I first became interested in the study of law when I came to the realization that without an understanding of law you are placed at a major disadvantage in all aspects of life, and make most life decisions on assumption alone.
This is not the way I wish to live my life and I can see that law must be known by all who have aspirations.
I...
Law Personal Statement Example 9
The spectre of global terrorism is prevalent. Fundamental civil liberties are under threat, not only by those who seek to destroy our society, but also by those who have been charged with the task of safeguarding it. We are possibly entering a period of momentous constitutional change and legislative upheaval. Therefore, it seems to me that the 21st century looks set to be both an exciting and crucial time in which to embark upon legal study.
My desire to study Law stems from a growing fascination with World events, as well as with the minutiae of our day-to-day existence. As Helena Kennedy QC states 'The Law is the bedrock of a nation; it tells us who we are, what we value, who has power, and who hasn't. Almost nothing has more impact on our lives,' ('Just Law', 2004): this, I believe, defines the importance of Law. I am stimulated by present-day ethical considerations which may impact upon the legal framework of this country: Everyday Law (Aviva Golden, 2000), for example, stipulates that marital union may take place only between two, consenting adults of the opposite sex; yet, when marriage harbours civil as well as religious implications, is it right to discriminate? How is it possible for one to reliably arbitrate the point at which abortion should be deemed illegal? Both are among issues which I find to be perplexing and fascinating in equal measure.
I am interested also in the fundamental components of legal practise; the exposition of complex drafts (such as marriage or business contracts), being something which I feel would be facilitated by a firm and comprehensive grasp of the English language. I would say, in addition, that I am a confident and articulate public speaker - exemplified by my participation in the 2004 House debating team - and one who regularly takes pleasure in assuming the role of 'Devil's Advocate' for the purpose of arguing controversial points of view, irrespective of personal bias.
My work experience with the Crown Prosecution Service in Gloucester really fired and reinforced my enthusiasm for a career in law. I had the opportunity to shadow administrators, solicitors and office clerks, observing critical procedures at every level: from case-work and preparation, all the way through to the excitement of litigation in the Crown Courts. This enabled me to lay to rest any sensationalised preconceptions (such as those arising from TV dramatisations) in favour of a more rounded insight into the legal field; backed up, of course, with Brian Heap's 'The Way In', and Philip Kenny's 'Studying Law' - both of which have provided valuable insights. It has also invested me with some notion of what to expect from the very wide range of career opportunities currently available within the legal domain.
With respect to my extra-curricular life, I work as a sales assistant for Maltby Books in Cheltenham. I am also the recent recipient of a Millennium Volunteers Award of Excellence for having contributed 200 hours to my local community - to whit, the Pate's School Library, and Cheltenham Children's Theatre Association. As regards the latter, I am currently director, secretary and Committee member of three years' standing, in addition to having acted lead roles in several Summer productions.
I also played the part of Richard Greatham in a recent Pate's 6th form production of Noël Coward's 'Hay Fever'. All these activities have demanded a significant degree of sustained commitment, integrity and competence; in addition, they have afforded me the opportunity to develop administrative skills, computer literacy, and the ability to communicate ideas to people under a variety of circumstances.
I would say that I have acquired valuable skills and experience as a result of these ventures; qualities which I hope would contribute significantly to a promising career studying Law at university.
Profile info
This personal statement was written by Profesh for application in 2004.
Profesh's university choices
University of Bristol
The University of Sheffield
The University of Warwick
Green: offer made
Red: no offer made
Degree
Law at University of Bristol
Profesh's Comments
At the time of writing, this personal statement has played an integral role in securing me four offers (Leeds, Sheffield, Cardiff and Birmingham) out of six applications, all at 'AAA'. I sincerely hope it serves you as well as it has me.
Ratings
Statement rating:
Comments
this is brilliant, especially
Tue, 26/09/2006 - 17:29
this is brilliant, especially the way the opening paragraph draws you in
wow..
Sun, 15/10/2006 - 10:32
this just blew me away.
brilliant!
Sat, 21/10/2006 - 20:11
too good 4 me lol
Wow
Wed, 08/11/2006 - 02:00
Possibly one of the best Ive ever read. Has given me more of an idea on what to write about & how good these things actually CAN be. Good luck in the future.
This is my guess at what you
Fri, 17/11/2006 - 11:08
This is my guess at what you did:
Wrote your personal statement
Begind rapidly right-clicking and selecting synonyms.
Hello.
Mon, 10/09/2007 - 04:50
The opening paragraph is my own, original work, as with everything else not cited.
To the most recent contributor: if you'd presume a thesaurus as being instrumental to any of the above, you may find it prudent to invest in one yourself, as well as a comprehensive edition of the Oxford English Dictionary; because I daresay you're going to find Law to be quite the challenge.
Very fancy - did you swallow
Mon, 10/09/2007 - 10:17
Very fancy - did you swallow the dictionary in your youth? I'm sure it was very good, but the long words were so pretentious it makes it difficult to know who YOU really are.
