The key to writing a good personal statement to study law lies in bearing in mind the purpose of a personal statement
The purpose of a Personal Statement is generally to demonstrate a student’s interest in their chosen subject, and secondly, to evidence his or her suitability for the study of that subject. Admission tutors want to read an honest characterisation of you as a student and as individual.Â
Of course, before you begin looking at the law-specific aspects of your Personal Statement, you should ensure that you have a firm understanding of how you should plan, structure, write and edit your statement in a general sense. If you would like to learn more about this, we would recommend checking out our Ultimate UCAS Personal Statement Guide, which will provide you with plenty of information and tips to ensure you perfect your Personal Statement.
if you’re ready to learn how you can perfect your Personal Statement for law, then let’s start with the key principles to consider when writing your Law Personal Statement.
The Two Principles of writing your Law Personal statement
There are so many things to consider when writing a personal statement that sometimes, you don’t which ones to follow or prioritise. There are two additional things to bear in mind where law personal statements are concerned:
Your interest and suitability should be demonstrated in relation to law as an academic subject - not law as a career.
The LPC (Legal Practice Course) and the BPTC (Bar Professional Training Course) are separate courses geared towards making a student prepared for a career in law. In contrast, an undergraduate degree in law at university is not – it focuses, instead, on law as an academic subject. It is best practice to avoid speaking about your interest in the legal profession and focus instead on what it is about law as a subject that draws you to it.
For example, consider important law-related academic milestones of recent years and discuss how these have influenced you. You can mention cryptocurrency or the commercial use of drones. These topics might not seem law related at first, but the required legislation to have these elements present in society is most definitely a law problem.Â
Writing the personal statement is itself an opportunity for you to demonstrate skills which the study of law would require.
Namely, the ability to make a coherent case (in this case, for your admission), to follow a clear structure and to express yourself concisely. A fun approach you could take is to think of your personal statement as your case to prove you are guilty or innocent (in other words, deserving of a place at your chosen university). Bring some charming humour into it and make it a memorable personal statement.Â
What to Do Before writing your law personal statement
You might be wondering: how can I demonstrate interest in law as a subject when I have little knowledge on what studying it at university will involve? This problem can, however, be overcome through adequate preparation before writing the statement. One way to prepare is by reading law books – that is – introductory law texts suitable for those who have never studied law before. One such text is Criminal law: the basics – by Jonathan Herring.
It is important to read these texts not to learn about Law, but to gain some insight into what studying Law involves and why you find it interesting. Articles in the news on Law-related subjects can also be useful in introducing you to controversial legal issues; for example, The Economist previously published an article on the European Court of Justice’s ruling on a discrimination case (concerning whether employers can sack employees who refuse to remove their headscarves).
Mentioning such issues in your Personal Statement, and, more crucially, explaining why they draw you to the study of Law, as well as your thoughts on how the issues should be resolved, can be a great way to demonstrate your interest. Another preparatory step to take before writing the statement is work experience.
This, however, is not essential, and any work experience you complete should only be mentioned if it somehow increases your interest in Law as an academic subject or if afforded you the opportunity to develop skills which will enable you to be a good Law student.
Don’t worry if you’re not able to find work experience: another thing you can do is go into a court to watch a court case (courts in this jurisdiction are open to all). Another worthwhile activity is undertaking an extended essay or the Extended Project Qualification at school; this can give you the opportunity to develop research skills and look into a Law-related topic over a long period of time.
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Writing Your law personal statement: structure and style
A good structure to follow is to dedicate the first half of the statement to showing your interest in studying Law, and how you developed that interest through reading books, articles and doing other activities. The second half of the statement should be where you produce evidence of your suitability for the study of Law.
One thing to bear in mind whilst writing the statement is that it is best not to be dramatic; it can be tempting to use a multitude of adjectives – this should be avoided as the statement tends to start sounding silly. Besides, a better technique for producing an interesting statement is using examples to evidence statements and being as precise as possible. The link below has a great example of a personal statement for Law application.Â
Success rates for students studying Law can be as low as 12% – UniAdmissions’ average success rate is 57%.
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