When two law students realised there was very little good information available about their chosen careers, they decided to do something about it. Jack Denton and Paul Harris – friends since primary school – set about building the perfect resource for aspiring lawyers. Here Jack tells us all about All About Law and why this year could be a good one to be a law graduate.

What is All About Law?
It’s everything you need to know about a career in law. We can take you on a journey from sixth form to employment and everywhere in between. We provide information that is specific to particular user groups users from multiple perspectives; from careers advisors, from graduate recruiters and from aspiring lawyers themselves in order to let students know what is on the road ahead and prepare them as best we can for their future in law (or the alternative careers aligned with law).

How did the site come about?
The idea came about after our own attempts to pursue a career in law proved anything but straightforward. Frustrated at the lack of information offered at every stage of a difficult process, our conclusion was simple:  let’s make something that helps people at every stage.

And not simply ‘which city firm should I go to?’, we wanted to focus on every decision you might have to make, from sixth-form to employment.

What have been the key moments in the All About Law story so far?
I’d say our favourite part so far was when we got the largest research into aspiring lawyers published in the Times in January. But the key development, for me at least, came about in February 2010 when Paul finally learned how to make a decent cup of tea.

Who in the law community has supported you?
Way back in 2008 with our first beta site we met with Freshfields, Slaughter & May and Denton Wilde Sapte to demonstrate the site and its potential. All three decided to get involved. A big thanks goes out to these three companies for supporting us early on but since then we have been widely supported by lots of really great people. I think the support for AAL has been a result of strong users numbers, solid content and hopefully the passion Paul and I demonstrate.

What is the future of All About Law?
All About Law is actually a part of All About Careers Ltd. We are currently using www.AllAboutCareers.com as a blog which aims to fuel the debate on graduate recruitment, careers information and generation Y. Our contributors are all experts in their field helping us to bring the most contemporary issues to the forefront.We are currently working on our new website behind the scenes that will be expanding to every career imaginable with the same level of granular information and a bunch more interaction for our users.

How do find working in a co-founder partnership?
We have known each other since we were four so we pretty much know each other inside out. Probably, our best moment so far was when we became the most popular law careers website because we knew we were doing something right. But the lows… well, the summer before this all started we were working as hygiene assistants (cleaners, they insisted on the former title though!) at Britvic and that was pretty rubbish – such choice tasks as scraping drink syrup off the floor or cleaning the moss off concrete.

How has the uncertain economic climate affected your business?
For us we have only ever known this situation so for us this is normal… I think if you create something with real value people will use it no matter the state of the economy.

Could you share some advice for the law student coming out of uni this year?
If I were a law student coming out of university this year I would carefully consider my options, law school without a training contract could be pricey and leaves an uncertain future. If it were me I would probably go travelling for a year whilst still applying to firms. What other people should do is up for them to decide; our role is to provide information and advice not to tell people what to do. A more sensible student might spend a year building up legal work experience but who could say which would pay off more, I certainly couldn’t. What I can say is that things are looking up in the legal sector and latest results from the AGR suggest that law will be the only sector that can expect good growth this year in terms of new positions available for graduates. The best advice is to come up with a plan before you leave uni because by then it could be too late.