Qualifying as a solicitor in London as an international student ?

[tatianavlt]

Hello everyone!

I'm an international student, who will graduate this September from a university outside the UK. I have studied an LLB and Master's degree in law from a top University in France. I have significant experience in common law, having completing a 2 year Diploma on the topic during my undergrad where I studied Contract, Property and Tort Law. As well as having spent my first year of Master in University College London (UCL) for an exchange program, where I studied Commercial Law, Conflict of Law and Company Law. Through my studies I also have a good knowledge of comparative law (encompassing both civil and common law jurisdictions), european law, and international law.

My long term goal is to qualify as a solicitor in London.

However, I understand the challenges I face as an international student (and more and more any student) in securing a Training Contract. As such, I am applying to Training contracts and Graduate apprenticeships, as well as Paralegal and Legal Assistant roles. I would like to know if there is any feasibility in the path I want to take, as I'm aware that my chances might be limited due to my background and difficulty to secure sponsorship, considering the current visa requirements.

I'm keen to explore all possible avenues to work in the UK and would greatly appreciate any advice or insights you might have. What alternative options exist if securing a training contract, apprenticeship, paralegal or legal assistant role doesn't work out? It is important to know that I cannot fund the SQE by myself or with the help of my family, as I have already took out a loan previously for my studies.

Additionally, I'm very interested in hearing from or about international students who, without prior studies in the UK, managed to secure a training contract. It would be especially encouraging to learn about those who have succeeded in this endeavor.

Thank you so much for your time and any guidance you can offer!

 

[axelbeugre]

Hello everyone!

I'm an international student, who will graduate this September from a university outside the UK. I have studied an LLB and Master's degree in law from a top University in France. I have significant experience in common law, having completing a 2 year Diploma on the topic during my undergrad where I studied Contract, Property and Tort Law. As well as having spent my first year of Master in University College London (UCL) for an exchange program, where I studied Commercial Law, Conflict of Law and Company Law. Through my studies I also have a good knowledge of comparative law (encompassing both civil and common law jurisdictions), european law, and international law.

My long term goal is to qualify as a solicitor in London.

However, I understand the challenges I face as an international student (and more and more any student) in securing a Training Contract. As such, I am applying to Training contracts and Graduate apprenticeships, as well as Paralegal and Legal Assistant roles. I would like to know if there is any feasibility in the path I want to take, as I'm aware that my chances might be limited due to my background and difficulty to secure sponsorship, considering the current visa requirements.

I'm keen to explore all possible avenues to work in the UK and would greatly appreciate any advice or insights you might have. What alternative options exist if securing a training contract, apprenticeship, paralegal or legal assistant role doesn't work out? It is important to know that I cannot fund the SQE by myself or with the help of my family, as I have already took out a loan previously for my studies.

Additionally, I'm very interested in hearing from or about international students who, without prior studies in the UK, managed to secure a training contract. It would be especially encouraging to learn about those who have succeeded in this endeavor.

Thank you so much for your time and any guidance you can offer!

Hey @tatianavlt

Thank you so much for sharing your experience and I can tell you that I can totally resonate with your experience. I am an international student myself who had an undergraduate degree in politics from a university outside the UK, even though I did my master in the UK (non-law master) last year. As you can imagine it was very nerve-wracking for me applying to law firms as a non-law students and coming from another country as well (I did my undergraduate degree in Italy).

I did not let this stop me and I studied the whole process inside and out and managed to secure multiple vacation scheme offers and I ended up converting the first that I did and now I am a future trainee solicitor which feels very surreal to say.

I think that by just reading your experiences and background, I am pretty sure you are more than capable of securing training contract offers from top law firms. You have the right experiences and your international background will definitely be appealing to many law firms, especially US law firms (that was my experience!).

What I would say is that you might be asked to do the PGDL, the law conversion course, even if you studied law. Unfortunately, because it is not law from the UK, law firms will ask you to do it before completing the SQE, which personally speaking it is better as the PGDL prepares you well for the SQE. This was the experience of many people I know who were in your same situation (with a law degree from another country and maybe an exchange semester/year in the UK (unfortunately those modules will not allow you to escape the PGDL).

