Cover Letter

[Amanda]

Hello Everyone,

I was just wondering for the "Why you should chose me" section of a cover letter, how detailed to I need to be?
At the moment I have listed skills that I posses that the firm has stated they are looking for on their website. I have then stated how I have demonstrated these skills with brief examples. So for example ..."I am a good team player as I played a team sport " ... which has developed my communication skills.
Another example I gave for being proactive was during my work experience I would start new tasks without being prompted etc. I didn't go into much detail as to what the tasks were- is this something I should be doing.
I am also slightly concerned that my answers revolve too much around law related activities. Should I also say what else I do in my spare time even though this is in the CV?

Many thanks

 

[Jaysen]

Hello Everyone,

I was just wondering for the "Why you should chose me" section of a cover letter, how detailed to I need to be?
At the moment I have listed skills that I posses that the firm has stated they are looking for on their website. I have then stated how I have demonstrated these skills with brief examples. So for example ..."I am a good team player as I played a team sport " ... which has developed my communication skills.
Another example I gave for being proactive was during my work experience I would start new tasks without being prompted etc. I didn't go into much detail as to what the tasks were- is this something I should be doing.
I am also slightly concerned that my answers revolve too much around law related activities. Should I also say what else I do in my spare time even though this is in the CV?

Many thanks

It sounds like you're doing it right. In a cover letter, you want to give an overview of what makes you a good candidate for the firm, so you don't need to spend too much time detailing all the tasks you did. There is a qualifier to that though: be sure to be as specific as possible in what you do write e.g., what team sport? What was your role? How did this develop your communication skills? You should be able to cover that in a couple of lines.

If you do have a non-law related activity that backs up a point you're making, then yes I'd mention that.

 

[Amanda]

It sounds like you're doing it right. In a cover letter, you want to give an overview of what makes you a good candidate for the firm, so you don't need to spend too much time detailing all the tasks you did. There is a qualifier to that though: be sure to be as specific as possible in what you do write e.g., what team sport? What was your role? How did this develop your communication skills? You should be able to cover that in a couple of lines.

If you do have a non-law related activity that backs up a point you're making, then yes I'd mention that.

Thanks Jaysen

 

[Amanda]

Hi everyone, I have another more generic question. If I am going to talk about applying to a firm because of their reputation, how do I write it so I'm not just telling them all about themselves, but specifically why I want to work there?

 

[AJ]

Hi everyone, I have another more generic question. If I am going to talk about applying to a firm because of their reputation, how do I write it so I'm not just telling them all about themselves, but specifically why I want to work there?

Try and answer the following.... Why does their reputation matter to you? What is it about the work that you like? Why does the ranking matter for clients/the work/the jurisdiction? How does their ranking support any career aspirations and/or secondment hopes? Does it provide for any special training or experiences during the TC?

Fine to repeat rankings/reputation, but the point is to make it more personal to you. If you’ve answered the questions convincingly and incorporated some of the answers in your why firm x answer, you should be well on your way to a good answer.

I think that way your answer stands out, even though it’s repeating the rankings/reputation information.

 

[Amanda]

Try and answer the following.... Why does their reputation matter to you? What is it about the work that you like? Why does the ranking matter for clients/the work/the jurisdiction? How does their ranking support any career aspirations and/or secondment hopes? Does it provide for any special training or experiences during the TC?

Fine to repeat rankings/reputation, but the point is to make it more personal to you. If you’ve answered the questions convincingly and incorporated some of the answers in your why firm x answer, you should be well on your way to a good answer.

I think that way your answer stands out, even though it’s repeating the rankings/reputation information.

Many thanks this was very helpful!

 

[Shane O'Hanlon]

Hi guys,

Just in the process of writing a cover letter for Slaughter and May. I beleive that grad rec was quite clear in that they don't want anything over a page. I ususally structure my cover letters as why law, why the firm and why me. However, since the word count is more limited in this case am I better off writing a more detailed account for the first two sections and forget about talking about my own skills ? Or should I do a more concise version that covers all three sections.

Any advice would be apreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Jay-Lo]

Hi guys,

Just in the process of writing a cover letter for Slaughter and May. I beleive that grad rec was quite clear in that they don't want anything over a page. I ususally structure my cover letters as why law, why the firm and why me. However, since the word count is more limited in this case am I better off writing a more detailed account for the first two sections and forget about talking about my own skills ? Or should I do a more concise version that covers all three sections.

Any advice would be apreciated.

Thank you.

Hello,

When writing my cover letter for Slaughter May I found this thread very useful:

https://www.thecorporatelawacademy.com/forum/threads/cover-letter-conundrum.283/page-2#post-9363

I am also aware as mentioned by @Abstruser that I don’t believe Slaughters focus much on their cover letter as I know one of my friends wrote literally half a page and got an interview.

I approached it with the standard format of; why (commercial) law? - why me? - why Slaughters (comparing their reputation/training to competitors) I completed it all in one page. This got me to the interview stage.

Hope this helps.

 

[Miki3999]

Hi, does anyone know how to break down all modules studied at uni in the CV? Should be a table? If you have any visual examples I'd much appreciate it, because I'm really struggling with formatting.

 

[J Wu]

Hi, does anyone know how to break down all modules studied at uni in the CV? Should be a table? If you have any visual examples I'd much appreciate it, because I'm really struggling with formatting.

I have mine listed in a table. I've seen some people list them individually (usually if they didn't study too many modules per year), but I think it is cleaner to format it as a table.