Law Personal Statement Example (International Student) 2

Growing up as a British student in the American state school system, witnessing injustice has been unavoidable and ranged from the persistent educational biases against women to learning about the shooting of unarmed black men by police through live news reports.

Given my unique worldview as someone who grew up in three countries (France, the UK, and the US) I was drawn into debate and as I grew into adolescence began to consider a future in politics or law. During this period my family moved from Seattle to California, where I enrolled in a school with a successful mock-trial team and came to the realisation that a legal career would allow me to take direct action to impact the issues by which I was most motivated.

The rigour of the legal field is easily validated by its benefits. Shadowing my mock-trial attorney coach reinforced the idea that law is an adaptive and relevant field, reflective of current societal values. In fact, my mock-trial team delivered a pretrial argument about cell-site data just weeks before the Supreme Court announced their own verdict based on many of the same cases - as the judge pointed out, such issues are of pressing national importance.

As a student, I enjoy expanding my logical and critical thinking skills, both of which I know to be vital for a successful career in law. I am intellectually curious and dedicated to law, often researching criminal cases and occasionally sitting-in on court.

As much as possible, I have geared my studies towards law. My Street Law course examines elements of criminal and civil law and the workings of the justice system. We often discuss the ethics of law and how different cases are treated, which is of particular interest to me.

Similarly, my government course addresses individual rights and how laws justly come to be. Indirectly related to law, I have developed my writing ability and rhetoric in my AP Composition courses, the ability to analyse historical trends (and appreciate the importance of law in modernising society) through my AP history courses, and the necessary mathematical aptitude for legal success through my completion of precalculus and current enrollment in AP Statistics. I am studying independently for AP Macro and Microeconomics which are not offered at my school, demonstrative of my self-guided study abilities and academic resolve.

My enthusiasm for law has primarily been channeled into my participation in mock-trial. Not only does it allow me to academically converse about law and practice friendly competition, but through work with practicing attorneys and judges I have developed the speech and adaptive thinking skills necessary for a legal career.

I have won numerous awards during my time on the team and within my first year served as a witness on the county, state, and national level. I grew to be an attorney “practicing” with real case law and evidentiary code, and this year, act not just as my team’s lead attorney, presenting examinations and closing arguments, but as the team captain, mentoring younger students and coordinating my team’s success statewide. Both roles - attorney and captain - require dedication and a finely-tuned manner in interacting with everyone from teenage peers to California Superior Court judges.

The decision to move to England for higher education is both social and academic. My familial connections, citizenship, and childhood residency in the UK have given me an association with British culture and customs that I do not have with the States. As the first woman in my family to complete post-16 education, it seems fitting that I should return to the UK to do so. In addition, while my postgraduate plans are to pursue barresterial qualifications and practice law I hope to eventually enter British politics, developing policy and designing their legal implementation to impact issues of law on a larger scale.