Molly Smith

Life beyond Goldsmiths

I work for ALM / Law.com International as a reporter, primarily covering U.K. legal and business news—though 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’s rarely traditional court reporting of crimes or misdemeanours. Instead, I’m more interested in business-related legal matters and financial crime—things 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’m 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—but 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—but 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’re billing clients—and I get to pick their brains for free. That’s a pretty cool perk.

Advice for future students

If I could offer one piece of advice to students: don’t be too precious or idealistic about the subject matter of your first reporting job. I’m 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’m faster, more confident approaching sources, better at identifying news angles, and my copy is much sharper—all because I’m 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—and frankly, you learn fast on the job. So don’t shy away from applying to jobs that feel a little (or a lot) out of your comfort zone.

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

I’ve 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’s hard for editors to take chances on new writers. But if you have a solid portfolio—even if it’s in a niche area—it 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—so nothing you learn is ever wasted.

The importance of flexibility

When I was studying, there were certain publications I didn’t want to align myself with—and a few I still wouldn’t, based on my political and social values. But in hindsight, flexibility in your early career is essential. I never had a “rusty” period after university, and I’m 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’t usually cover anything worth under £1 billion, and being immersed in that level of corporate activity has completely elevated my understanding of the financial world.