For many first- and second-year law students, the idea of landing a paralegal role may seem intimidating – or even optional. But one law student says getting real-world legal experience early is essential for jumpstarting a successful career.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Protégé Show, Victor Yan, a law student at UNSW and a former paralegal at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (HSFK), urged first- and second-year students to start applying for paralegal roles early, highlighting how such experience builds the essential skills needed for a strong legal career foundation.
In the same episode, he revealed how one carefully crafted, highly targeted cold email became the unexpected catalyst that helped him land a role at the global firm.
For law students at the start of their legal journey, Yan explained that while many may think this is the time to simply go with the flow and focus on academics, those aiming for a clerkship should be actively pursuing a paralegal role from the outset.
“In terms of the first and second year, it’s quite important [to think of this]. Just because it’s easy to think that you should just go with the flow and go to university, but for people who are interested in clerkships, it is a really competitive process,” he said.
While law firms may not explicitly require prior experience, Yan explained that early legal roles give students the commercial awareness and practical skills that lay the groundwork for a future clerkship.
“Firms are looking for some sort of legal experience, even though they might not say that, but because of the skills they’re looking for in commercial awareness and commerciality, that inevitably comes from some sort of legal experience,” he said.
“So being able to secure roles in the first or second year, whether that be volunteering, legal admin or secretary positions, those will set the foundation for you to get a paralegal position potentially in your second and third year.
“It’s all about starting to build up the foundations early if a clerkship is something that you’re interested in in fourth or fifth year.”
The benefits of gaining legal experience early go far beyond enhancing a résumé. Yan highlighted that paralegal roles give students practical insight into how law functions in the real world, complementing and enriching their academic studies.
“Getting that paralegal role just stems from the same mindset where taking on another experience, getting real-life work experience, will just set you up for your career really well,” he said.
“Not only is it going to help you improve your law marks because you actually get to see how the law operates and is practised in real life as opposed to just theory, but you also just get to learn how to operate in a corporate environment.”
However, Yan warned that many new paralegals fall into the trap of using default high school résumé templates and encouraged students to seek guidance from older peers to create a more polished and effective application.
“The first one is just the job application skills that everyone knows in terms of résumés, cover letters, and interviews. A lot of people coming out of high school might just use a résumé template from Word, which has a colour, a photo, and is structured with their skills on the side,” he said.
“That just comes with talking with other people, like having some good friends in older years to show you how to structure your résumé, how to structure a cover letter, for example, having your education at the top, then your work experience, starting with verbs, things like that.”
While facing rejection from employers and firms can be intimidating for law students early in their legal journey, Yan stressed the importance of building resilience, viewing setbacks not as personal failures but as a reflection of effort and initiative.
“It’s divorcing yourself from the rejections because rejection is just a sign that you’re putting in effort. You’re taking a step, and you care about your future. It’s not about yourself personally,” he said.
“Figuring out and learning how to divorce yourself from that outcome, and that way you’ll be a lot more consistent and be able to put in the inputs so that you’re more likely to secure a role later.”
