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Wildu du Plessis: A Director at Werksmans Attorneys
Deciding where to do your articles could very well be one of the most important career decisions of your life. After all, the two years you spend as a candidate attorney will be the first two years of your legal career. If you realise halfway through that you have made a mistake and are in the wrong place, it can be difficult and disruptive to navigate your way to a more comfortable destination. Just as important as where you do your articles, however, is the timing of your application. Year after year, it surprises me how some very good law students fall into the trap of waiting too long to apply. The fact is that the recruitment process at most law firms in South Africa happens earlier than many students think. Typically, you will be hired not in your final year at university but rather in your penultimate year of study, meaning that you need to start thinking about your articles a good two years before you actually graduate. Research the marketplace  Assuming your marks are good and your timing is right, it is best to avoid sending your CV to every law firm that you can think of. The shotgun approach is all very well if all you want is a job. If you are hoping to build a career, on the other hand, it is crucial to do proper research into the law firms that are recruiting candidate attorneys. Different firms have different ways of training, of working, of helping to shape you to become a good lawyer. What makes a good lawyer is not the size or status of the firm where you did your articles but the people who will take the time and effort to make you what you will become. In my experience, the closest you can get to candidate attorney ‘heaven’ is being part of a legal team where you have hands-on involvement in legal matters. It would be a time when you would want to make mistakes and where you would want to have a senior lawyer explaining your mistakes to you. How do you set out to find such a firm? Well, a solid starting point is to think about what area of law intrigues you and to take it from there. For example, if you are really interested in a certain type of law, then look for the leaders in that field. Next, investigate how each of them trains their candidate attorneys. Ask yourself the following question: If I join a particular firm, am I going to be a worker bee (which is what you want) or will I be a seat-warmer who pours coffee and makes photocopies? Making informed decisions Whether you know exactly what interests you or are not sure at all, you need to delve deeply into how potential employers will train you and treat you. For this kind of intelligence, it is unwise to rely only on company websites or on what the directors tell you if you are invited to an interview. Everything they tell you will be true, but it will come from only one perspective – their perspective. One of the best ways to find out what really goes on in a law firm is to join a well-run vacation programme in your second or third year of study. There is nothing else as effective as a vacation programme in providing insight into the profession. It is also an excellent idea to contact people who were a year or two ahead of you at university and are now busy with their articles. They will be able to answer your questions from first-hand experience. Another valuable information-gathering opportunity is the interviews that law firms arrange with aspiring candidate attorneys. Often, the partners conducting the interviews will ask if you have any questions to ask them, and it always surprises me how few interviewees accept this invitation. Law students invited to firm interviews should also be sure to dress appropriately, meaning as if they were actually working. The way a candidate dresses says a lot about whether the person is taking the interview seriously. A last piece of advice is to find out beforehand what you can expect at the interview, and then to prepare accordingly. Some firms base their hiring choices on applicants’ CVs and only use the interviews to make the final decision. Others, such as Werksmans, do ask candidates difficult or legal questions. Be prepared! 
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