Hey there,
I totally get this feeling. There are so many things one could possibly include in a cover letter given the flexibility of it. It’s far from application questions where you are directed towards a certain type of focus point, and expected to stay within that.
There are three key things worth mentioning;
- Why commercial law.
- Why the firm.
- Why you.
The three, “why’s”, essentially.
Why CL - there are so many professions out there, especially in the corporate world, and your ability to succinctly deal with the first why, helps show your reader you have thought this path through. Now, it’s not enough to just state your experiences, you need to precisely show what you did during that period. Further, you will still need to take it to the next level by showcasing why and how that links to commercial law (or an aspect of it, like a practice area), to create a good answer. At this point, you do not need to worry about whether the experiences you choose, or the practice areas you talk about, are a core area of the firm you are applying to. Just showing your journey and how you discovered this path is enough. Law firms want to see your story. How you genuinely communciate this passion is by showing them this. You could say something like you tried X didn’t like it because of Y and Z. You then maybe tried B and picked out that you liked O and G, which commercial law offers, and decided that this was a great path to go down for I and J reasons.
Apologies for bombarding you with alphabets, but essentially this is the structure you should aim for (or some variation of it).
Why the firm - as above, seeing as there are so many firms out there, even this is a rather challenging question to answer. Many firms work on similar types of work, similar kinds of deals, have similar core practices, and so on. If the firm operates within a niche area, typically not done by other firms that are reasonably considered its competitors, this could be a distinguishing factor which could draw you more to the firm you are applying to. Focusing clearly on these niche aspects (though I appreciate this may not always be the case/ easy to find), will help your answer appear less generic, and showcase yourself as a candidate that actually knows what they want,
AND has done research into knowing where they can get that.
Why you - this is perhaps the easiest and hardest question of all. It’s easy because you know yourself and experiences well, so this should not be hard to communicate. It’s hard because I see a lot of applicants, sway towards downplaying themsleves, whereas this should really be where you sell yourself well. I once watched a webinar on personal branding when applying for jobs, and this is where you really hone into any standout qualities, achievements, backed up with specific examples, that could elevate your application.
Best of luck.. hope this helps!
