Getting to know you: Law student survey 2023 launched

Olivia Moore, Careers and Wellbeing Manager at the Law Society of Scotland, talks about what we hope to find out from the results of our new survey aimed at all LLB and Diploma students.

This year we want to get to know law students better, so we’re calling all LLB and Diploma students to complete our survey before the extended closing date of 14 May 2023. You can select to be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 voucher for John Lewis.

Complete the survey now.

Our careers and outreach team provides support to the group we call ‘new lawyers’ which includes students, trainees and newly-qualified solicitors. For students, we currently run talks on topics like applying for the Diploma, securing a traineeship or how to make the most of your journey as a law student. We also attend law fairs and run programmes like Street Law that law students can volunteer with.

However, the last few years, having been shaped by the pandemic, saw the law student experience change dramatically. While plenty has returned to some semblance of normality, some aspects of university life might feel like existing in a kind of ‘Covid hangover’.  We’d like to find out what the experience is like for this cohort of students and understand what different support we can offer as a team for the years ahead.

Many law students will become our members, so getting to know you as a group allows us to act as your voice when engaging with legal employers and the wider profession. In our survey, we’re going to explore three areas, which will give us a better understanding of your needs and allow us to offer more tailored support and events in future.

Firstly, we’d like to know about your career aspirations. What’s your next step once you graduate? Where would you like to work? What sort of jobs interest you? This information gives us insight into the future of the profession in terms of its make-up and what roles the next generation of lawyers want to work in. Maybe you have the same aspirations as the cohorts that have come before you, but there may be emerging themes that we can talk to legal employers about, and advise on expectations when trainees and junior solicitors enter the workforce.

Secondly, we’d like to know more about your mental health and wellbeing. We have done a lot of work with our members through Lawscot Wellbeing to support positive mental health in the legal profession and encourage employers to adopt good practice, but so far have not had a focus on law students. We’d like to find out some basic information about your mental health and the support offered to you at university, the potential causes of mental health concerns at university and how you perceive employers might support you in future. With this information, we hope to work with universities more closely to support students and inform employers about support provision that they might consider for their new trainee or intern cohorts.

Thirdly, we’d like to hear what you think about the process of becoming a solicitor. This includes the Diploma application process, getting work experience and a traineeship, and the skills you feel are most valuable to showcase and develop as an aspiring trainee. A lot of our existing support is designed to ensure you are as fully equipped as possible to navigate the process, while other colleagues in the wider team regulate the university courses and traineeship, so we would value your insight.

The survey will only take about 5-10 minutes to complete and is run on SurveyMonkey. Please note that all your answers will remain anonymised and if we use data from the survey this will be broadly to assess trends and make comparisons. You get the chance to submit free-text answers as well, but we will never publish anything that would allow you to be identified and will redact information if needed. If you have any questions, please contact oliviamoore@lawscot.org.uk.

The survey closing date has been extended and now closes at midnight on 14 May 2023.