Ex-Clifford Chance Associate | Vacation Scheme & Training Contract Application & Interview Coaching | LLB Law Tutoring | UCAS & Personal Statements

Find out more about LeRon

• When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring?

  My interest in law developed before university, mainly through watching far too many legal dramas and thinking, “Hey, I could do that too!” It was during my LLB at the University of York, however, that I developed a much deeper interest in commercial law and the practical application of legal principles. I became involved in the commercial legal recruitment process very early. During my first year at York, I applied to commercial law firms and ultimately secured two Training Contract offers.
  
  My interest in tutoring came from realising how much of both studying law and securing a Training Contract depends on skills that can actually be taught. A student may have strong academics and excellent experiences but struggle to analyse a problem question, structure an application answer or explain their motivations convincingly in an interview. I therefore enjoy helping students understand what is actually being assessed and giving them a practical framework for improving. I started tutoring alongside my own studies and legal career, initially supporting law students academically and later helping candidates with Vacation Scheme and Training Contract applications and interviews. Seeing students apply that advice successfully, whether that means passing an exam, receiving a Vacation Scheme offer or securing a Training Contract, is what has kept me tutoring alongside my legal career.

• Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

  My tutoring now has three main areas. The first, and my main focus, is Vacation Scheme and Training Contract applications and interviews. I help candidates with application strategy, written answers, CVs and cover letters, "Why commercial law?" and "Why this firm?" questions, competency examples, commercial awareness, case studies, assessment centres and mock interviews. I particularly enjoy this area because there is rarely a single "perfect" answer. The interesting part is identifying a candidate's strongest experiences and helping them communicate their own evidence in a way that directly answers what a particular firm is assessing. I also enjoy commercial awareness because my day-to-day work as a corporate solicitor means I can help students think about commercial issues from the perspective of an actual practising lawyer rather than simply memorising business news.
  
  Secondly, I tutor undergraduate Law. I studied my LLB at the University of York, where Problem Based Learning formed an important part of the course. I therefore particularly enjoy problem questions. Rather than simply giving a student an answer, I like to work through the factual scenario with them, clarify the relevant facts and parties, identify and analyse the legal issues, formulate research questions, research the relevant authorities and then apply the law to produce a structured conclusion.
  
  Finally, I help prospective Law students with UCAS applications and personal statements. I particularly enjoy helping applicants identify the experiences and interests that genuinely demonstrate why they want to study Law, and then turning those into a clear and compelling application rather than relying on generic statements about the subject.
  
  I think the greatest value of one-to-one tuition is developing the student's own analytical ability, judgement and confidence so that they can eventually approach the next problem independently.

• Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

  I would not say there was one particular teacher who shaped my career. Instead, I have been fortunate to learn from a number of brilliant teachers, tutors and lawyers at different stages of my education and career, each of whom has influenced the way I approach both law and teaching.
  
  At York, the Problem Based Learning approach had a significant influence on how I think about learning law. Instead of being given an answer and asked to remember it, we were expected to identify what we did not know, research it and use that research to solve a factual problem. That taught me that the best legal learning is active rather than passive, and it continues to influence how I tutor undergraduate students.
  
  Professionally, training at Clifford Chance also exposed me to excellent lawyers who could take an extremely complicated transaction or legal issue and explain it simply and precisely. That is a skill I have always admired. Knowing something is one thing; being able to explain it clearly to someone else is another.
  
  I try to combine those two influences in my tutoring: encouraging students to think independently while making difficult concepts and processes as clear and practical as possible.

• What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?

  For me, the most important qualities are subject knowledge, clarity, adaptability, patience and honesty. A tutor first needs to understand the subject properly. However, expertise by itself does not make somebody a good teacher. You need to be able to identify exactly where a student is struggling and explain the same concept in different ways until it makes sense to that particular person.
  
  I also think a good tutor should resist simply giving students answers. My aim is to give students frameworks and methods that they can reproduce without me. For a law student, that may mean learning how to break down an unfamiliar problem question. For a Training Contract candidate, it may mean learning how to analyse what an application question is really testing and select the best evidence from their own experiences.
  
  Finally, feedback should be specific and candid but constructive. If an application answer or interview response is not convincing, there is little value in simply telling a student that it is good. I would rather explain precisely what is missing, work through how it can be improved and give the student the confidence to produce a stronger answer themselves.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  One of my favourite memories from studying Law was how quickly my first year at York changed my perception of what was possible in the profession. I arrived at university thinking that securing a Training Contract with a major City law firm was something you dealt with much later in your degree. Instead, I started attending careers events, speaking to lawyers and applying for opportunities during my first year. I ended up gaining experience with several leading firms and, somewhat unexpectedly at that stage, receiving two Training Contract offers.
  
  I remember it being quite surreal. It taught me not to rule myself out of an opportunity simply because it seemed highly competitive or because I thought I might be too early in my career. You do not need to know everything before putting yourself forward. You need to be curious, willing to learn, prepared to do the work and able to explain why the opportunity genuinely interests you. That is something I still tell students now. Some of the best opportunities I have had in law came from applying for things that, at the time, I was not entirely sure I would get.

• What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?

  One of the biggest challenges with law is the transition from knowing information to actually applying it. At university, it is possible to spend hours reading cases and textbooks and still struggle when presented with a new problem question. The difficult part is identifying which facts matter, recognising the legal issues they raise and applying the relevant authorities rather than simply describing the law. There is a similar challenge in commercial legal recruitment. Candidates can spend enormous amounts of time researching a firm but still produce an application that could have been sent to ten other firms. Knowing facts about a firm is different from being able to explain why those facts matter to you and why your own experiences demonstrate the qualities the firm is assessing.
  
  I faced versions of both challenges myself as a student and applicant. My approach now is to break complicated tasks into stages. That is partly why York's Problem Based Learning methodology continues to influence my academic tutoring, and why I take a similarly structured approach to applications and interview preparation. Law also never really stops developing. As a practicing solicitor, continuing to learn is part of the profession, which is one of the things I enjoy about it.

• Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

  Within tutoring, I particularly enjoy the point where a student stops looking for a model answer and starts understanding how to reach a strong answer themselves. That is especially satisfying with Training Contract applications and interviews because candidates often already have much stronger experiences than they realise. The problem is usually identifying which experiences are relevant, drawing out the strongest evidence and communicating it convincingly. I also genuinely enjoy corporate and commercial law. I have worked across different areas of corporate practice and find the intersection between law and business particularly interesting. It is one reason I enjoy discussing commercial awareness with students: rather than treating it as another interview test to memorise for, I want students to understand why a commercial development might actually matter to a client or law firm.
  
  Outside law, I have always enjoyed basketball and have also had an interest in fashion and running.

• What makes you a Superprof (besides answering these interview questions :-P)?

  I think what makes me a Superprof is that I genuinely enjoy seeing people win. Whether that is finally getting their head around a difficult law topic, submitting an application they are genuinely proud of, walking into an interview feeling prepared, or messaging me afterwards to say they got the Vacation Scheme or Training Contract, those are the moments that make tutoring worthwhile for me. I have been fortunate to have had some great opportunities in my own career. Tutoring gives me an opportunity to pass on what I have learnt along the way and, hopefully, make the process a little easier for someone coming up behind me. Ultimately, I try to be the kind of tutor I would have wanted when I was going through the same process: someone who knows their stuff, gives straight answers, genuinely wants you to do well and is easy to talk to.