I Got Hired: Court of Protection Paralegal at Jackson Lees Group

Posted on: 21 October 2023 by Richard Finch in Graduate stories

Shéa Carson is a Class of 2022 Law and Sociology graduate, now working as a Court of Protection Paralegal at Jackson Lees Group and studying part-time for the LLM LPC qualification.

As I gradually built my network in the legal sphere, I began to hear more positive reflections of Jackson Lees. After doing further research, I decided to apply for my role and I am incredibly grateful that I applied successfully.

I got to where I am now because of networking. I started making an active effort to build my career network in my second year of university, by starting conversations on LinkedIn and making sure I was in the right places at the right time.

My most useful tool for building a network was joining Legal Society and attending their networking evenings. At these events, I met valuable contacts at multiple law firms across the north-west, and made the effort to stay in contact with them.

My best friend is a business graduate from University of Liverpool and she also taught me that the trick to a successful graduate application is of building a network to support your job applications. For example, before I submitted my CV to Jackson Lees, I had networked within the firm, with Paralegals and members of the People and Recruitment team.

My favourite and most proud experience after graduation was seeing myself on a large law firm’s website! This made me reflect on how far I had come; from the sixth former who was dying to become a lawyer but didn’t even think they would pass their A-levels, to where I am now with a law degree and a job which the younger version of myself would be proud of.

I think the most challenging part of being a graduate is adjusting from being a student to being a young professional. It’s a complete mindset change and it definitely takes some adjustment.

During this time a lot of people struggle with imposter syndrome (believing that you aren’t good enough for your job/ position) and I definitely did. But my best advice that I could give to any new graduates would be to remember that you are qualified to do your job, and you are probably doing a better job than you realise.

My top 3 tips for current students and recent graduates:

1. Work-life balance is important… set boundaries and keep them.

2. If you don’t know something, ask for help. Asking questions is a sign that you want to learn and improve.

3. Build your network… personal branding is extremely important in the graduate job market.