Bridging the Gap: How Being a Campus Ambassador Honed My Soft Skills as an Aspiring Lawyer
- Annette Lam
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 8 hours ago
Author: Annette Lam
As an aspiring lawyer, you’ve likely heard the common refrain – successful legal careers are underpinned by a foundation of strong communication, organisational, and time management skills. While substantive legal training is undoubtedly essential, many of the core competencies for thriving in this field can gradually and continually be cultivated prior to stepping foot into practice.
My first impression of Campus Ambassadors in other law firms seems more of a marketing-oriented role, with the main responsibility being promoting the firm’s presence on campus through posting or disseminating standardised materials through various university channels and student networks. However, my experience as a Campus Ambassador at Ravenscroft & Schmierer has transformed this perception. The firm encourages Campus Ambassadors to simultaneously cultivate their personal brand and promote the firm using personal strategies and ideas. Throughout my experience as a Campus Ambassador at the University of Bristol, I have built the foundations of strong communication and interpersonal abilities, organisational and networking proficiency, as well as time management skills — all of which are indispensable as I embark on
my legal career. So, if you’re an aspiring lawyer considering whether to take on a Campus Ambassador role, get ready to discover how this programme can give you a significant advantage in pursuing your legal ambitions.
Connections and Communication: The Power of Interpersonal Mastery
As a lawyer, cultivating and maintaining a client’s trust is quintessential to establishing enduring relationships. Meaningful connections can only be forged through the genuine building of trust, which relies on effective and multi-faceted communication. As trusted advisors, lawyers’ responsibility extends beyond providing a reassuring presence to keeping clients fully informed of the strengths, weaknesses, risks, and potential outcomes of their cases. Importantly, this transparency must be paired with tailored and strategic advice to align with the client’s best interests.
Campus Ambassadors serve as a crucial bridge between potential applicants and the firm. Applicants who reach out to me for application advice are my ‘clients’ – whom I provide application guidance and address any inquiries they may have regarding the firm or its opportunities. While my connections with these students are often forged initially through platforms like LinkedIn, effective communication is central to maintaining their trust - both for myself and the firm I represent. To this end, I prioritise actively engaging with students and understanding their unique profiles, concerns and needs. Whenever I notice a student’s LinkedIn page requires refinement, I will provide tailored tips to help them strengthen their online presence and bolster their chances of securing an opportunity. Over time, this approach has allowed me to cultivate genuine, mutually beneficial relationships. Some students even supported and participated in the online webinar I’ve hosted, while others have become trusted acquaintances with whom I’ve shared career insights and experiences. Nurturing these high-quality connections on LinkedIn made me appreciate the “strength of weak ties”, a concept introduced by Mark Granovetter in 1973.
Organise, Don’t Overload: Turning Tasks into Triumphs
Organisational skills are arguably one of the most sought-after competencies among legal professionals. The ability to juggle multiple tasks while staying on top of deadlines is paramount in a fast-paced legal field. With strong organisational skills, lawyers can streamline their workflow and better manage their caseloads which allows them to navigate the intricate web of documentation, schedules and team coordination, thereby enhancing their efficiency, productivity, and overall success in their legal careers.
One of the major highlights during my Campus Ambassador journey was the online webinar I organised in partnership with the Asian Law Students' Association (ALSA) UK. As this was my first time coordinating such a large-scale event, amidst my ongoing coursework, it posed an opportunity for honing my organisational acumen. There were numerous tasks I had to juggle simultaneously to stay ahead of the proposed deadlines within my own agenda. First, I convened a meeting with ALSA to align on the webinar's time and topic. With those details finalised, I drafted a proposal and prepared guided questions before sending out invitations to the panellists – the firm’s Managing Partner Stefan Schmierer, Associate Erica So, and the then Trainee Solicitor Kelly Leung. Once invitations were confirmed, I promptly promoted the event through LinkedIn and university networks, which resulted in 42 sign-ups to my pleasant surprise. Concurrently, I worked on crafting PowerPoint slides and moderator scripts to ensure a seamless flow between the panellists and their designated moderators. As the event drew closer, I disseminated the Teams link, verified its successful delivery, and performed a test run to confirm the breakout rooms would function smoothly for the networking session.
The outcome was to my satisfaction - 30 attendees engaged in an enriching dialogue with the panellists, followed by an interactive networking segment between the participants and panellists in break-out rooms. The participants were not only able to ask the panellists personalised questions about their respective career paths and experiences, but the panellists were also able to gain better insights into the firm’s potential applicants. Organising this webinar has sharply brushed up on my organisational skills, from creating a task log and setting internal deadlines to delegating responsibilities - all of which enabled me to manage time and prepare systematically within a short timeframe, alongside managing my coursework and other extracurricular commitments.
Beat The Clock: Strategies for Effective Time Management
However, underpinning strong organisational skills are effective time management, which can be done through time optimisation and task prioritisation. This is crucial to balance a heavy workload with the abrupt intervention of unexpected client emergencies. Whilst time optimisation is essential to maximising productivity and maintaining work-life balance, task prioritisation is crucial to striking a balance between billable (e.g. client work) and non-billable hours (e.g. administrative work, business development, marketing). However, time management is not an innate skill that manifests overnight. As straightforward as it may seem, effective time management is gradually furthered through practical and empirical experiences accumulated over time.
As a Campus Ambassador, effective time management has been indispensable in balancing my academics, job applications, and other commitments, including my roles as a Law Clinic Student Advisor and Legal Blog Writer. Juggling these parallel responsibilities proved quite challenging at first, but I have gradually developed mechanisms to enhance my productivity. First, instead of trying to tackle tasks in one sitting, I break down tasks into manageable chunks and set reasonable time limits for each sub-task. Second, I create a task log and set internal deadlines for myself. This not only prevents last-minute rushing but also ensures that my work is thoroughly proofread and of consistently high quality. Moreover, I have refined my ability to prioritise tasks based on their immediacy and importance. By tackling the most urgent items first, I am able to efficiently clear my plate of pressing obligations. In retrospect, I am grateful for the opportunity to have taken on these multifaceted responsibilities simultaneously, as it has boosted my effective time management skills well ahead of embarking on my career. These techniques have proven invaluable, allowing me to navigate competing demands with greater poise and efficacy.
If you are an aspiring lawyer wishing to sharpen the skillset mentioned above, do apply for Ravenscroft & Schmierer’s Campus Ambassador Programme which provides hands-on experience in developing the soft skills crucial for embarking on a successful legal career. If you have any further questions or want to know more about my experience, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.
Annette Lam is an LLB graduate at the University of Bristol, aspiring to be a litigation solicitor.
Annette Lam
University of Bristol Campus Ambassador 2023/24
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annette-lam-kwan-kiu
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