We Rise Together: The Importance of Community in a Legal Career

The importance of community cannot be overstated. Throughout my degree and my BTC, I have found that my community have been a constant source of support.

I am of the view that it is particularly important to find your community and rely on them, should you need to.

Personally, my community consists of my family, friends, academics and tutors, work colleagues and the community I have developed through Speed Mooting. At any given time, I am confident that I could rely on any person from my community and they would willingly help in any way that they could.

Having a community is something that is particularly important for me. For that reason, I strive to make myself available to volunteer to help at open days. The reason for this is that I know how daunting they feel, even with members of my community by my side, so if I can help to alleviate any of that worry, then I shall try.

The Speed Mooting community offers avenues of support for everyone in different ways. Through the different, sessions such as the Advocacy Club at the Legal Skills Academy, non-judgemental, constructive feedback is given to those who speak throughout the sessions. That said, if you are not confident enough to deliver a piece of advocacy at that particular session, there is always the opportunity to observe. From that you can actively listen to submissions and the feedback!

Support can also be found through LinkedIn connections through the Speed Mooting community. LinkedIn can also be an avenue to broadening your community or as a method of maintaining your community. Ultimately, it is just very important that in professional life, you have your community.

I asked some of my peers for their thoughts on the importance of community and they are as follows…..

“I was always taught that "we rise together or not at all", so checking in with friends and asking what parts they're struggling with was important. When you increase the importance of wanting to cross the finishing line as a team, you look out for each other more without realising” – Kian Hearnshaw

“I think it’s important to have a community while working towards a legal career because, alongside being able to support and encourage one another, the possibility for collaboration and advice is invaluable. For many people they may be the first in their family to go into a legal career and being able to receive advice from fellow students about how to obtain work experience or how to approach studying can be very helpful. Beyond this, it’s important to be able to build ties and connections with people who will likely be colleagues in the future, especially in terms of having a positive reputation.” - Robert Bailey

“I’ve found building a non-legal focused community actually helps you when working towards a legal career. In building a diverse network of people with varying life experiences it offers a wider variety of perspectives on your path and advice.” - Ella Weatherburn

“Getting involved where you can, putting yourself out there and making friends with people who have similar goals makes the whole process feel so much less daunting.” - Sophie Rowley

“Talk to each other is the only thing I can really think. Whether it’s the Inns or University, there are so many people who know what you are going through[……], whether its law related and helping toward the exams or completely unrelated and helping forget about exams. There are few people who understand what it is you are doing, so I think it’s quite natural and like we were told at the start of the year, it’s a very collegiate profession.”-Rhys Clarke