Current ULaw SQE student Evie McKnight reflects on her journey from studying Arabic and Spanish at university to securing a training contract at DLA Piper, sharing how curiosity, consistency and confidence shaped her path
Evie McKnight’s path to law started far from the usual route. She read Arabic and Spanish at the University of Manchester, deliberately pairing a familiar language (Spanish) with a new challenge. Her first year coincided with national lockdowns, meaning she was learning a completely new language from scratch all online.
As McKnight progressed further through her degree, restrictions lifted and she was able to mix both language learning and cultural modules, from women and gender in the Middle East to the politics of business in Latin America. “You get such a wider awareness,” she says. “Half of it’s language, but half is culture, and that’s what I loved about studying at Manchester.”
Her year abroad took her to Jordan for nine months and to summer placements in Spain — experiences she “absolutely loved” and “would go back to in a heartbeat”. These studies, she says, gave her a global perspective long before she ever thought seriously about a legal career.
Law, meanwhile, was more of a background idea than a clear goal. “It was always in the back of my mind,” she recalls. “At school, there was a girl a few years above me who said she was doing ancient history at Exeter, then a law conversion afterwards, and I remember thinking, oh, that’s a thing!” Her parents also joked that she should be a lawyer because she “loved arguing with everyone” — a canon event for all lawyers-to-be.
It was during her year abroad that she took her first plunge into applications. “I actually applied to a few vacation schemes while I was in Jordan,” she says. “I had no idea what I was doing: I literally just wrote, ‘I’d like to do law because I’ve never done it before.’ Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get any of them!”
Returning to Manchester for her final year, McKnight began thinking more seriously about her next steps. She knew she wanted to keep studying, but wasn’t sure what in. “I looked at master’s programmes in Latin American or Middle Eastern culture, and even at translation or interpreting, but I didn’t feel like it was for me,” she explains. “So I thought, well, I’ll try the law conversion. If I enjoy it, great — if not, at least I’ll know.”
McKnight began her law conversion in autumn 2024 at The University of Law in Leeds. This time, she decided to “completely throw [herself] into the process”, applying for vacation schemes with renewed focus. “I thought, if I’m doing this, I’m really doing it,” she says. “And my biggest piece of advice to anyone would be: use ULaw’s employability team. The applications I wrote with their help were the ones that got through the first stage. The ones I did alone didn’t.”
After her first couple applications, she quickly learned how to tailor them to each firm. “Once you’ve done a few, you learn how specific you must be. But at the beginning, you just don’t realise how in-depth it all needs to be.” McKnight landed two vacation scheme offers, which overlapped, and ultimately chose DLA Piper. “The assessment days and firm culture there just suited me best,” she says. By the end of the scheme, DLA Piper had offered her a training contract.
Her choice of firm was no coincidence. “Because of my language background, I applied mainly to international firms,” she says. “I felt that’s where my niche was — being able to bring languages and cultural awareness.” Smaller firms, she notes, didn’t seem to value those skills in the same way. “I applied to a few private-client places, but I knew I didn’t have the kind of experience to compete there. The international side suited me better.”
A discovery day at DLA Piper’s Leeds office gave her a head start. “I went to quite a few of those insight days,” she says. “It really helps with applications because you’ve got something personal to talk about, and you can even mention people by name.” McKnight had visited the city years earlier for a university open day and liked it straight away — so when her partner began a master’s in Leeds, it all seemed to fall into place. It felt like the perfect city to complete law school in and begin her training contract journey.
Coming from a non-law background and being the first in her family to go to university made the process daunting. “I didn’t know anyone who was a lawyer,” she says. “When you get all those rejections, it’s tough. But you just have to have faith in yourself and remember they’re not looking for someone who already knows case law. They want potential.”
That mindset, she says, is key at assessment centres too. “They invest a lot in you even before you start,” she explains. “They just want someone they can see fitting in. Someone who’s willing to learn. Someone mouldable.”
Having completed the PGDL last year, McKnight is now preparing for her SQE1 at ULaw’s Leeds campus. The PGDL, she found, demanded steady effort. “It’s definitely intense,” she says. “But because I studied languages, I already had that foundation of working little and often. You can’t cram a language; you have to stay consistent. That really helped me.”
Her biggest tip? “Don’t fall behind,” she says firmly. “Once you’re behind, catching up is so much harder. You learn along the way how much detail to note down — it’s all new at first — but everyone’s in the same boat.”
The step up to the SQE has brought new challenges. “Not to scare people,” she laughs, “but if you thought the conversion was hard, wait for the SQE.” The main hurdle, she says, is realising how much carries over. “I didn’t realise the academic law from the PGDL was examined again, so now I’m revising modules from first semester that I barely remember! I wish I’d kept on top of that more.”
Still, she’s found the course’s interactivity a highlight. “The classes are two hours long, but they’re never lectures. It’s all discussion and working through problems as a group. The quality of teaching at ULaw is amazing. I wouldn’t understand half of it without the classes.”
When her SQE1 exams wrap up in January, she plans a well-earned break. “A week later I’m going travelling in South America for six months. That’s my light at the end of the tunnel before I come back for SQE2.”
After years of study, the idea of full-time work feels exciting. Looking ahead to starting at DLA Piper, she’s thoughtful about what she’s learned. “Law is constantly changing, so you have to stay open and curious,” she says. “But you also have to be honest with yourself about what kind of work you actually want. Some people apply to the big international firms because of money or prestige, but it’s not for everyone — the hours are long, and the work’s intense.”
Her advice to aspiring solicitors? “Reach out to people,” she says. “Message future trainees on LinkedIn — they’ll give you the real insight. Partners won’t tell you what the application process is like or what the work’s like day to day. And think seriously about whether it’s the right kind of law for you. There’s so much more out there than you think, and you can’t be super picky once you’ve applied, so do that thinking before you even start.”
For McKnight, that preparation has paid off. “Everything’s fallen into place in a way that suits me,” she says. “If I could tell my past self one thing, it’d be to trust the process, and know that curiosity really does take you far.”
Legal Cheek Live in Leeds takes place in-person TODAY on Thursday, 6 November. The event features a series of careers and commercial awareness workshops delivered by top law firms as well as a careers fair featuring early talent and graduate recruitment teams.
View this post on Instagram
About Legal Cheek Careers posts.
