Let’s talk about ‘Let’s Talk Law’, the Law Careers Podcast hosted and produced by Caroline Lindner. Caroline is one of our resident law career consultants, who was a recruiter for law firms prior to her start at King’s in February 2021.
What does King’s Careers & Employability offer for students in law?
We put a lot of thought into what we think our students need, and identify themes from individual career guidance appointments with students, as well as our knowledge of the graduate labour market. We just had our Focus on Law and Justice week, which was targeted at students and graduates interested in law! If you’re interested in what happened during then, the event recordings are available online. However, on top of Law and Justice week, we also run employer events and skills workshops run throughout the year. For example, our annual Interview and Assessment Bootcamp takes place in January/February in order to coincide with the law recruitment season. During Bootcamp, we offer more practice interviews and virtual group exercises, so that our students can practice in a safe, supportive environment. Alumnus will provide some of the practice interviews for the 2023 Bootcamp, and it’ll be a great way for students to network as well. We also have our one-on-one application advice appointments, career guidance appointments, or practice interviews as well- these are all available to be booked on King’s Careers Connect. Our KEATS pages provide more details on what we offer.
What is student engagement like for law-related career events?
Career events for law students are generally well attended. Law is a very busy space- there are a lot of employers running events. So, there’s a lot of choice for our law students at King’s. We’re very careful in deciding what we offer from Careers & Employability, as we want to complement and not duplicate. We’re aware that not every law student wants to be a solicitor or barrister, so we try to make sure they’re thinking about what skills they’re developing through their degree and their time at King’s that allows for them break into a different field. We also have a podcast, ‘Let’s talk law’, which engages students even when they’re on the go.
Let’s talk about ‘Let’s talk law’! When did you decide to start the podcast?
I joined King’s Careers & Employability during the pandemic, so we had to be clever to engage with students. It was a tumultuous year, and we weren’t getting too many employers engaging with us at that time. But wait- we have a lot of alumni who are working with these employers! So why not bring them in so that our students know that they have the potential to get these career options and job positions?
What’s the reach of the podcast?
We have about 5000 listeners to date for the whole of the series. We make it accessible for students by adding relevant episodes to our Law Careers KEATs pages- so it enhances our written content. We also signpost certain episodes to students during our one-on-one careers appointment. It also allows us to engage with our alumni as well- whether it be bringing them on as guests to share their expertise, or as a way for them to feel connected to the King’s community when listening to the podcast.
What message are you trying to convey in ‘Let’s talk law’?
So, we’ve done four series now, and the fifth series of the podcast will be coming out in January 2023. Most of the guests that come on the podcast have done a law undergraduate or postgraduate degree here at King’s, and we had some guests who’s done non-law related degree at King’s but are currently in the legal field, and some special episodes where we bring in guests from outside King’s. ‘Let’s talk law’ is also about people telling their academic and career stories, sharing their thoughts on what they’ve learnt and achieved, and how they made their career decisions. My role is to facilitate their stories so that our students can see what others have done before them, gain advice from an alumnus, and discover opportunities out of the traditional legal field. Law, as a career discipline, is changing quite rapidly at the moment, and we want our listeners to understand what that might be more them, as well as be inspired by those who have gone before them.
Let’s talk about one of the latest special episodes- the conversation with Nick West who is an expert in Legal Tech!
Legal technology is currently a buzzword in law, so I’m hoping to make this information accessible to students. Legal technology is about how you can bring in technology to deliver legal services and improve efficiencies in law, and Nick West is a foremost expert in legal technology especially in the application of AI to the legal market, so it’s great for students to be able to hear from him.