Training as a solicitor

The final stage of your route to qualifying as a solicitor will involve a compulsory period of work-based learning known as the training contract.

The vast majority of training contracts are offered by law firms. Some companies in-house legal departments, local and central government, the Crown Prosecution Service and some charities also offer training contracts. Keep an eye on www.Lawyer 2B.com as it often runs features on in-house training contracts, as well as an annual survey on training contract opportunities with FTSE100 companies.

During this two-year period of learning on the job, you will be known as a trainee solicitor. The good news is that all those years of hard work will start to pay off as you will finally start to earn a salary.

Apply yourself

Unlike other graduate jobs, law firms recruit their trainee solicitors well in advance. If you are studying law, the busiest time for you during the application process will be the summer between your penultimate and final year at university, while those of you who are not studying law should start applying in your final year. Most of the larger commercial firms set the end of July as their application deadlines. During this period a number of firms also run work experience programmes, known as summer vacation schemes.

All is not lost if you do not manage to secure a training contract by the end of university. Some firms will take on graduates after they have finished the postgraduate stage of qualifying as a solicitor. So although most firms recruit trainees while they are still at university, you can keep applying every year if it does not work out immediately. Indeed, a number of students pick up training contracts during their LPC year.

One of the main advantages of securing a place before you start the postgraduate stage of your path to qualifying is that most of the leading commercial firms sponsor their future trainees by making a financial contribution towards the LPC and GDL fees. Firms also pay a maintenance grant of between 5,000 and 7,500 to help with living costs, which should take away a huge financial burden. Dechert, meanwhile, announced last year that it was boosting its LPC maintenance grant to 10,000, making it the most generous sponsor.

Firing off random applications is unlikely to be as successful as researching the firms and areas you personally want to get into and then carefully putting together targeted applications. Apply directly to the law firms you wish to work for and check their websites for contacts and exact closing dates. Some firms will want a CV and covering letter, while many now use online application forms.

Applying for training contract places is a time-consuming exercise if you do it properly. If you are clear about which areas of the law you are most interested in, this is likely to translate to your application form.

You will need patience. If you try to cut corners and start cutting and pasting into the forms, you are likely to be found out. Recruiters are experienced and lacklustre responses are likely to set off alarm bells.

Although it is accepted that a candidate will apply to a number of firms, recruiters will still want evidence that candidates know something about them. Do not regurgitate the firms brochure and marketing material, but use it to obtain a sense of what kind of person the firm is looking for.

The selection process itself may encompass interviews, psychometric tests, written tests, presentations and group exercises. Firms should tell you the result as soon as possible and be able to provide feedback. Different firms place different levels of emphasis on these tests, so try to be balanced in your approach.

However, under the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) rules, firms are not permitted to offer training contracts until 1 September.

The training contract

Most training contracts start in the autumn following the summer in which students complete the LPC. Some firms, however, give you the option to defer your start date by six months. If you are lucky you might even be able to persuade them to cough up some money for you to spend on activities during this period, such as language classes.

Once you start your training contract, you will get to work in at least four, and sometimes six, different departments during the two-year period. You should have a say in which departments you get to spend time in.

The time spent in each department is known as a seat and at some international law firms you may have the opportunity to do one of these overseas. You might be able to secure a six-month stint at an office in Europe, the Middle East, Asia or the US depending on the firm and its network. Some firms also offer trainees the opportunity to do a seat at one of their clients in-house legal departments this is known as a secondment.

Under SRA rules, trainees must also gain contentious experience, which involves advising clients on legal disputes. This means completing a seat in the litigation department, although at some firms postgraduate law schools run this part of the training. The rotational system can help you to choose which department to qualify into.

It is also compulsory to take the Professional Skills Course, which covers advocacy and communication skills, financial and business skills, and client care and professional standards.

The firm should allocate a training principal to support trainees throughout their time at the firm. This is usually a partner or senior assistant solicitor who will supervise and give appraisals and feedback on how things are going. For your part, you will also be required to keep a training record.

No such thing as a typical day

The firm you train with will determine the type of work you will handle. Some firms believe in giving trainees a certain level of responsibility, but training programmes in some of the larger firms have a reputation for being heavy on document-checking and photocopying.

Typical trainee tasks might involve due diligence, legal research, drafting memoranda and basic legal documents. You will also be able to attend meetings with clients and lawyers on the opposite side of a matter, where you might be asked to take notes. Again, the amount of contact you have with clients depends on the size of the firm you train with. In large commercial firms you are likely to be part of team working on a big deal or case.

The universal complaint among trainees working in the commercial arena is the long hours they are sometimes required to put in. Indeed, spending a 24-hour stint in the office is not completely unheard of.

Thankfully, it is not all work. The benefit of working in a large commercial firm is that they tend to hire large groups of trainees. Some of the very large firms might have as many as 60 trainees starting at the same time.

Show me the money

Commercial law firms may work you hard, but they pay you very well too. According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters summer 2008 survey, trainee solicitors are now the highest paid graduates, with the vast majority of commercial firms paying well above the SRA minimum of 18,420 for trainees in Central London and 16,500 for everyone else.

For example, magic circle firms Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters now pay their first-year trainee solicitors 37,000, 37,400, 39,000 and 37,400 respectively. Meanwhile, some of the reputable US firms are known to pay their trainees annual starting salaries in excess of 40,000.

Your career awaits you

It is virtually unheard of for someone to fail their training contract, but this is not to say there is room for complacency. As reported by Lawyer2B.com (4 August 2008), trainee retention rates at a number of leading firms, including DLA Piper, Linklatars and Lovells, have plummeted this year as worsening economic conditions hit the employment market. If you want to avoid being in the minority of those trainees who are not retained, then you should be doing everything you can to impress during your time at the firm, as once the training contract is finished, the firm is under no obligation to keep you on.

However, this cuts both ways and if you feel that the firm is not for you, or you cannot qualify into the department of your choice, the arrangement allows you to beat a hasty retreat. But whether you stay or go, nothing can change the fact that, at the end of the two years, you are finally a fully qualified solicitor.

Now that you are qualified

The good news is that your pay is likely to rocket. Salaries for newly qualified solicitors have grown significantly since 2000, and at some US firms now exceed 90,000. But greater responsibility and more work often accompany the increase in salary, so those looking to slack off after qualifying will be disappointed.

Again, depending on the firm, your title will vary upon qualification. Some firms call their newly qualified solicitors assistants, while others refer to them as associates, although in essence both terms carry the same meaning. Most firms still define their associates by the number of years they have been qualified, known as post-qualification experience (PQE). However, thanks to the UKs new age discrimination legislation, firms are gradually abolishing references to PQE when setting their salary bands and for recruitment purposes.

Your ultimate aim should be to become a partner. However, these days an increasing number of firms, including Allen & Overy, Berwin Leighton Paisner and Herbert Smith, are introducing alternative career paths.