Allen & Overy

Guest Blogger

From a non law perspective...

I studied History and Politics at Nottingham University and I was fortunate to be offered a Training Contract with Allen & Overy at the start of January in my final year. After having work experience at a City law firm after my GCSEs, I knew I wanted to be a City lawyer. I also knew early on about the GDL, and as I had a passion for History and Politics, I decided to broaden my academic interests in my degree with the intention of then doing the postgraduate law conversion. At no point did I ever feel disadvantaged coming from a non-law background, even at the A&O assessment day.

“I’m currently studying the GDL at the College of Law in Manchester and it has been a fun and interesting, yet studious year”

My Training Contract doesn’t begin until September 2011, and after accepting the offer, the concept of working for A&O was a distant reality; after all I was (and still am) a student.  However shortly accepting the offer, I found out that one of my friends in my Japanese history class had also been offered a Training Contract with A&O with the same start date. It was great to see another non-law student joining the firm.

It actually turns out there are a lot more non-law students in my intake. When I was invited to the A&O Future Trainee Christmas dinner last December, about fifty other futures came. I arrived slightly nervous as I only knew my friend from university, but it didn’t make a difference. Everyone was so laid back – the partners, the graduate recruitment team, the trainees and my fellow futures, and I felt welcome and at home. I left (slightly liquored up) wondering why I was apprehensive to meet everyone in the first place.

I’m currently studying the GDL at the College of Law in Manchester and it has been a fun and interesting, yet studious year. As I write this blog, I am currently in the 5th gear of revision – we have our finals in 4 days, which comprises of seven, three-hour exams in ten days. However I take solace from the fact I am not the only person doing this year. In Manchester alone there are 120 GDL’ers, and I know from the Christmas dinner that there are a number of non-law futures who will be sitting these exams.

Nonetheless, it had been a good year. I’ve finally learnt about the Law, and it is interesting (apart from formalities necessary for the creation and protection of a second mortgage for unregistered land). This year has been tough at times – I was used to 4 hours of seminars a week at university with minimal prep involved, yet on average we have about 8 hours of class on the GDL with approximately 16 hours of prep needed for the seminars. However this year has also been great. I have enjoyed learning about Law. Socially it has been good too, especially as there are two other A&O futures with me in Manchester, and I cannot wait to meet up with everyone else when I start the A&O LPC in September. Now back to revision, EC awaits – need to learn about how the Bosman free-transfer rule really works, my knowledge from Football Manager won’t help me here.

Jamie Crystal - GDL Student

If you would like to leave a comment or ask a question, please follow the link below. Your comments will need to be approved by a moderator before it is added to this site.

Comment