Landing a Media Law Internship

There is a school of thought that sees SMEs as the life blood of our economy and that – perhaps in the same way that companies like Up4Scale (which is focused on training, mentoring and helping SMEs grow) see SMEs – the growth of these smaller businesses is vital for the future. The problem with SMEs is that they often do not have the internal resources to push forward with an agenda. So, for example, they may have plans to develop a new international market or service, but may lack the commercialisation skills to make this happen. This also means that sometimes it is difficult for key positions to be filled. A good example of this is in areas such as an in-house legal role where, sometimes, an SME may want to have a lawyer come in to help them out and may be able to find a few hours a week for that individual to do some work, but cannot bring them in as a full-time employee. In these cases you can often find that comprehensive media law internships are the ideal solution, as they can provide the right level of expertise, but for just a couple of days a week.

This article is going to look at how you can use some of the theory behind SME scaling into your career in getting a media law internship. First of all, what is a media law internship? Well, we all have an innate tendency to think that internships are just available in a highly paid, corporate environment such as a city-based law firm. However, an internship often just provides the right level of expertise and skills for an SME to help them drive their business. A media law internship therefore often looks like this: • The media law internship is the ideal solution for the SME, as they can push on with their plans while getting the right level of expertise; • The media law internship is the right solution for the intern, as it can provide them with the much needed experience that they need to kick start a career in law. On the flip side, in order to succeed in an internship, you need some skills in excess of those you may have picked up in your studies.

That idea lies at the heart of scaling and is the basis for the success of many small businesses. What an SME will often have is a clear idea of what they want to do, and often even some sort of plan, but they cannot push on with it. This is where getting a media law internship can be very useful, as often you just need a few hours to push back on and then put the plan into action.

One area that an SME will often have is connections and networks. Very often, when they think of scaling, they think of scaling outside the UK. This means that they often have strong networks in places like Asia, Africa and the US. In a lot of cases therefore, a media law internship will involve working internationally with a client. This means that you often have to deal with some of the regulatory and legal issues associated with rolling out in those markets.

Another way in which the scale up mindset can help you is in terms of help from mentors and advisers. An SME often has a number of these contacts to help them with their plans. So for example, they may have a strong advisory board. The important thing in scaling with advisors is making sure that you use them. This may mean that you have to keep in touch with them, and be very proactive in coming up with how to solve problems and then asking them for their thoughts. When doing this in an internship, you will have to balance between asking for advice and then taking it. At certain times this may not be appropriate, but you should try to use the mentor as much as possible, as they can often help you way beyond their initial brief.

So how do you apply for a media law internship? The answer here is to use the same scaling strategies. A media law internship is very competitive and will be well sought after. What this means is that often you will be up against many others for the same position. In order to stand out, you need to think how members of the advisory board of an SME do when looking to drive their company forward.

The way to do this is to think along the following lines. Identify the problem that the SME has, the strategic solution you can provide (such as an international roll out or looking for a license to operate), and then put this together into a succinct paper. Next, you can begin to reach out to the right SMEs and their advisors. They may well be persuaded by what you write and what you say in a meeting, but you need to be proactive and put in the hours. In a lot of cases, this will give you the edge over anyone else in the process.