I think that for any cover letter that you write for law firms, there are a number of things that you should think about whenever you are writing them, and building from my experience, things I would focus on are:
- Divide your cover letter in Introduction, first paragraph: WHY LAW, second paragraph: WHY THE FIRM, and third and last paragraph: WHY ME. Although there are different structures you can use, this will give you an opportunity to be precise and to also be extremely exhaustive in your piece of work.
- In the first paragraph: I would focus on why you are interested in commercial law and become a commercial lawyer. Focus specifically on one or two events that really sparked your interest in the sector and include 1 to 2 professional experiences that made you understand that commercial law is what you want to do in your career. The intersection between law and business is always a good thing to mention. Feel free to also be a little bit personal in this paragraph. Especially with US firms, what i found out is that the more you are relatable, the more interesting your application is. I used to talk about how I helped my mom with her small business that she had on the side and I used to translate legal documents for her from French to Italian and how this made me appreciate the impact I had on someone with a business and this was very liked by some firms!
- In the second paragraph: I would focus on why Travers Smith specifically. What attracts you to the firm and what excites you about the Training Contract: is it the intake? is it the practice areas they specialise in? is it the nature of the work? did you have an interaction at an open day or a similar event? Mention all these things in this section. The secret here is to make sure to relate all these aspects about the firm to you and why these are important to you specifically. This is something that a lot of people tend to forget to do, rightfully so cause it is difficult, but always have this point in mind when writing a cover letter and WHY THE FIRM section.
- In the last paragraph, it is fundamental for you to showcase your experiences and your skillset and how that will make you a perfect trainee at X firm. Here, it is important to talk about meaningful experiences, whether professional or extracurricular, that distinguish you from your peers. I would make sure to highlight how the experiences made you learn certain skills and how you think that you'll be able to utilise these skills as a trainee at the firm. I would then relate this back to your desire to train at Travers Smith in this case.
To sum up, using these three sections structure will help you be concise and precise, but at the same time exhaustive in your answers and professional.
I am sure you will succeed at your application cycle this year and good luck with it!
@kmo20
