Hi
@axelbeugre I'm an international student applying from India for TCs in the UK in the penultimate year of my law degree. I'm doing my law degree from India and am due to graduate in 2025.
Thanks for answering my question. I would say that it is a bit more challenging to apply for training contracts from outside the country, especially now in this political climate so I would start by saying to expect a lot of setbacks because of it. I personally feel like you have much more chances of getting positive results if you apply within the country and with a degree from a reputable UK university.
In fact, notwithstanding the fact that I went to a very good private university in Milan, Italy (with a fully funded scholarship), I would have not had any luck applying directly from Italy without a UK degree. Of course, never say never (and I did meet one person from LinkedIn who applied directly from Freshfield and got the training contract) but this is very rare so I would bear this in mind. Going to LSE was a game-changer for me and I am sure it helped my applications and my chances of getting interviews.
However, this should not discourage you in the slightest, only open your eyes to your real possibilities. I would encourage you to keep applying until your graduation, and also motivate you to apply to LLM or MSc courses in UK universities to have the best chances of success if you are not successful earlier!
In terms of my experience with US law firms, I personally feel like I had a very positive experience with them. It really felt like they were willing to give me a shot, realising that my academic and professional skillset, although abroad, had so many valuable things that would have distinguished me from my peers and ultimately make me a better lawyer. Additionally, being black I really felt like they were very diverse environments (especially some firms more than others of course) appreciative of my diverse International and racial background.
So, I always encourage people from my same background to apply to US firms as I feel like they really value diversity, and this is also shown by how some of them are very diverse (even at partner levels) in the US and are sort of in need of mirroring that trend in the UK too.
In terms of tips to apply to US firms, what I would say is:
- Being yourself through the process, although it is cliché, it is one of the things I will always preach. Re-reading my application to Goodwin recently felt so strange cause I was so taken by a law firm giving me a chance regardless of me being 100% in the application. I thought that this was not possible to do in these applications and I tried to change who I was when I started applying to magic circle firms, however I could see how that was not working for me. Being myself and telling my story was something that worked extremely with US firms since they were genuinely interested in me and my personality. Especially firms like Goodwin who only uses your application to decide whether to invite people to interview, they want to understand who you are as a person from your words and your stories, and being yourself through the process is the only thing that will allow you to do that!
- Do your research. Show that you know the firm inside and out and demonstrate your commitment to train with that firm with showing how well you know it and the differences between the firm and its competitors. Goodwin specifically has a question about what firms you apply to and it is an opportunity for you to also see if you know the competitors of the firm and if you are applying to them.
I think that one of the reasons why it will be very difficult to get through the process is the fact that you are not studying in the UK, so I really want to stress this. So, do not think you are not good enough because you definitely are, but most probably factors out of your control are interfering. You also need to remember that the market is becoming saturated in my opinion so there are a lot of people applying now for a variety of different reasons and so this will increase competition a lot.
I hope I helped you in some way and good luck with your applications!
