Two of our NGHS alumnae, Emilia De Rosa (2016) and Helen Watson (1991), gave a two part careers talk focused on applying to study Law and careers in Law.  Emilia will be starting her legal career with Covington and Burlington LLP in early 2022 and Helen Watson is currently in-house counsel for Vodafone. Girls from Year 9, 11, 12 and 13 attended the talk.

In the first part of the law talk, Emilia focused on applying to study Law at university and her personal career journey to date. She discussed her A-Level choices of Chemistry, French and English Language and told the girls that there are no particular qualification requirements for entry and no need to possess a background in law.

During Year 12 Emilia completed work experience at Cartwright King and Nelsons and this helped firm her decision about her chosen career path. She offered advice to the girls in respect of work experience and how to approach organisations in order to gain this, but also for the girls to think about relevant extracurricular activities to take part in outside of school. Emilia also offered advice about the LNAT exam which is an assessment test for Law required by some universities. After completing her A-Levels she went on to study Law with French at the University of Bristol which included a year abroad during which she lived in Paris. When choosing her university options Emilia opted for Russell Group universities as they generally provide better graduate prospects for employment with city law firms. Emilia discussed her degree and how interesting and diverse it was including covering Tort Law, Negligence, Public Law and European Law. She stressed that a law degree is very academic and requires students to have a serious commitment to reading and to studying. She added however, that there are different routes into a legal career and they don’t all require completion of a law degree. There is the option to choose to study a subject that you really enjoy at university, and then complete the law conversion course.

 

 

On  finishing her studies and achieving a 1st Class Degree, Emilia went on to apply to eight different legal firms, all during the COVID pandemic. The application process can include a video interview and various tests, but individual universities give lots of advice about the process too. During the summer she then completed a vacation scheme which included a law case study in employment law and was subsequently successful in securing a role at Covington and Burlington LLP, a Washington based law firm who have a London office at which she will start in February 2022.

The girls were then joined by Helen Watson who discussed her own personal career journey. This included working in Singapore with the US military in Diego Garcia. Helen currently works as in-house counsel for Vodafone and has been in the role for nearly nine years. Her position involves managing 30 in-house lawyers and looking after Vodafone Business which is the part of the organisation selling services to business customers. Day to day this can involve regulatory work and legislation as well as advising on employment law and intellectual property. This often involves speaking to lawyers in other countries. Being in-house counsel means that you are at the heart of the business and part of the business strategy within an organisation, but also focusing on the practical aspects of the law. This sort of role enables you to meet lots of different people including engineers and those delivering on the front line. Though there can be more flexibility in this type of role it is also a less structured career path in which you can ascertain your own area of interest, potentially you could become part of a small team.

 

 

Helen told the girls that she was an ‘accidental’ lawyer and hadn’t taken the traditional route. However, there are many ways to practise the law and she chose to pursue this after her university degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge. She then undertook her law conversion course and found that her science degree really helped with her analytical skills.

Her current role is different from that of somebody working within a law firm as she is within the business itself and is the businesses legal representative, as opposed to supporting external clients who come to you for legal advice in areas such as family or property law.

The girls asked questions throughout the whole session and found the talks very informative, learning lots about the different routes into Law and the many careers options it allows you to pursue.