Together with

Table of Contents

• EDITOR’S RAMBLE 🗣

• FEATURED REPORT 📰

• TOGETHER WITH LINKLATERS* 🤝

• IN OTHER NEWS 🗞

• AROUND THE WEB 🌐

• STUFF THAT MIGHT HELP YOU 👌

EDITOR’S RAMBLE 🗣

Last year, I was recruiting a new writer for LittleLaw. I received 114 applications for the role.

I opened the first one and noticed they had misspelled the name of the company — they’d written “Little Law” instead of “LittleLaw”.

So, the next thing I did was hit CTRL + F across all the applications, and type “Little Law”.

Fifteen people — that’s 13% of the total — had done the same thing.

I didn’t need to read those applications any further. They were rejected.

Not out of cruelty, but because I had 114 applications to get through and needed a quick way to filter.

Plus, if someone misspells the name of the place they want to work as a writer, it looks like a sign their work won’t be as sharp as it needs to be.

The truth is law firms do exactly the same thing.

You might have written:

• “Ropes & Grey”

• “Sherman and Sterling”

• “Norton Rose Fullbright”

👆 Any of those would probably get you rejected instantly.

Now, I do get it — typos happen (I make them too).

But law firms are flooded with thousands of applications. The person reading yours doesn’t have time to think through the possible reasons you got their name wrong. They just see a small signal that the basics weren’t checked.

And in law, where the whole job rests on attention to detail, small signals carry huge weight.

I felt bad realising that many of the people who misspelled LittleLaw had probably spent hours on their applications, and a moment of inattention cost them heavily.

That’s why I’m sharing this.

It’s not to shame anyone — it’s to help you avoid the simplest mistake that knocks hundreds of people out of TC and vac scheme processes every year.

So here’s the fix so you NEVER make this mistake:

Step 1: Google the firm’s name
Step 2: Copy it
Step 3: Paste it into your application.

Then copy-paste it from an earlier mention in your application when you need it again.

Do not rely on your memory (it will fail you) — even if you know how to spell “Clifford Chance”.

It’s not about being pedantic.

It’s about signalling that you have the fundamental skill of a lawyer: attention to detail.

– Idin

P.S. I’m sending this to you one day early because I’m away at a conference on Wednesday

FEATURED REPORT 📰

🤝 Warner just partnered with the AI company it sued

What’s going on here?

Last week, Warner Music Group signed a new licensing deal with Suno, an AI music generator.

This is a big U-turn for Warner — that’s because for the past 18 months, it has been suing Suno in the US for copyright infringement.

What is Suno?

Suno is an AI music company run by a small team based in the US.

Users type in a text prompt about anything. Then, Suno creates a full song with lyrics, vocals, and instruments.

Side note from Idin: I wanted to test it out, so I made this song about LittleLaw with it yesterday 👇️ (hope you enjoy it — I had to pay for Suno Premium to download it!)

What was the lawsuit about?

Suno is believed to have trained its model on almost every music file it could find online — which could be tens of millions of recordings.

So, in June 2024, Warner Music Group, Sony Music, and Universal Music sued Suno. They said Suno scraped huge numbers of recordings that they owned, and used them to train its model.

Their argument was simple: if the model learns from real artists, it can then copy their style. That (they claimed) is a direct breach of copyright.

The case soon became part of a wider debate. People began asking how AI music companies should gather training data, and how they should pay the people who own the rights to the original songs.

After more than a year of this fight, Warner and Suno decided to stop arguing in court and work out a settlement deal instead.

What are the terms of the settlement?

Under the new deal, Warner Music Group has agreed to drop its lawsuit — and now, Warner has moved from suing Suno to partnering with it.

The cases brought by Universal and Sony are still ongoing. But this is more than an end to one claim. It is an attempt to set commercial rules for how AI companies can use copyrighted music when training their models.

Artists signed to Warner can now choose to “opt in”. If they do, Suno can use their names, images, voices, and musical compositions to build a new set of AI models. These models will then generate music based on that data. In other words, the same type of use that led to a lawsuit would now be allowed — but only for artists who give clear permission.

