đ” All I want for Christmas is you… a training contract đ”
Christmas is a time for relaxation and overindulgence. But for those with their sights set on a career in law, the seasonal period can be one filled with deadlines, textbooks and dishing out questionable legal advice.
So here are 12 Christmas struggles that only law students will understand…
1. Transporting your law books home
Your bags will weigh a tonne if you take all of your law textbooks, folders AND notes⊠but is it safe to leave anything behind?
2. Gifting on a budget
How are you supposed to give your friends and family the presents they deserve, while trying to save up for your future SQE exams?
3. Securing work experience
Got to make sure youâre working on those âsoftâ skills and getting something to put on your CV.
4. Tedious career questions over turkey
Having to explain why you are ânot yet a lawyerâ to another relative for the umpteenth time can really turn anyone into the grinch.
5. TC and vac scheme deadlines
Realising that youâve only completed one third of the applications you set out to do in September is enough to make anyone say bah-humbug. You take a break from your latest applications, only to see your friends post cute Instagram shots ice-skating or visiting Winter Wonderland. Right⊠okayâŠ
6. A Covid Christmas
The worry of catching COVID, or just coming down with a cold, is enough to ruin anyoneâs Christmas. But for law students, the thought of doing an application or revising for exams after Christmas with any lurgy is downright miserable.
7. Questionable legal advice
When your slightly kooky great aunt asks you over Christmas dinner whether the character from the period drama theyâre watching is likely to be found guilty of negligence, how are you supposed to answer that?
8. Removing the cellophane from your untouched law books
Throughout the first semester, keeping up with lectures, seminars and tutorials was all you could do. Now youâve got the Christmas period, you realise that youâve not done any of the required reading and you have to lock yourself in your room while everyone sings along to Christmas tunes.
9. Constantly checking your emails
Throughout Christmas, your email notifications are constantly going off with deadline reminders, acknowledgments of your application and even rejections.
10. Damage control from the law school socials you canât remember
Three weeks after the last social before Christmas, youâre confident youâre in the clear and havenât done anything too embarrassing. But as you take a break from your exam revision, you open your Facebook to see 12 notifications of people tagging you in the worst possible photos. Do you keep them for the memories or hide them, knowing law firms or chambers will inevitably stumble across them too?
11. Fake laughing at the constant ‘jokes’ about your future legal career
When relatives you havenât seen all year are making jokes about how much money youâre going to make and are making plans to move in with you, all you can do is fake a laugh and hope one day theyâll stop.
12. Thinking through what youâre going to do with all the ‘law’ gifts
Whilst it is definitely the thought that counts, receiving another copy of a Supreme Court judgesâ autobiography is just too much.
Stay strong law students…
Researching law firms over Christmas? Why not check out The 2022 Legal Cheek Firms Most List. It features everything you need to know about the leading law firms operating in the UK, including pay, hours targets, international reach, diversity figures and more.
