Lawsy Originals
Conversations with lawyers about the real stories behind their careers.
Lawsy Originals
Future Trainee Series: Dana Altunisi
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Dana Altunisi, Future Trainee Solicitor at Dentons — From Professional Ballet to Securing a Training Contract
In this episode, Dana Altunisi shares her journey securing a training contract at Dentons, explaining how she navigated the solicitor vs barrister decision, leveraged her international background and found ways to stand out in one of the most competitive graduate recruitment markets.
Dana reflects on entering law without always knowing commercial law was the right path. Through university, mini pupillage and vacation schemes, she gradually realised that the intellectually challenging, collaborative and international nature of commercial law was a far better fit for her personality and long-term ambitions.
The conversation explores why she ultimately chose the solicitor route after completing seven mini pupillages. Dana compares life at the Bar with working in commercial law firms, discussing the importance of teamwork, cross-border work and building long-term professional relationships.
Dana also shares practical advice for students deciding between becoming a solicitor or barrister, explaining why speaking to junior lawyers, gaining real work experience and understanding the realities of both application processes is far more valuable than relying on common misconceptions.
The episode dives into the differences between mini pupillage and vacation schemes, highlighting how the two experiences develop different skills and why vacation schemes provide a much broader insight into life inside a commercial law firm.
A major focus of the discussion is standing out as an international candidate. Dana explains how speaking Arabic, English, French and Spanish became much more than a line on her CV by demonstrating cultural awareness, adaptability and her ambition to build a future career working across the Middle East.
The conversation also explores how candidates can differentiate themselves during applications. Rather than focusing solely on legal knowledge, Dana explains why her background as a professional ballet dancer became one of the strongest parts of her interviews, allowing her to demonstrate discipline, resilience and performing under pressure in a memorable way.
Dana also shares detailed insights into Dentons' direct training contract assessment centre, explaining why she preferred the assessment centre format over vacation schemes and offering practical preparation strategies, including building a master document of competency questions, learning commercial terminology and practising interview answers out loud.
Finally, Dana reflects on the inevitable rejection that comes with applying for training contracts. She encourages aspiring lawyers to accept setbacks as part of the process, remain resilient and remember that success often comes after many unsuccessful applications.
00:00 Introduction
00:20 Meet Dana Altunisi
01:00 Why Commercial Law?
02:00 Solicitor vs Barrister
03:00 Seven Mini Pupillages Later
04:00 Mini Pupillages vs Vacation Schemes
05:00 Using Languages to Stand Out
06:00 Building an International Career
07:00 Professional Ballet & Transferable Skills
08:00 Standing Out in Applications
09:00 Dentons' Direct Assessment Centre
10:00 Preparing for Assessment Centres
11:00 Commercial Awareness & Technical Questions
12:00 Practising Interview Technique
13:00 Dealing with Rejection
14:00 Final Advice for Aspiring Lawyers
Hello and welcome back to Lawsy Originals. I'm here with Dana, and we are going to be talking all about her journey in commercial law. So could you introduce yourself?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so my name's Dana. I'm a future trainee at Denton's. I got my training contract in 2024, so during my last year of law school. I then went on to do an LLM at UCL from 2024 to 2025. And then this year I've been doing the STE 1 and 2 with LLM program at BPP. So I'm wondering, what made you want to become a commercial lawyer? Yeah, so to be honest, I wasn't always one of the people that knew off the bat that I was going to be a commercial lawyer when I went to law school. So I originally thought it was going to be like suits. Like generally, I thought I was going to be like a suits movie. But then over time I found myself really enjoying the commercial aspects of things. And I noticed that I enjoyed the competitive environment and the highly intellectual stimulating environment. So I noticed that commercial law really suited my personality this way.
SPEAKER_00But I know that when you were at university, you did quite a few mini pupillages. So I'm wondering what demarcated the solicitor route from the barrister route for you and why you eventually decided that you wanted to pursue, you know, a career as a solicitor instead of a barrister.