In return, Warner will receive a licensing fee. We don't know how this fee works. It might be a regular sum for ongoing access, or it might be a share of Suno’s revenue each year (but nothing has been confirmed yet).

Why has WMG decided to make a deal?

WMG hasn’t done this out of excitement for AI — it's mostly done it because the alternative was worse.

Here are the three key reasons that pushed WMG towards settlement.

🔍 Suno will scrape anyway: WMG believes Suno will keep scraping music whether there is a licence or not.

So WMG had a choice: let it happen for free, or set rules and get paid.

The second option is better. It gives WMG control over how its catalogue is used and creates a new income stream for its artists.

⏳ Litigation is slow (and AI moves fast): Copyright cases in the US can drag on for years.

The WMG-Suno claim was already 18 months old with no trial date. WMG says its music rights were being infringed during this entire time, with the harm growing every day.

A settlement gives WMG money now, instead of a possible payout years later.

🧱 Setting an industry standard: Even if WMG had won in court, other AI models could keep scraping without being caught.

Scraping is hard to detect, so litigation alone can’t fix the problem. By agreeing this deal, WMG is trying to shape the rules for how AI companies should behave.

This helps WMG influence future industry standards and puts pressure on other labels to follow its lead.

How can you use this in your applications?

You probably won’t be asked about Warner and Suno directly. But this story can still teach you some things that you can use in your applications.

This table shows the key takeaways and exactly how to use them.

Don’t worry about quoting this deal in your applications — you just need to show the thinking behind it:

• How clients make decisions,

• How lawyers help with the solutions, and

• How commercial background helps to shape a company’s legal strategy.

That’s the part firms actually care about.

TOGETHER WITH LINKLATERS* 🤝

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You’ll be paid £500 per week to sit with a qualified Associate, working on live client matters for 3 weeks.

The best part? At the end of the scheme, you receive a guaranteed interview for a Training Contract.

* This is sponsored content

IN OTHER NEWS 🗞

• 🤖 Mishcon de Reya is testing an AI chatbot instead of a long application form. Candidates share a few basic details, then the chatbot turns that into a personalised interview where they can talk about their experience and motivation. The chat creates a transcript that humans read, and all real decisions still sit with the recruitment team. The firm says the system should be more inclusive, since it’s untimed and lets people explain themselves more freely.

• 🎧 Spotify has bought WhoSampled, a London-based company that tracks how songs connect through samples, covers and remixes. Spotify’s advisor on the deal is Slaughter and May. WhoSampled has millions of entries and only a tiny team. Spotify will use its data to power a new feature called SongDNA, which shows all the links behind a track in one place. Spotify is taking both the team and the database, but WhoSampled says its site and brand will stay live, with improvements expected now that it sits inside a much bigger company.

• 👥 Linklaters has created a new global team of 20 “AI lawyers” who help the firm use AI in real work. The team is made of a mix of tech hires plus existing Linklaters lawyers who have taken intensive AI training. They’ll work full time on things like improving prompts, redesigning workflows and spotting where AI can speed up tasks.

AROUND THE WEB 🌐

• 🟦 Fun: Super addictive arrange-the-blocks game

• 🇪🇬 Geography: Egypt’s new capital will be called The New Capital

• 🕵️‍♂️ Bizarre: An Italian man was investigated for dressing up as his late mother to claim her pension. What do you think? 👇️

  

  The woman (on the left) was impersonated by her 56-year-old son (on the right)

STUFF THAT MIGHT HELP YOU 👌

• 💻️ Free application advice: Check out my YouTube channel for actionable tips and an insight into the lifestyle of a commercial lawyer in London.

• 📁 Law firm application bank: A growing library of real, verified successful applications for training contracts and vacation schemes. Helpful if you want to learn from others who answered the same questions you’re stuck on.

• 📝 Write winning law firm applications: A practical course to help you write clearer applications, faster. Avoid common mistakes, learn how to structure answers properly, and get lifetime access to future updates. Try it for 14 days, risk free.