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Introduction
My life as a Trainee Solicitor, whilst maybe clichéd, is flying by. I started the first seat of my training contract in September 2023 and am about to sit in my fourth and final seat in March 2025.
The difference between my first day and today is striking. I have grown in confidence and developed many key skills which put me in good stead for a career as a solicitor.
Below, I set out what seats I have sat in so far and what key transferable skills I developed in each of them.
First Seat: Commercial & Regulatory Disputes (CRD)
CRD is a primarily contentious seat which covers a wide range of commercial disputes. From larger disputes arising from the buying/selling of companies to disputes involving defamation of character, there is something for everyone.
As there are a wide range of matters, it will not come as a surprise to learn that trainees in this seat communicate with lots of different people. Throughout the seat, I communicated with prospective clients, existing clients, counsel, court officials, expert witnesses, opposing legal representatives and many others. As such, I had to make sure that my written communication was tailored to each recipient. For example, when writing to clients, it was important to be concise and to avoid using legal jargon. In contrast, drafting legal letters to opposing legal counsel required more technical language so that our arguments carried weight.
Learning to adapt my tone was also key. For example, adopting a relaxed tone with existing clients helped me develop rapport and get a greater understanding of their aims in relation to any claim. Adopting a more formal tone with opposing legal representatives removed any ‘fluff’ and led to efficient exchanges of legal arguments.
Communicating with different people is something I have had to do in every seat and putting this skill into practice to such a great extent in CRD was invaluable.
Second seat: Banking
Banking is a transactional seat which covers various types of finance although the larger deals I worked on raised finance for the acquisition of businesses by way of share purchase or asset purchase.
Typically, I was responsible for preparing a range of ancillary documents so that they could be ticked off on a conditions precedent checklist. I recall managing board minutes, shareholder resolutions, stock transfer forms, share certificates, director certificates, notices of assignment and many other documents like amended articles of association.
One of the key transferable skills I developed in this seat was proficient document management. In particular, I learnt how to properly save and organise documents in clearly labelled sub-folders to assist the legal team on the matter. I also kept records of whether a document was agreed with a lender which helped transactions progress smoothly.
Third seat: Projects
The Projects seat focuses on Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs). As part of a PFI, a project company will raise finance from lenders and work with a range of providers to develop infrastructure for a public body. In return, the project company will receive a unitary charge from the public body across the period in which it manages the infrastructure project. PFI is therefore an effective way of shifting the upfront cost of developing infrastructure to the private sector.
I spent a lot of time drafting deeds of variation for works which were not captured in the original project agreement but were going to be carried out by a project company at a later date.
There is typically a separate deed of variation for the project agreement and accompanying service agreements with the rights and responsibilities flowing down from the project agreement deed of variation. On one occasion, I had to draft a deed of variation from scratch which was challenging as there were a many complex clauses which had to be incorporated.
One of the key transferable skills I developed during this seat was good attention to detail. Many of the documents which I reviewed throughout the seat were hundreds of pages long and often make cross-references to clauses within the document itself and to the project agreement.
I will shortly be starting my fourth and final seat in Planning. However, if you would like to discuss my training contract experience or any of the points outlined above, please feel free to contact me at noah.jefferies@michelmores.com.
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