Zaid Khatib

LLB 2026, St John's College

Securing my training contract with A&O Shearman in Dubai started with getting involved in law societies during my first year. Going to those early firm events is exactly how I became interested in energy and infrastructure along with international arbitration. Because I started early, I had a list of target firms ready by the summer before my second year. That preparation made it easy to sign up for their open days and webinars as soon as applications opened, and by my second year I was attending multiple events a week across Durham and London.

When it came to actually applying, the academic side of Durham made a big difference. The biggest advantage was the small tutorial sizes. Seminar leaders could work closely with us and give personalised feedback, which pushed me to think on my feet and built the communication skills I needed for assessment centres. The Durham Law School Employability Course was also invaluable. It works like a series of building blocks, where each task leads naturally into the next, so instead of feeling overwhelmed I had a clear path to follow for refining cover letters and practising psychometric tests. These, alongside the mentoring schemes, offered a lot of support, and I made sure to make the most of them.

Extracurriculars also played a major role in landing my TC, and Durham has a lot to offer on that front. Attending panel discussions and debates shaped my interests, and I was excited to join the exec of a society I was genuinely passionate about. Getting involved in these groups is also how I realised that Durham's biggest strength is its people. Even though everyone was different and from all around the world, we were all ambitious and on the same path. I was lucky to have such supportive friends, who even shared their notes whenever I missed lectures to go to interviews.

My biggest piece of advice is to put yourself out there. Go to that event, introduce yourself to the person next to you (not recommended during exam season), and pursue your interests early. Figuring out what career suits you comes down to how much you expose yourself to the industry, not how much time passes, so start early. In my first year I applied to over ten first year schemes and only got one. Even though facing so many rejections sounds discouraging, it was arguably the most important application cycle I went through. The more applications I wrote, the better I got at explaining why my experiences actually mattered. Also, doing the research for all those applications exposed me to completely new practice areas that I wouldn't have discovered otherwise. Learning from all those early mistakes really paid off, and I was very fortunate to secure three vacation schemes in my second year. Every rejection along the way was doing more work than it felt like at the time, so don't let the process put you off before it's had the chance to teach you something.