How competitive are you, really?

Your weighted average mark across your whole degree, not just law subjects.

WAM is the first filter almost everywhere, and the one number on every application you send. Few firms publish a cut-off, but a sub-60 average is the likeliest reason an application never reaches a human. Nothing else here carries as much weight, because nothing else compares two candidates as directly.

Where you study. It carries no score of its own. It changes what your WAM is worth.

The same mark reads differently depending on who awarded it, and firms recruit hardest at the schools where they already have alumni and a campus presence. So your university works as a multiplier on your WAM rather than as a score you either have or you do not, which is why a strong mark at a smaller school can still beat a higher one elsewhere. Climb far enough and the adjustment disappears: at the top of the mark range, where you studied stops changing your result.

Paid or formal legal work: prior clerkships, paralegal and legal assistant roles, internships and placements, and legal-adjacent work like legal tech or in-house support.

This is the closest thing a firm has to evidence that you will cope with the work, which is why it is second only to marks. Length matters as much as the job title. One long placement with a single employer counts for more than two short ones, because staying somewhere is itself the signal, and a second or third role adds much less than the first.

Law society and club involvement, student publications and journals, sport, arts and community activity, and exchange.

Firms read this for whether you can carry commitments alongside a degree, and for how far you took them: member, active contributor, committee, president. Range counts for more than repetition. Three roles in the same society read as one commitment, while a society role, a journal and a sport read as three.

Prizes, dean's list and merit recognition, from school level through to state and national.

An award is someone other than you rating your work, which is why a recruiter reads it differently from anything you have written about yourself. University-level recognition is where it starts to count for much, and state or national recognition is rare enough that a recruiter will remember it. School awards still count, but they age.

Community and charity work, and legal volunteering: community legal centres, clinics, one-off programs, or coordinating others.

Pro bono is a real part of practice at most large firms, so they look for some sign you will do it once you are there. Ongoing legal volunteering says more than a single day of it, and coordinating or supervising other volunteers says more again. Community work outside law still counts. It just tells a firm less about how you will work.

Mooting, negotiation, client interviewing, witness examination and paper presentations.

How far you went is what counts: internal rounds, intervarsity, national (ALSA) or international. Firms read competitions as evidence you can argue a position under pressure. Which competition you entered makes no difference here, so a client interviewing final counts the same as a moot final.

Work outside law: retail and hospitality, office and professional roles, and supervisory or management positions.

Recruiters say they want a mixture of law and non-law experience, and a long stretch in retail or hospitality teaches client handling that firms recognise. This is scored on its own scale rather than as weak legal experience, so a job you held for years is a strong record in its own right. It just moves your total less than legal work does.