chapter – what a bonus! The life lesson here was that sometimes the reward will not always be immediately obvious but making the right decisions and doing what is best for you and your objectives will always put you on the right path.
I guess a long story short is that even though the journey was bumpy, I made it in the end, I didn’t give up and it was all worth the wait. Each rejection gave me something to work and reflect on and ultimately made me a better candidate. The time it took in getting a training contract allowed me to earn money and build up my skills as a paralegal. This was helpful in helping me to hit the ground running when starting at my new firm as a trainee solicitor. The resilience built up my character and made me into who I am today.
Without all of these experiences, I would not have been able to be a good mentor, a helpful tutor or set up It’s All Hearsay with the purpose of giving back, sharing my perspectives, providing tips and tricks I picked up along the way and help those in the position that I once was.
I now hope to motivate and inspire other aspiring lawyers to chase their career dreams and hopefully get there with a few less hiccups. Because if I can do it, then you can too.
If you need any help or would like to speak about your journey in detail, please do send me a DM on Instagram. I am always happy to chat!
Best of luck
Meg
it's all hearsay 