Profesh wat is completing a
Mon, 17/09/2007 - 09:54
Profesh wat is completing a law degree like? jst so i know!!!!!!!!
thanxs great ps
wow very impressive ps has
Tue, 25/09/2007 - 15:59
wow very impressive ps has made me scrap mine and start all over again haha
thanks for the help :)
i thought we werent supposed
Tue, 25/09/2007 - 20:21
i thought we werent supposed to use quotes in our PS??
blimey.. although this is
Mon, 01/10/2007 - 15:03
blimey.. although this is technically very good for the fact your english is fab, i got bored of trying to translate every other word..
perhaps too good?
Rather pretentious. Sorry.
Thu, 04/10/2007 - 22:05
Rather pretentious. Sorry.
...
Sun, 07/10/2007 - 14:52
these things do have to be pretentious though really dont they? Good luck for the future, this personal statement is pretty mind-blowing!
Not that good
Sun, 07/10/2007 - 20:33
A personal statement is supposed to be personal but factual. Yours sounds like it came from a text book and you must have been trying way to hard to make a good impression. Before you try to tell me that I am unintelligent like you have with the others who have criticised you, you should know that I got four A's in my AS Levels.
Congratulations on your
Mon, 08/10/2007 - 00:15
Congratulations on your offers!!
my personal views are
Tue, 09/10/2007 - 09:27
my personal views are irrelevant, obviously this is the calibre the uni's are looking for.
congratulations & thanks!
4000 charcters or 47 lines?????
Tue, 09/10/2007 - 16:32
You ps is very good but.. i wonder does it fit the criteria.
Oh and another thing.....
Do you actually talk how you write- on friday and saturday nights?????
perplexed :-)xxxx
Stephanie
Tue, 09/10/2007 - 18:52
This is fantastic! congratulations on your offers, i admire your english.
good luck
this is amazing but u didnt
Wed, 10/10/2007 - 14:47
this is amazing but u didnt get an offer from warwick :S i'm applyin there - and this is wat i'm up against, may be i shud give up now. it's excellent.
you have done a great work!
Sun, 14/10/2007 - 14:04
you have done a great work! well done and good luck!
This personal statement
Tue, 16/10/2007 - 14:14
This personal statement sounds a little arrogant. It's good but it's definitely far too wordy and misses the point of why you really want to study the subject.
...
Wed, 24/10/2007 - 13:55
I think five offers isn't too shabby given a personal-statement that is "pretentious" and "misses the point".
Do you want to get in, or not?
its good but its nothing to
Wed, 31/10/2007 - 13:25
its good but its nothing to do with YOU. its all full of facts and no real opinions. no personality comes through.
It's clearly very good, & it
Thu, 01/11/2007 - 19:29
It's clearly very good, & it worked didn't it?! So there's no need to make harsh personal comments about the poor person!! Good luck to them!!
this is quite good,lots of
Fri, 02/11/2007 - 20:40
this is quite good,lots of big words but if thats what it takens to get into uni u gotta do it. good luck!
lol i think the first
Sun, 04/11/2007 - 21:33
lol i think the first paragraph is better than my whole personal statement
Re: "Shrouding any ounce of personality..."
Mon, 05/11/2007 - 10:32
Yeah. I forgot to mention that I have a dog called Cecil, and like to wear four contrasting varieties of tweed (sometimes simultaneously).
I think that evidence of intellectual character and an open, enquiring mind is immeasurably more worthwhile for the purpose of applying to study Law, don't you?
Incidentally, I fail to see how my personal-statement is 'arrogant'. Certainly, it doesn't presume anything that a tutor could reasonably take issue with: the opening proposition is rhetorically sound (in being, essentially, a deftly-phrased statement-of-fact); and everything subsequent consists of prudent observation/rational self-belief (of the sort that could well prompt useful discussion at interview).
Then again, I suppose it *is* more difficult to convey 'personality' discreetly (rather than discretely; see beginning) if you phrase your 'personal' statement just like everybody else's.
I agree that it just seems
Mon, 05/11/2007 - 12:58
I agree that it just seems too pretentious and impersonal.
It seems like you are using 'big words' just for the sake of using big words. Anyone can do that.
That said, congrats on the offers.
AMAZING!!!! SIMPLY AMAZING !!
Tue, 06/11/2007 - 19:49
AMAZING!!!! SIMPLY AMAZING !!!!
I think that your personal
Thu, 08/11/2007 - 17:50
I think that your personal statement is very good and that you are obviously a very intellectual person but I have to agree with some of the comments. It does sound a little pushed as though you are trying way too hard. Congratulations though on your offers. I'm applying at the moment and hope to get into Queens University Belfast to do law! I just hope you aren't that stuck up in real life, you'll end up with no friends haha!!!!!
thats a great intro
Thu, 15/11/2007 - 05:58
I can't believe warwick rejected you; I'm working on my ps at the moment with the intention of applying to warwick and that is rather daunting.
Good!