SPEAKER_01I actually spent quite a long time deciding between the two. So during uni, so my undergrad, I did like seven mini pupillages. So it took me like a while to be like, okay, that's what I wanted to do. But I think the main reason I chose a career as a solicitor was mainly due to the teamwork aspect of things. Uh so during my mini pupillages, I noticed it was every man for himself kind of attitude, which isn't necessarily a bad thing if you like working by yourself, but I found it to be quite lonely at times, just sitting there all day by yourself. Uh whereas as a solicitor, I found that you can build more long-term relationships with your colleagues that now become your friends. Uh, and also you work across jurisdictions more, which I found the UK to the bar the bar to be quite confined to the UK. So I'd say mainly international work and teamwork.
SPEAKER_00So if there's a student listening to this who's maybe not sure, right? They don't know if they want to be a solicitor or a barrister, what advice would you give them?
SPEAKER_01A lot of students think that, and including me at some point actually, that barristers spend all day in the court and solicitors spend all day behind a desk, but that's not the case at all. Uh so I'd encourage you to um get more exposure to both fields. So I would say do a mini-pupillage, attend open days, message people on LinkedIn. It's fine. The worst thing is they're not gonna answer. Uh, try to ask about their day-to-day. So, especially at the junior level, where it's where you're gonna spend more most of your time. So, talk to junior barristers, talk to trainee lawyers, see how their day-to-day looks like. Uh, and I would also encourage you to think about the application process itself. Um, so think about training contract versus pupillage applications. Uh so training contract itself is very hard to get. Pupillage is notoriously even harder to get, especially if you're an international student, think if you can stay in the country and actually apply uh for pupillage over several years. Um, also think about uh there's less diversity at the bar. So that's something to bear in mind. So overall, make sure you're well informed on the application process of both, uh, as well as life as a lawyer in both careers.
SPEAKER_00So having done VAC schemes and mini pupillages, how would you say those schemes themselves actually differ?
SPEAKER_01During mini-pupillages, you're more observing than doing actual work, at least from my experience. So the more you'll the most you'll do is probably draft a skeleton argument or two. Uh but you're usually shadowing barristers and you're listening in on hearings. Uh, it's usually lasts two to three days, and it's usually one mini pupil and their supervisor. So I've always been uh just the only mini-pupil there. Whereas at VAC schemes, so it will last two weeks and everything's much more structured. So alongside doing real work, uh you'll be also attending presentations and there'll be like probably nine to ten other students there with you. That actually reflects the teamwork aspect of working as a solicitor.
SPEAKER_00And when you were making your VAC scheme and training contract applications, I can imagine with your international background, you would have tried to leverage the fact that you speak multiple languages. And there'll definitely be listeners here who also speak multiple languages, but perhaps they're not sure how to voice that as a desirable attribute of themselves as a candidate in their applications. So I'm wondering what languages do you speak, firstly? And how did you use your language skills within the recruitment process?
SPEAKER_01I'm from Lebanon, and most Lebanese kids will speak English, Arabic, French, and Spanish. Uh, that's just we are raised immersed in all the languages, which I think is quite cool. But I think the biggest mistake that people make is just use languages as a line at the end of their CV in a language section. Whereas I think the employers really care about, of course, languages are useful, but what the employer really cares about is how you can use that. Uh so for me at least, speaking multiple languages reflects really adaptability and my ability to connect with different people from different cultures, uh, if that makes sense. Uh, and particularly because I hope to practice in the Middle East. Uh, so the fact that I speak Arabic and that I still practice my written Arabic, uh, that will help me with a career there. So I'd encourage students uh not to neglect their home languages, especially uh in writing, which we tend to forget about.
SPEAKER_00And for a firm like Denton's, which is so global, I mean, I think offices in over 100 countries, I'm sure that was something that you leveraged. However, it's not enough to speak multiple languages, it doesn't guarantee you a training contract alone. So, what else did you do to ensure that you did secure that training contract with Dentons?