I think you are taking the right steps, and the first one I would have recommended would have been using TCLA! This is such a cool platform that will allow you to meet people with similar backgrounds and interests, and it will allow you to have updates and news about the law firms you are applying for!

What I would think about is the fact that you will not be able to do vacation schemes without a student visa so, if this is something you might be interested in, I would suggest applying for an LLM or a master of your choice (potentially to a university which offers scholarships, for instance I went to LSE and I got a 50% scholarship). This will allow you to be in the UK, be able to go to in-person events to law firms, do open days and network as well as learn more about the legal industry in this country. Moreover, it will allow you to apply to vacation schemes in the spring or summer. In this way you will have the visa to be in the country and try to pursue this goal of yours!

Furthermore, I personally would recommend starting to do in-depth research of the law firms you are interested in now and do a selection of firms you might be interested. This will give you the chance of understanding what kind of areas you are mostly interested in and what firms might be for you.

I hope this is helpful and I encourage you to follow this dream you have as you can see from my experience it is totally possible!

Good luck with your journey!

 

[massiveattack]

Hello everyone!

I'm an international student, who will graduate this September from a university outside the UK. I have studied an LLB and Master's degree in law from a top University in France. I have significant experience in common law, having completing a 2 year Diploma on the topic during my undergrad where I studied Contract, Property and Tort Law. As well as having spent my first year of Master in University College London (UCL) for an exchange program, where I studied Commercial Law, Conflict of Law and Company Law. Through my studies I also have a good knowledge of comparative law (encompassing both civil and common law jurisdictions), european law, and international law.

My long term goal is to qualify as a solicitor in London.

However, I understand the challenges I face as an international student (and more and more any student) in securing a Training Contract. As such, I am applying to Training contracts and Graduate apprenticeships, as well as Paralegal and Legal Assistant roles. I would like to know if there is any feasibility in the path I want to take, as I'm aware that my chances might be limited due to my background and difficulty to secure sponsorship, considering the current visa requirements.

I'm keen to explore all possible avenues to work in the UK and would greatly appreciate any advice or insights you might have. What alternative options exist if securing a training contract, apprenticeship, paralegal or legal assistant role doesn't work out? It is important to know that I cannot fund the SQE by myself or with the help of my family, as I have already took out a loan previously for my studies.

Additionally, I'm very interested in hearing from or about international students who, without prior studies in the UK, managed to secure a training contract. It would be especially encouraging to learn about those who have succeeded in this endeavor.

Thank you so much for your time and any guidance you can offer!

Hey!

I'm an international candidate (no connections to the UK whatsoever apart from the exchange semester; law degree & legal work experience abroad), and I got a TC from an MC firm.

I definitely felt it was harder for me to get through the application stage. The background may have played its role, but I concentrated on what I could improve to be a stronger candidate. If you can, I definitely recommend buying a TCLA premium subscription and taking the time to understand the process, e.g., how do you describe your skills, how do you tie in your motivation with your experience, etc. Might have been just my personal struggle, but since the recruiting process I was used to was so different, all those application techniques were absolutely not obvious to me. If a premium subscription is not an option, there are still a lot of useful materials in the forum.

On the positive side, things became significantly easier once I started getting past the initial stage. I was worried if my backstory and reasons for moving to the UK would make any sense to the interviewers, but that never became an issue. In my experience, it may even be a way to stand out during interviews - if you convey it in a sincere, well-structured way (trust me, my story is a mess).

On a separate note, I recommend starting to brush up on your commercial awareness and basic M&A knowledge in advance. There are quite a few deadlines over the spring and the summer, and it might take more time to draft your first applications. Being generally up-to-date with commercial news and remembering the basics will help when preparing for an assessment centre while also juggling other deadlines and responsibilities.

Hope this helps and good luck!