Amelia's story

After this and from August 2021, Amelia will be joining one of the world’s largest corporate law firms to start her legal career.

Here, she talks about the best things about her law course and the University of Dundee.

What is the best thing about the LLB you studied?

I have finished with the equivalent of a Scots Law LLB and an English Law LLB on the Dual-Qualifying course. It’s a great course and being dual-qualified opens opportunities in the legal field further than just Scotland. The dual-qualifying course also allows you to develop better critical analysis skills to compare different laws.

The course is well-structured and there is a large choice of modules to choose from.

How did the law school team support you?

The law school staff are incredibly helpful and only an email away.

In the final year, we must write a 15,000-word dissertation. Your supervisor is a member of staff with expertise in the topic of your dissertation - I had the pleasure of being supported by Aude Fiorini on a private international law dissertation. Aude was extremely helpful in guiding me through the research stages of my dissertation and then narrowing down my topic to a specific area of study. I am incredibly grateful to Aude for her continuous support, both in the dissertation and personally.

What are the best things about the University?

I love that the University of Dundee is a campus university, which means that all of your classes are never more than a 5-minute walk away from each other. There are also some lovely garden spots around campus to have lunch and it’s only a short walk into the city centre. The campus has many food outlets which makes it easy to meet up with friends from other courses during lunch breaks.

What are the best things about Dundee?

Dundee is a lovely city to live in because it has the best of both worlds. It has the city feel but also plenty of lovely parks, walks and scenery. It also means there are lots of interesting study spots out with the library. Dundee is also quite central, which makes getting to places like Glasgow, Edinburgh or St Andrews easy. It’s one of the sunnier cities in Scotland and I have truly found the people in Dundee so friendly.

Did you stay in Student Accommodation?

In my first year, I stayed in the Heathfield Halls of Residence. It was a fantastic experience to live right in the middle of campus, especially being new to Dundee. It’s very convenient to be living in such proximity to a wide range of people (so easy to make friends), lecture theatres and the campus Premier shop. The rooms are spacious, all en-suite with large kitchens/living rooms in Heathfield.

What do you think of the Law Library?

The Law Library is very well stocked with core textbooks, primary and secondary sources. The library staff are also very helpful in assisting you when you’re looking for something. One of my favourite things about the library is that, if there is a resource that is not available in the library, or not enough copies of a book, you can email the library and they will try and gain access/order more copies!

Were you part of any Law societies or committees?

The Law School runs a committee called the Student-Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC). The SSLC meets on a regular basis to address any issues and concerns which are raised with the student representatives. In my final year of university, I was elected to head the SSLC and this involved chairing the meetings, liaising with staff, students and the representatives as well as publishing the minutes. I would highly encourage students to get involved as it’s a great way to improve your experience at the university and have your voice heard.

Have you undertaken any work experience or internships while at University?

During the summer of my second year at university, the Law School ran some research internships. This included pairing interns up with a member of staff and assisting them in some research work, whether that be research for new modules or a project of their own (like writing a new book). It was a great experience to develop my research skills before going forward into the third year of my degree when the honours modules begin (which are more self-study and research focused).

In the summer of my penultimate year, I secured what’s known as a ‘Vacation Scheme’ at one of the world’s largest corporate law firms. This included spending time between the London office, the Edinburgh office and some of the firm’s clients’ offices. Through this Vacation Scheme, I was offered my graduate job to begin after graduation!

What else has studying Law inspired you to do recently?

Since the summer of my penultimate year, I have been running a website called ‘See Through Law’. It’s a website dedicated to law students to help them break into the large corporate law firms, containing all my top tips and tricks of how I landed my dream job. Since graduation, I have had more time to publish new blogs, chat with my readers and offer advice.

Through my website, I have also been asked to mentor a wide variety of students at different universities and sit on the panel at various webinars. It’s been great to have this long summer after graduation to focus on these personal projects before starting my next degree in October 2020 and then joining my law firm in 2021.