牛牛资源

Life beyond 牛牛资源

I work for ALM / International as a reporter, primarily covering U.K. legal and business news鈥攖hough many of our stories have an international angle, because business rarely respects borders.

Our readership consists of top-tier lawyers, and the publication runs on a subscription model, meaning readers pay for insight that gives them a competitive edge. ALM has reporters across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, allowing us to deliver global coverage 24 hours a day.

Our audience is incredibly sophisticated. Many of them bill their clients thousands for 15 minutes of their time. Fact-checking, double sourcing and originality are the most important things for the publication, but a bit of writing flair is also appreciated!

My beat spans a broad range of topics, but my core focus is on the legal side of private equity, financing, and the biggest global transactions. I occasionally cover litigation, but it鈥檚 rarely traditional court reporting of crimes or misdemeanours. Instead, I鈥檓 more interested in business-related legal matters and financial crime鈥攖hings like misconduct involving high-profile lawyers or financial players, money laundering, tax offences, IP/patent litigation, major business disputes, or any high-stakes case handled by top-tier, billion-pound law firms.

Varied work

No two days are the same, but my work is quite independent. I鈥檓 responsible for sourcing stories, pitching and writing them daily. The general target is one news story a day and one feature per week, though this varies depending on editorial needs.

For example, Trump hitting Big Law with executive orders completely consumed the whole editorial team for a while so all hands were on deck to find stories relating to this and targets went out of the window. And one week I only wrote a single piece鈥攂ut it was highly investigative and exclusive. I had noticed subtle changes on the websites of major law firms. I ended up doing a deep-dive investigation, comparing archived versions of pages, analysing metadata to establish when changes occurred, and running the same checks across 100 different firm websites to identify a possible pattern. It was painstaking鈥攂ut the story was unique, telling, and it really took off.

Another part of my job involves meeting and building relationships with the top names in corporate law to try and get insights and find stories. These are people who charge thousands for minutes of their time if they鈥檙e billing clients鈥攁nd I get to pick their brains for free. That鈥檚 a pretty cool perk.

Advice for future students

If I could offer one piece of advice to students: don鈥檛 be too precious or idealistic about the subject matter of your first reporting job. I鈥檓 lucky because I genuinely enjoy what I cover, but even if the content had been dry, the experience itself would still have been transformative. My reporting is a hundred times better than it was when I left university. I鈥檓 faster, more confident approaching sources, better at identifying news angles, and my copy is much sharper鈥攁ll because I鈥檓 doing it every day.

Starting out in Journalism

When I started my role, I did have a basic understanding of business and finance. But some preliminary research before the interview would have set me up well if I had no knowledge base鈥攁nd frankly, you learn fast on the job. So don鈥檛 shy away from applying to jobs that feel a little (or a lot) out of your comfort zone.

If you鈥檙e set on making a real impact in specific areas, it鈥檚 much easier to break into those dream publications once you already have some reporting experience under your belt.

I鈥檝e met people writing for some of the most idealistic, mission-driven outlets, and the word on the street is the same: budgets are tight, and it鈥檚 hard for editors to take chances on new writers. But if you have a solid portfolio鈥攅ven if it鈥檚 in a niche area鈥攊t makes all the difference. Quality journalism speaks for itself, and every bit of knowledge you pick up along the way adds value. You can never know too much about the world鈥攕o nothing you learn is ever wasted.

The importance of flexibility

When I was studying, there were certain publications I didn鈥檛 want to align myself with鈥攁nd a few I still wouldn鈥檛, based on my political and social values. But in hindsight, flexibility in your early career is essential. I never had a 鈥渞usty鈥� period after university, and I鈥檓 very grateful for that. Jumping in and just doing the work every day makes all the difference.

As a bonus, I now have a solid grasp of M&A, private credit, equity, debt, and other financial mechanics that fuel billion-pound deals. We don鈥檛 usually cover anything worth under 拢1 billion, and being immersed in that level of corporate activity has completely elevated my understanding of the financial world.