Thu, 15/11/2007 - 22:02
great beginning , i'm still struggling w/ mine... good language! thanks for posting it!
I see you went to Pates in
Mon, 26/11/2007 - 17:49
I see you went to Pates in Cheltenham.
What year did you leave?
Re:
Wed, 12/12/2007 - 05:17
2005.
just my .02
Sat, 15/12/2007 - 11:51
of all the personal statements in the law section this is the only one that didn't make me feel sorry for the state of education in the uk and happy that this would be my competition. its not perfect, but overall the quality far surpasses everything else i've seen from students here.
people are commenting negatively about it being cocky and not about you. i think the issue that i take with such comments is that while you think universities care who you are, they don't. they want students who will be an asset to their program. they don't care if you visit your grandma regularly, that when you were 15 you volunteered for a week, and that you want to study law to make the world a better place. who cares?
maybe i'm completely off base, but it seems more important for a school to know less about you on a personal level and more about you on an intellectual level. what schools want to know is "will this person succeed?" anything that you include that is personal should somehow relate to those strengths that will make you successful in a law course.
so the rest of you take a cue from this and stop with the cliches and boring personal statements that all sound the same and don't actually show who you are intellectually as well as personally.
for example:
this essay first shows writing skill. being a good writer and having a strong vocab means one has key verbal skills and reading comprehension ability which are essential in a law course. this essay doesn't just say "i have an interest in current events / politics," but actually discusses those issues. this shows that he didn't just pick up a newspaper and list some things he finds "fascinating" to seem interested, but is actually engaged in the material and knows how to ask critical questions. and when he lists activities he isn't showing off, he's making them relevant to the course at hand.
I really liked this personal
Mon, 07/01/2008 - 17:56
I really liked this personal statement. Your opening paragraph serves it's purpose well as an attention grabber and immediately sets your statement apart from the others I've read.
Perhaps you go on a bit in the second paragraph, spending too long on describing the aspects of law that you are interested in. But this shows you have a thorough background knowledge of the subject. I just would have cut it down a little, that's all.
Also, you should perhaps have mentioned a little more about your school life. Paragraph three seems mainly work experience, and so at the beginning of your last paragraph "With respect to my extra-curricular life," I was thinking "You mentioned a curricular life?"
I'm not sure if you ran out of space in the final paragraph, but the only activity you actually mention is your charity work and drama. Maybe if you'd cut back a bit on paragraph two then you could have added more here.
Also, your concluding sentence could have done with being a separate paragraph, but I know the line limit could make this difficult.
But what you have in here is excellent. I just felt you could have added a little more. I'm applying for Scots Law and Politics, and I did find this statement very useful, especially the opening, when I needed inspiration for my own statement.
Thanks, and well done one your acceptances.
This is great! whay does
Thu, 10/07/2008 - 22:48
This is great! whay does everybody want to take issue with it? I think that the author should be commended. I have just finished law school and I am starting the training contract race, but this really is exceptional!
Well you must be
Mon, 10/11/2008 - 02:44
Well you must be exceptionally hardwork therefore i dare say you'll have a tendency to do good in law,pity it wasn't more personal tbh,i think i would of loved to see how grammatical you could of gone.Pity you don't mention anything on sport either.Now doesn't pity seem to be my word?my my.
lol!
Sat, 13/12/2008 - 21:35
'This is my guess at what you did:
Wrote your personal statement
Begind rapidly right-clicking and selecting synonyms.'
true dat.
n1 on ur offers
I like it. There is a lot of
Sat, 13/12/2008 - 21:41
I like it. There is a lot of reasoning behind the things you say.
Just a bit pacey I rekon.
oh my goodness this is
Fri, 09/01/2009 - 10:59
oh my goodness this is amazing.
i wish i saw this before doing my own. congratulations
is this
Sat, 25/04/2009 - 16:52
sahel?
this is an amazing personal
Thu, 03/09/2009 - 16:12
this is an amazing personal statement, has really inspired me to gain more experience to look outstanding from the rest, thanks dude :)
Major
Thu, 24/09/2009 - 12:11
bravo, bravo. Uno dos tres quatro i know u want me ahhhhhh u know i want u ahhh 1234 uno dos tres quatro
lies
Fri, 26/03/2010 - 12:04
lies
Excellent
Mon, 27/09/2010 - 00:39
Definitely one of the better Personal Statements that I've read. You come across as confident without overpassing the boundaries into arrogant and to those who say you sound pretentious... well, hey as long as it gets you those offers who actually gives a damn? Thanks for posting this up mate.
Grades
Sun, 29/01/2012 - 18:12
Hi, this is a fab personal statement, i just wanted to know if you don't mind me asking, what grades did you get in your A-levels?
so sotojed
Mon, 25/06/2012 - 11:14
No wonder a top class university like warwick denied you, writing a fucking essay about how terrorism is bad, well done sargeant fucking smartarse
envious
Sat, 01/12/2012 - 16:27
Amazing personal statement, I'm applying for Law. I sincerely hope I do not get rejected.
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