The Reality of being a Trainee Solicitor…

Solicitor thing or an ego thing?

I don't know how many times I've cringed at other trainees or solicitors and law school students speak down to someone in public or to a client just because they have a law degree or pursuing one, all while proclaiming they're an solicitor or law student. It’s incredibly common when you attend Court and usually cannot interact with any. I never bring it up in conversation unless asked outside of work. They seem to have a superiority complex a lot of times, I don’t know why. Be aware of the the passive aggressive paralegals and assistants and don’t understand why common courtesy is so rare. It’s the easiest route for all. Most firms will expect you to hit the ground running and senior solicitors can be egotistical, demanding, or stressed out and will rely on you heavily. They will demand that you perform for them on a very high level and as a trainee just starting out you may not be experienced enough to take on certain tasks or equipped to handle all of the responsibilities and stress that come with the job.

Getting a Training Contract

Probably not what you want to hear but even people who get firsts in their degrees and have solid experience are still finding it tough, the graduate legal market is a mess and has been for a long time. Maybe it will get better when the law firms aren’t the gatekeepers for qualification with the SQE but people have rightly pointed out that this just kicks the can further down the pavement and people who have qualified will be competing with eachother for positions in the same way as people are doing for training contract now.

Basically a 2:2 with no work experience or extra curriculars isn’t going to get you anywhere when trying to get a TC. Not just because it doesn’t look particularly impressive on a CV but also because how would you even be able to demonstrate your interest in the profession if you didn’t do particularly well in your Law degree and didn’t bother to undertake any work experience, pro bono work or do anything that sets you apart from other candidates? Most TC applications have questions that you must answer where you would need to demonstrate this stuff, e.g the most common question being “why do you want to pursue a career in law?” If I were you I would honestly not bother applying for TCs until you have done some serious CV building because you will just be hitting a brick wall until then.

It comes across as though you are wanting reassurance that it will all be fine, but the honest truth is you will struggle unless you take a serious look at yourself and figure out what you want. You won’t be walking into a Paralegal position easily either as these too will be very competitive.

Where to start…

Find out what area of law you want to get into. This all depends on what type of law you want to specialise in as it is wise if you specialises in one field and essentially become an expert in it. I’d say Criminal Law is pretty interesting because you get to be face to face with clients that may or may not be criminals, you deconstruct their respective cases and find solutions to the problems that present themselves. It is way more interesting than say civil cases that just drag on and on till the parties decide to maybe come to a compromise, however in England due to the legal aid cut funding the pay is incredibly low. Corporate Law is interesting however you do not interact with the Court in anyway but the more perks as you are not dealing with clients face to face so find your speciality and do your research. In hindsight (for me), all practice areas are the same, it's just a matter of degree of how much conflict is in them. Family law is high conflict. Landlord Tenant, high conflict. PI work. Doing probates, not so much. But dealing with and causing conflict is the nature of the game.

Family Law…

I chose Family Law as I find it interesting because my job is to maintain the distinction between "legally relevant" and "emotionally relevant". Even though they are both relevant I strive not to be dismissive toward clients. But I don't expect them to maintain the distinction as well as we should. The court isn't equipped to provide emotional vindication. I'd say the need for justice is more reasonable here, but still not going to happen. Lots of long conversations with clients about the rules of evidence and the constitutional rights their abuser has. Fortuntely, it is more common to find that an abuser is dumb enough to do some form of abuse that we could document well enough to admit into evidence. With advanced technology like, Ringdoor bell, social media, voice calls, screen recording etc is has been more easier to prove at Court. It's all about client control and controlling expectations, knowing that they are going to believe what they want to believe. We mostly see good people at the worst time in their lives. I think we have to learn not to take it personally and of course to paper the heck out of the file with emails to the client!

Most of my clients are thankful at the end, but there will always be those few clients that will never be happy and it has absolutely nothing to do with me. You have to be adamant about telling them the truth, not what they want to hear!

It's the people you work with who matter most, so if you're doing deals with associates who are Friday in the office people, you might need to be too.

1. You need to be flexible. Sometimes stuff has to be done in the office at 4pm on a Friday and often it's trainee-type work like completing your TC diary!

2. Focus on learning to like yourself, be kind to yourself and learn how to take criticism without feeling like it's a personal attack.

3. The desire to impress and to second guess what people were thinking was totally misguided. Getting into mindfulness and compassion now will see you through the hard working years ahead.

4. Communicate about your workload and try to review things and ask sensible questions.

5. Trainees are not expected to know anything. A training contract is finishing school for NQs. Just follow instructions and pay attention to your supervisors.

6. The firm doesn't love you back. If they don't want you in 2 years, who cares - find a job somewhere else. You will be qualified and living it large.