A timeline for undergraduates studying law at university

First year

Autumn

Join your student Law Society, talk to law

students in the years above and attend any law firm or chambers presentations you can



Spring

Research and apply for as many different kinds of vacation placements/mini-pupillages as possible for the following summer



Summer

Don't fail your exams



Second year

Autumn

Attend law firm or chambers events at your university. Use the time before the panic of exams sets in to do some heavy-duty research on traineeship, pupillage and LPC or BVC courses.



Spring

Swot up on brochures. Check available listings - such as those in this issue of The Lawyer, or those which appear in Lex each term - for any early application deadlines and draw up your own personal planner of when you have to apply where. Ask careers advisers for help in sorting out application forms and CVs and get the interview practice in early.



Summer

Apply for commercial traineeships. Stick to the deadlines for all the application forms. (It's simple - if you put it in late then you won't get an interview). Start thinking what you are going to write on the forms as soon as possible as some take aeons to fill out and are extremely complex.



Third year

Autumn

Would-be solicitors should hopefully be having interviews with the larger commercial firms. Apply for the LPC/BVC.



Spring

Would-be solicitors - apply for membership of the Law Society and as many vacation placements as possible.

Would-be barristers - continue to find out as much about the strengths of specific chambers and areas of work. Applying for more mini-pupillages won't do you any harm



Summer

Do well in your finals

Accept your place on the LPC/BVC



NB. All CPE students should follow the timeline the year after their LLB counterparts. For example, prospective CPE students in their final year of their undergraduate degree should follow the steps for second year law students and so on.