SPEAKER_01I'd say the most important thing to stand out is rather than ask, okay, how am I gonna impress the recruiter is ask what makes me different. Uh so I know you might have heard this a million times, and it's probably the most kind of generic piece of advice out there, but it's genuinely true. Like I've spent 90% of my interviews talking about my experience as a ballet dancer before law. Uh, so I actually trained in professional ballet for like 15 years before I switched to my career in law. Uh, while that that may seem completely irrelevant to a legal career, but you can actually see that there's quite a few transferable skills. So discipline, resilience, performing under pressure. Uh, and interestingly, interviewers were way more interested in hearing about my experience as ballet dancer than they were about me talking about derivatives. Because chances, if you're doing an assessment center at top law firm, everyone at the assessment center knows what derivatives are. But not everyone would have trained in professional ballet for 15 years.
SPEAKER_00100%. I spent most of my interviews talking about personal training. Yes. Because it's a unique experience. And there's a lot of transferable skills that you can talk about, you know, you know, with that. So would you say that in addition to leveraging your foreign languages, you found something really unique about yourself and then you use it to differentiate yourself from other candidates to stand out? Yes. So with your training contract offer from Dentons, that came directly through a direct assessment center. Would you say that there is a different approach or different stakes or a different structure, even, that comes along with a direct assessment center compared to going through a VAC scheme?
SPEAKER_01Actually, interestingly, I found the direct AC assessment center easier than the VAC scheme. I found the VAC scheme as a two-week marathon, so a two-week interview, which I found quite tiring personally. Um, you know, especially when you're doing all this work, no one is going to be smiley for two weeks straight, you know, whereas during an assessment center uh for direct TC, it was easier for me to hit when it mattered. And it feels like once you reach the assessment center stage, it's for you to lose. So you already have that. You just have to give them a reason not to take you. Uh so regarding the structure of the assessment center itself, uh, so at Denton's, uh, it's obviously the final stage before you get a training contract. So I had a written exercise and then an interview on that written exercise by two senior associates. And then you do a case study and an interview on the case study with two partners. Um, so at this point, I had done like a few different assessment centers, and like the best like hack I can give you uh is I've had compiled like this master document of all like common competency questions that you'd get, as well as any of the technical MA terms that that would always come up in assessment center case studies, which I found quite useful because I was never someone that naturally loved waking up and reading the FT. So I had to like put positive effort into actually compiling this document and learning what others terms actually mean. I also practiced talking to myself a lot in the mirror. Now that might seem crazy, but uh I actually found that quite helpful. So I wouldn't just write out all the competency questions or just try to memorize anything. It was just more of me trying to talk to myself in the mirror and see if I'm articulate enough to be able to get my ideas across, essentially.
SPEAKER_00No, it's so true. I used to practice for video interviews so much, just recording myself over and over. And I felt like a crazy person, but practice does make perfect. Yeah, you have to get the awkwardness out of it as well.
SPEAKER_01Especially for video interviews, just staring at yourself there in the screen and just being like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You've got to shake your nerves out for sure. I think on the day of an assessment center, you have to wake up in the morning and talk to yourself. Yes, and read the FT, the morning up for sure. Just in case. Yeah. So just to close this up, I'm wondering if there's one thing that you wish you knew before you ever submitted a VAC scheme or a trading contract application for the first time.
SPEAKER_01Um, I'd like to perhaps just say that you will get rejections and you might have compiled a rejection folder, which is what I currently have right now. And that's fine, that's expected. And I do think luck plays a big part of it. Um, being at the right place at the right time as well. And currently with market conditions and there's more and more loops to jump through to actually get that training contract. So you will get rejected and it's fine. Even sometimes the firms that you've put the most effort into applying and firms that you really care about you might that you really care about might actually reject you, but it's okay. Just take that rejection like a champ and keep going.
SPEAKER_00I was rejected by my firm five times before I actually finally got my back scheme with them. A winner. I I was rejected 60 times before I got three offers at once. So you really never know when it all comes to you. And yeah, I also wish I'd known that because I would have been kinder to myself. Yeah. But that's really, really strong advice. And I've really enjoyed this interview so much. Such impactful words. So thank you for coming on. Thank you for having me. Best of luck with your training contract. Thank you.