After asking my Instagram followers what their key concerns/queries around training contracts were, here is a blog post summarising your training contract FAQs! I hope this is helpful and I’ll update it periodically with your FAQs x
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How to prepare for your training contract and make the most of your time out
Okay, I’m not just saying this to give you a free pass (promise!) – I really think that, post-LPC, there’s very little you need to do to prepare for your training contract, and your time off beforehand is best spent just relaxing and enjoying some down time ahead of what’ll be a pretty full-on two years!
SRA trainee training record
Some people say to make a start on your training record (a log book of all the work you do, essentially, which must be submitted to the SRA at the end of your training contract, so you can qualify). I don’t really agree! The most you’ll be able to do ahead of your training contract is put together a bare bones skeleton, so there’s little point. Plus, your firm will most likely have its own house style version for each department, pre-populated with example work types.
So I think this is definitely something you can leave for once you’re in-situ as a trainee, to periodically update as you go.
Pre-reading
Again, lots of people fret about doing some reading in advance. If you’re tempted, I’m not sure I’d bother. (I didn’t do any pre-reading, put it that way!)
The LPC is a great base for your training. And your firm will most likely put on *very* comprehensive general induction programme, as well as departmental training at the beginning of each seat. In fact if your experience is anything like mine, I’d be tempted to say you get *too* much training! So, you really needn’t go right back to the books ahead of your training contract.
If you want to be particularly diligent, you could do some background research into your first seat – for example, looking up overviews of the relevant practice area on Practical Law. If you did a relevant elective, you could have a quick skim of your notes. But honestly, there’s only so much all this will do – you’ll quickly surpass anything you’ve previously learnt in that area, and given the volume of queries you’ll need to look into on a daily basis, Practical Law/Lexis/Westlaw will become your best friends (as well as your firm’s Know How resources).
That being said, make sure you *do* pay attention in your induction and departmental training, as this is a gold mine!
How to work effectively with your supervisor
Your supervisor is essentially your contact for any day-to-day queries, as well as a gatekeeper for any work requests people might have for you. Sort of a hybrid between your line manager, a mentor, and HR! A good supervisor – and a good *relationship* with your supervisor – really can go a long way. Here’s my top tips for how to get things off to a good footing:
- Pop in an introductory catch up, as soon as possible (if your supervisor hasn’t already).
- In this first catch up, as well as getting to know each other more generally, here’s what I’d run through:
- Any of your previous legal work experience (so they start to get a sense of your level of experience, and what sort of work you can already be dealing with).
- Any of their preferred ways of working – do they generally like to review emails and documents before going out? Do they like to be kept into copy to everything? Or are they relaxed for you to run with things? (Most likely not, if you’re a first seater, but you never know!)
- How often do they generally like to have catch ups? Try to sync on this, and keep the lines of communication open – for example, if they’d like to catch up every day, but you find you don’t actually have much need for this, be sure to let them know that you think you might be able to drop down the frequency (or vice versa).
- Make sure you then have regular catch ups going forward, so you can touch base on what you’re working on, how things are going, any new things you’d like to explore/experience, etc.
Don’t forget that your supervisor is your escalation point, too. If you ever have any concerns, they’re your go-to and they will step in and deal with them. Don’t suffer in silence! Your first seat can be a bit of a rollercoaster and your supervisor is a really great source of advice.
Avoiding competition with your cohort
When a few of you asked me this, to be honest, I don’t really know what to say, as my cohort was not competitive at all! We had a great camaraderie between trainees, which I hope is the same for you. Leaning on – and relying on – the other trainees for support was really helpful for me. It’s a bit of a unique position, which only the other trainees can really understand. So I wouldn’t be tempted to see them as rivals.
Having said that, I think the extent to which there is any rivalry or competition between trainees will depend on your firm’s culture.
If this is something you’re concerned about, I’d just employ the age old technique of breaking the ice with a good ol’ knees up! Trainee socials are generally within Grad Recruitment’s budget.
In the WFH era, you might have to be a bit proactive about forging strong relationships with the trainees on an ongoing basis. But it’ll be worth it! Set up a trainee Whatsapp group, try to organise standing lunch dates/coffee catch ups for everyone between you, and make sure you’re grabbing a pint regularly if that’s your thing.
Realistically, what are the hours like?
