Traineeships in different practice areas

I am currently in my third seat as trainee at Gilson Gray. My traineeship is what is labelled as the “general” traineeship which means I do 4, sixth month seats in a different practice area.

Private client

My first seat was in private client. On my first day I was drafting wills, powers of attorney and communicating directly with clients.  It wasn’t long before I was involved in more complex matters and managing my own case load. You will be given the opportunity to hold client meetings yourself at a very early stage during your traineeship. My time in private client gave me a good grounding in client management, communication with clients and time management. The part I really enjoyed about private client was speaking to different people each day who came with a different story and different requirement providing a variety of work.

Corporate

My second seat was in corporate. Although the work was obviously different, a lot of the skills picked up from my time in private client were relevant, such as skills when it comes to the drafting of documents and file management. You will be dealing with a different “type” of client with different needs but the need for communication remains the same and being able to adapt to more transactional work is important for a corporate seat. You will often be dealing with multiple parties in one transaction by liaising with opposing solicitors, accountants and clients etc. The variety of work in corporate was also very interesting. As a member of the corporate team you will be involved in typical corporate style work such as acquisitions and company restructures. However, I also worked on more commercial issues such as contract reviews for oil and gas companies. Latterly, due to the introduction of our head of sports David Winnie, I was working on matters within the sporting realm which included getting over the line some last minute transfer deadline day moves!

Real Estate

My current and third seat is Real Estate. I would describe this seat as busy! I would say this seat is similar to corporate in the sense that you are going to be liaising with multiple parties and are more often than not dealing with corporate entities rather than individuals. A Real Estate seat at Gilson Gray is a great opportunity to get “hands on” as you will have the opportunity to run your own transactions. Likewise with my previous seats and any area of law, there is a degree of drafting involved which is great because it exposes you to different types of documentation and transactions. As with my previous seats, file management is very important as other members of the team will be working on the same transactions and need to be able to pick up from where you left off.

Even if you are set on one area of law, I would recommend that you try other areas of law. You will pick up different skills which will be key to the practice area you eventually end up in.

The information and opinions contained in this blog are for information only.  They are not intended to constitute advice and should not be relied upon or considered as a replacement for advice.  Before acting on any information contained in this blog, please seek solicitor’s advice from Gilson Gray.