Surive Law - "Why I Loved My Clerkship at Freehills" (1 Viewer)

[richei]

Hey Guys,

There's a new post up on SurviveLaw that we thought the Bored of Studies crew might find interesting. It's part of our Clerkship Roundup series, this article is a spotlight on the experience of a student at Freehills.

Anyway, we'd love it if you'd check it out: Clerkship Roundup – Why I Loved My Clerkship at Freehills | Survive Law

Survive Law Team

 

[Frigid]

the article reads like a thinly-veiled advertisement, not unlike the recycleable puffery handed out at law careers fairs.

in the interests of objectivity, could you please clarify the commercial relationship, if any, between your entity Survivelaw.com and the law firm Freehills?

 

[flamearrows]

the article reads like a thinly-veiled advertisement, not unlike the recycleable puffery handed out at law careers fairs.

in the interests of objectivity, could you please clarify the commercial relationship, if any, between your entity Survivelaw.com and the law firm Freehills?

Is this the new grassroots advertising? It's poorly done (and poorly proofed - 'surive law').

 

[melsc]

I understand what you're trying to do is well intentioned but, I don't know about how other people feel but seriously no offence, I am kinda sick of being told how much I'd love to work at XYZ, obviously I wanted a summer clerkship and despite this didn't get one, its not like most people didn't want one and thus need to be told how good it is

I am currently battling with the fact that I have fallen in love with a firm I am temping at at the moment and may not any more work there...fingers crossed.

 

[flamearrows]

I understand what you're trying to do is well intentioned but, I don't know about how other people feel but seriously no offence, I am kinda sick of being told how much I'd love to work at XYZ, obviously I wanted a summer clerkship and despite this didn't get one, its not like most people didn't want one and thus need to be told how good it is

I am currently battling with the fact that I have fallen in love with a firm I am temping at at the moment and may not any more work there...fingers crossed.

Not so sure about 'good intentioned'...

These days I increasingly feel like some people really are called to the legal profession. I can't think of any other reason that explains the divergent views of law students - I don't know many people who are ambivalent about a legal career, after being exposed to the work. Personally, I didn't really enjoy my clerkship though I love studying law.

I guess what I'm saying is that even people who desperately want a clerkship may quickly find that it's not for them.

 

[richei]

Sincere apologies if that post gave a bad impression guys - we genuinely only posted that here because we thought it might have been interesting. To be totally clear, Survive Law has absolutely no relation what so ever with Freehills, or for that matter, any law firm at all - and we're hoping to keep it that way.

To explain a bit of context, we're currently doing a run of a few guest posts from 2009-2010 summer clerks, because the guests themselves were genuinely keen to share their experience. For obvious reasons, that's a self-selecting group who are likely to write positive things. We were very clear about marking each "Clerkship Roundup" guest post with a disclaimer explaining who the writer is - if anyone thinks we should we have gone further, we'd be absolutely happy to?

If you have a look back through our archive though, you'll find dozens of posts that are critical of the clerkship process broadly or others discussing alternative career options. We try our best to be as balanced (and tongue in cheek) as possible.

To give you an idea, just yesterday we posted about the rural job market and regularly put together information or interviews about career paths:
The Hidden Job Market in Regional, Rural and Remote Australia | Survive Law
The Real World: Legal Jobs in the Public Sector | Survive Law
I Want Your Job | Survive Law

Our posts on health and depression talk quite a bit about the problems associated with working in big firms:
Depression | Survive Law
Some Thoughts on Balancing Your Calling with Your Life | Survive Law

We've poked quite a bit of fun at the big firms in the past
Navigating a Law Firm Drinks Night | Survive Law
Surviving Summer Clerkships and Graduate Recruitment | Survive Law
How to Win Summer Clerkship Roulette in 9 Easy Steps | Survive Law

And we've also been somewhat critical
Time to See a Careers Counsellor – Some Thoughts on Summer Clerkships | Survive Law

We'd love some feedback about the kinds of precautions we should take around these issues in the future though We're still getting a feel for the kinds of content people are interested in, and we're absolutely our best to maintain a site and community that's honest and balanced - so if you think there's something we should be doing, please please let us know!

 

[richei]

Is this the new grassroots advertising? It's poorly done (and poorly proofed - 'surive law').

We like to call it "sloppy".

 

[Frigid]

richei, thank you for the follow up and clarification.

the reason for my initial criticism is because i have participated in law student societies where everything written about summer clerkships was positive, partly due to the fact that the LSSs were funded largely by big firm sponsorship. big firms have recruitment websites. in my view, that is where their clerkship marketing should remain.

thank you for pointing out your other articles. in addition to your well-being articles (a great idea, btw), i think there should be a focus on non-big law careers. we must remember that big law is not the only thing out there. perhaps - over a series of articles - you could interview a broader spectrum of the legal community (for example, policymakers, academics, lower court judges, general legal practitioners, family law practitioners, community practitioners et al).

 

[Omnidragon]

I think you should focus more on some other opinions too. We can all read about how great a firm is on their career brochure and there really isn't much spice or market for another independent institution to emphasise that same point over and over again.

To be hoenst, when I was reading the Freehills article, I was a bit surprised about the stuff she wrote- did she write thison behalf of thefirm and you just copy and pasted it onto your website? I don't know what's so fun about being 'part of the deal' doing discovery or due diligence but let's save that for another thread. Whatever floats her boat, but I guess someone should tell her how many miserable souls there are at various law firms, F inluded, that I regularly hang out with.