subject: Aspiring Trainee Solicitors Wanting A Training Contract - Tips For Success [print this page] For anyone aspiring to become trainee solicitors, the current economic climate has made things tough. Entering the legal profession has always been competitive but today's job market is the most competitive for a long time.
Law firms have cut back on the numbers of training contracts they are offering, whilst more and more students are graduating from the legal practice course and looking for a training contract.
The training contract is the period of practical legal training lasting two years, usually with a law firm.It is a practical training contract where the law student moves into the work environment to be trained by experienced lawyers in a range of legal disciplines.
Trainee solicitors typically do three or four 'seats' which are usually six to eight month blocks of time spent in a particular department or doing a particular type of work. Typically these seats might be split between contentious work, property related work and non-contentious work such as commercial law in larger firms or wills and probate in smaller high street firms.
When making the choice about which firms to apply to for their training contract, students should be spending lots of time researching both the different firms that exist and the types of law they could practise.It is not uncommon for this stage not to be planned thoroughly enough and for trainees to discover they have perhaps made the wrong choices.
The study of a particular areas of law is often different to the actual practise of that same area of law. This is why all law students should be encouraged to gain some work experience with law firms and other legal organisations.
Work experience will help the students form their own views about what it is like to work in a law firm and what it is like to work in particular areas of law.Solicitors firms do vary greatly in terms of their cultures, sizes and types of work they do and the type of experience they can provide. It is therefore important, at as early a stage as possible, to start exploring these differences.
The first week at work could spring a surprise to anyone who has failed to do the necessary research into the firms they are going to choose to make applications to for a training contract.
The internet also houses many resources containing details of the different law firms and their work. All candidates need to do is to type 'law careers' into a search engine and a mountain of information will appear.Also, many university careers offices have extensive information about law firms and other organisations who offer training contracts.
Another thing to bear in mind is that many law firms recruit their trainee solicitors two years in advance. It is therefore worth being organised and giving yourself enough time to do the necessary research about where to apply for a training contract when your time comes to.