Now, you guys hopefully know by now that I don’t really have any mode other than ultra-truthful. So I always feel like I’m shattering some dreams when I tell people what my hours were really like! But, just in case people have been sugar coating it for you… Yes, as trainees (particularly at certain types of firms, and in certain departments), the hours can be longer than you’d sometimes like.
As lawyers we’re working for a client-orientated business. As anyone with clients will tell you, sometimes when your client urgently needs to get something done, you just need to make it happen for them. So occasionally later nights are required – it’s just the nature of the beast. I always say, we’re just glorified wait staff, really – the client is king!
Hugely generalising here, but usually in transactional teams (finance, corporate, projects) the deal turnaround times are short, so there’s a lot to get done in not very much time – meaning there can be some later nights. In more advisory departments (tax, employment (non-tribunal), some elements of real estate) the work isn’t as urgent so your days might be shorter.
Like everything else, the hours you actually end up working will depend on various factors. For example, your firm’s culture, the type of work the team carries out, how much work you actually have on, and how demanding the timescales (and the client itself) actually is.
This is why I always say to applicants that the work culture should be a key factor you bear in mind at research stage. Lawyers at some firms – and some teams *within* firms – will just naturally have worse hours.
There’s three reasons why I don’t think you need to worry about your hours endlessly.
- You’d be amazed how quickly you adapt. I’m someone who *loves* their sleep. So I was really worried about how I’d cope if I had to work late nights. But, when that time came, I actually felt really energized… It was strange. Adrenalin is a wonderful thing!
- The more you do, the more you learn. Again, caveat this with your own views, as everyone has their limits – but, when you only have 6 months to learn about a certain type of work and suss out if that could be the career for you, really you do want to be more on the busy side than the quiet side. If you have a nice, full, busy seat, you’ll get really stuck in and learn loads.
- There’s lots of support for you. Your supervisor should be monitoring your work levels, and therefore keeping a keen eye on whether you’re overstretched. Again, massively generalising here, but by and large nobody wants to see trainees get “beasted” (hate that word). If it’s happening, your superiors should be stepping in to re-allocate some work. And, law firms are sophisticated organisations. There’s lots of systems to track utilisation and capacity, and a lot of resource funnelled into health & wellbeing initiatives to counteract the demands of the job. Human first, lawyer second. You should never be so busy that your wellbeing is struggling. We’re not saving lives here!
In terms of my actual hours..
Very busy finance seat: Consistently late (9/10/11pm), most days, but no weekend work
Steady real estate seat: 9 – 6/7pm most days (the odd later night)
Mad, beginning of pandemic Corporate seat: Hours were all over the shop – lots of late nights, lots of weekend work, but some days where I had nothing on when deals weren’t live
Very quiet mid pandemic R&I seat: A few chargeable hours a day
What were the most challenging aspects of your training contract?
It’s no secret that life as a trainee, or junior lawyer in general, can be pretty full on. Some of the main challenges I faced are…
The huge learning curve you go through
Regardless of your background and prior experiences, chances are when you start training you’ll still experience a huuuuge learning curve. There’s simply no substitute for actually doing this job. A paralegal role will definitely help you prepare; but the step up to trainee is still big, as there’s such expectation of you – linked to your desire to qualify as a lawyer, the fact you only have 6 months to learn about the practice area, trying to decide if you’d like to market yourself to the team as an NQ, etc. etc. You sort of just have to surrender to it, go with the flow, and soak up everything like a sponge!
Understanding what’s actually being done (and why), when you’re busy just putting out fires
Trainee life can be super busy, and with an ever growing to-do list, sometimes it’s tempting just get something done and off your desk without always knowing what you’re actually doing – or how it fits into the bigger picture.
This is why one of my biggest tips is always to ask all the questions (I know, I know, broken record!). As soon as you stop doing so, not only is your work going to be less than sparkling, but you’re also massively minimising your learning.
Plus, as an NQ, you might be expected to run with workstreams you helped on as a trainee. So you might come a cropper if you didn’t actually understand, at the time!
Dealing with pressure and stress
As a corporate lawyer, my clients can be some of the largest and most sophisticated businesses in the world. So, they can be pretty demanding. There’s also normally lots of work to get done and not quite enough time to do it! So you’ll probably have periods of your training where you have to deal with quite of lot of pressure, and come up with some coping mechanisms for handling stress.
How do you deal with stress?
Check out this blog post for my thoughts on managing stress.
What makes a successful trainee?
Check out this post on Instagram for my personal thoughts as to what makes a great junior lawyers!