Alumni panel for Alternative Careers for Law students event

Alumni left to right: Chair of the panel, Andrew Smith (LLB, 1985); Andrew Turner (LLB, 1986); Jess Duggan-Larkin (law lecturer); Daniel Jeffery (LLB 2007, and MA International Relations of the Middle East, 2008) and Ben Covey (LLB, 1999)

Alternative Careers for Law students discussion

If you are not sure where you want your law degree to take you, hearing from a panel of successful alumni who have followed an alternative career with their law degree can open up many career opportunities for further exploration. With experience in insurance, banking, government, academia and security strategy, our panel provided law students with an insight of how a law degree is good training for a variety of professions.

A key theme which emerged from the discussion was about how to articulate the transferrable skills you get from your law degree. Dr Mary Synge, Director of External Relations for the Law School attended the event and reiterates a strong message to current students.

'It was particularly striking how each panellist described the greatest benefit of a law degree being the skill of working through vast quantities of material, extrapolating the relevant information or principles, and then communicating them - succinctly and coherently - in the form most appropriate for the particular client or audience.  If ever this seemed like something for practising lawyers alone, this excellent evening prompted a re-think.  So read, extract and articulate - practise while you can!'

Bringing together alumni and current students is a wonderful way of helping students relate their own experience of university and their studies to the world of work. Law alumni contribute a huge amount of time and energy to the Law School. Attending events like these help students and help to make new connections with the Law School.

Andrew Smith who chaired our panel said;

"It was a great pleasure to come back to Exeter, see what had changed in the last 30 years and most importantly hear about current students’ experiences, challenges and concerns. Although many law graduates and students these days choose not to qualify professionally, the disciplines and skills developed as part of studying for a law degree are still really relevant.  It was a privilege to be able to assist with this event, and great to meet current law school staff and students.  I found the questions both interesting and inspiring."

The Employability team and Law School have collaborated on a number of ways alumni can contribute directly in to teaching to emphasise the skills and attributes you get from your degree. We also have a number of practical workshops and mock interviews which alumni are invited to deliver. If you would like to learn more about getting involved, please contact the Employability and Outreach Manager, Julia Paci.

Date: 2 November 2016