Lighthouse Academy 2022: Reflections and tips from our students
We cannot believe that it has already been five months since we started working at Lighthouse Law!
For us both, this was our first legal position - a new environment and a completely new experience. Upon reflection we see, and are grateful, for how the whole process was designed to ease us into the Lighthouse Academy internship seamlessly. The orientation included various sessions around the work the firm does, its clients, the internal work processes, and the technology that the firm uses.
Straight off the bat, we were made to feel that even as Academy students, our part and role at Lighthouse was important and valued. We have been exposed to different practice areas within the firm - and were also given administrative duties in relation to client accounts, which gives us a sense of responsibility and value within the team. Sitting in on client calls is always a highlight as we get to observe how the lawyers handle clients, deal with queries and explain matters in helpful ways. We have even been given our own smaller matters that we work on under the guidance of supervising attorneys. If someone told us at the beginning of our time at Lighthouse Law that we would so soon be working on promotional competition rules, non-disclosure agreements, conducting legal research, and engaging with clients/stakeholders, it would have been hard to believe – but it is because of the thorough and rigorous training and supervision that we are able to.
Working for Lighthouse has been an engaging and valuable experience thus far. The training sessions that are conducted every Monday and Friday for all lawyers offer insight into various legal topics and instils a sense of the importance around the need for continuous learning.
Having just transitioned from law school into a professional legal working environment, we would like to offer a few tips for law students now navigating this journey. The following is certainly not an exhaustive list, but they did assist us in making the transition from university to a law firm environment.
From as early as your second year of law studies, prioritise exploring vacation work, internships or job shadowing opportunities wherever you can. These are invaluable because they will give you an indication of whether you are cut out for that type of work or the area of law which the firm specialises in. Importantly, a legal subject taught at university might not instil the same interest in you, as seeing it in practice. Vacation work, internships, or job shadowing opportunities also help build character and people skills because you will be interacting with your peers and senior lawyers, so it is a good opportunity to gauge how well you cope in a professional environment and how well you get along with your peers in such an environment.
As a budding legal practitioner, you will need to keep up with any changes or new developments in law. While University provides one with limited exposure to areas of law, keep in mind that the field of law is vast so if legal practice is not for you there are many other alternatives you can pursue with your law degree.
See each task you are given as part of your growth. This is important because the tasks you are given are all relevant to the work that the firm does, even if they sometimes seem tedious. You do not get assigned a task just for the sake of it, so approach each task with the objective of gaining something from it to draw on in future when you get assigned a similar task or use it as a metric to measure how far you have progressed from the initial task.
Remember that the quality of work you produce reflects on you as a person, and as a professional, so whenever you are given a task by a colleague always keep in mind that you are building relationships with colleagues and so your work must indicate to your colleagues that you are a safe pair of hands – reliable and diligent.
Manage your time efficiently. At times you may feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks you are assigned and the deadlines, but this is where your diary (and at times, good old sticky notes) come in handy! If you ever get to a point where you are panicking (and there will be those moments) remember to pause, go back to your list, and then prioritise the tasks that require urgency. Once you get these out of the way you can then deal with the remaining tasks.
An important skill to have in our line of work is to think on your feet and communicate well. The training sessions at Lighthouse have provided us a good opportunity for to practice this. All the lawyers are involved in training and the sessions are very interactive. Take full advantage of these opportunities if you receive them during your vacation work or articles.
Last, but not least, ask for feedback! We’ve experienced that while this can be intimidating at first it is so important. It requires you to be open to receiving either positive or negative feedback or a combination of both, accepting that you don’t know everything and are still a work in progress, and owning up to any challenges that you face when performing tasks.
Reflecting back to early January when we started at the Academy, it is amazing to think how far we have come, the skills we have acquired, the relationships we have been able to build with our fellow colleagues and the positive feedback we have been receiving from the group of exceptional lawyers here at Lighthouse Law. Although our journey has just begun, the Academy has provided us with invaluable experience, and we are excited for what lies ahead for us in this journey.
By Lungelo Gwala and Mudda Sulaiman