BARBRI’s Rob Dudley shares his tips on researching firms, perfecting applications, acing interviews and handling rejection
With vacation scheme and training contract season in full swing, BARBRI’s head of employability & engagement, Rob Dudley, has one key piece of advice for aspiring lawyers: become “researchers rather than just applicants”. Rather than firing off dozens of generic forms, he encourages students to get curious about firms and focus their efforts. “I’d much rather see someone submit maybe eight to ten really thoughtful, very tailored applications rather than generic ones,” he tells Legal Cheek Careers.
Ahead of Legal Cheek’s upcoming virtual student event with BARBRI, How to land a vacation scheme or training contract (from those who’ve done it), Dudley shares practical advice on researching firms, tackling interviews and staying resilient when applications do not go to plan.
Researching firms, Dudley argues, should begin with a degree of self-reflection. BARBRI encourages students to look beyond law firm websites by making use of law fairs, open days, events and webinars, but applicants should also ask themselves: “What do I really want? Do I want to be in a very big commercial firm? Do I want to be in a smaller intake of people from a training contract perspective?” The clearer students are on the kind of environment they want, he suggests, the easier it becomes to focus their search.
That means looking beyond headline deals and practice areas to what day-to-day life as a trainee might actually involve. Dudley encourages students to ask practical questions about the training experience itself: “How am I going to be supervised if I get a training contract? What’s the culture when it comes to talking to more senior people within the organisation? What kind of responsibility am I going to have? How do you develop me as a trainee?” Those conversations, he adds, can be particularly useful when trying to get a feel for a firm’s culture, something that can be difficult to gauge from the outside.
Speaking to people already at the firm can be particularly revealing. “Whenever students tell me that they’ve spoken to three or four different trainees from the same firm, they all describe quite similar experiences,” Dudley says. “Sometimes that’s a much better way of finding out whether that firm is the right fit for them rather than whatever is written on a website.”
Making the application personal
Once that research is in place, Dudley says the key is to connect the firm’s story with your own. “It’s joining the dots between what the firm says on their website, what you already know about the firm, and connecting it with your own story,” he explains. That might mean referring to a conversation with a trainee, an event that sparked your interest, or a genuine enthusiasm for a sector in which the firm is strong. “That makes a much more compelling application,” he says, creating “alignment between your own story and the firm’s activities and ambitions.”
A lack of legal work experience should not put applicants off. Dudley points to students who have secured vacation schemes and training contracts after working in hospitality, retail and other non-legal settings. “The majority of legal employers are looking for valuable, pervasive skills irrespective of what sector you’ve worked in,” he says. A Saturday job in a café or restaurant, for example, can evidence communication, teamwork and problem-solving. “Employers are looking for people, not just legal work experience,” Dudley stresses.
Beyond the written application
For applicants who make it through the initial sift, commercial awareness can be a common source of anxiety. Dudley says students often “roll their eyes” at the phrase because they assume it means memorising headline news stories, when in reality it is more about curiosity and understanding that law firms are businesses. At an assessment centre, he advises candidates to look beyond the face of a case study and think about the client’s wider position. “Don’t just take what you’re given as read,” he says. “View it as a test of what you would do for a client in that scenario.”
Authenticity matters throughout the application process, from the written form onwards, but Dudley says it becomes particularly important at interview. Rather than memorising polished answers, he advises candidates to know their own experiences and motivations well enough to speak about them naturally. “Interviewers aren’t looking for absolute perfection,” he says. “They want someone authentic who can logically and clearly communicate what they’ve done, what they want to do, and their motivations.”
That clarity of motivation matters on a vacation scheme too. Dudley says successful candidates are specific about why they want the firm and what they want from their career, rather than falling back on generic lines about having “always wanted to be a lawyer”. “Candidates who secure a TC clearly articulate their motivations, reflect on what they’ve done, and know what they want for the future,” he says.
Learning from rejection
Rejection is an inevitable part of a highly competitive process, but Dudley says the focus should be on what applicants can learn from it. “The challenge isn’t avoiding rejection. It’s learning as much as you can from it,” he says. He encourages students to “focus on what you can control”, whether that means reviewing an application, seeking feedback or spotting patterns in where things may be going wrong. Crucially, he adds, “don’t view rejection as a judgment on whether you’re meant to be a lawyer.”
Dudley also encourages applicants to stay open-minded about where their legal career might begin. Those focused on a narrow group of firms may benefit from broadening their search to regional practices, smaller firms or boutiques. “If a Magic Circle firm comes along a few years down the line, great,” he says. “You’ve already gained great experience elsewhere.”
Supporting students through the process
That link between resilience and employability also shapes BARBRI’s wider support. “We provide a huge number of support initiatives around student wellbeing,” Dudley says, reflecting his view that “employability and wellbeing go hand in hand”. The aim, he explains, is to help students build the “confidence and competence” needed to navigate a competitive profession, with resilience and dealing with rejection among the key topics BARBRI discusses with students.
The upcoming event will put that advice into practice. Dudley says one of the things he values most about these sessions is hearing “real experiences” from students, trainees, early careers professionals and legal employers. For attendees, those first-hand experiences can provide a “genuine perspective on what works, what to avoid, how to handle setbacks”, as well as practical tips for building confidence in what can feel like a daunting job market. Hearing directly from people who have successfully navigated the process, he adds, can make it feel “much more manageable”.
Ultimately, Dudley’s message is that applicants should expect to learn as they go. “It is an iterative process,” he says, with each application, interview and setback offering another chance to refine their approach.
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